Adapting to and succeeding in the “less-is-more” era.
There is a hunger for brilliant business ideas that can be explained clearly and concisely. We have all been in meetings that never seem to end. Suffered through reading lengthy reports that are more like “War and Peace” and less like Cliff’s Notes. And endured management monologues that kill off any remaining respect we had for senior leadership. The irony is that we forget the message that has been delivered and only hold onto the pain and frustration. Thriving in an attention economy means mastering a new skill: brevity. Here is a snapshot of the obstacles professionals face every day when communicating:
Information inundation
The average professional checks his or her smartphone 150 times a day and receives more than 300 emails a week. People are glued to a growing list of devices, apps and information sources.
Inattention
The average attention span has dropped to eight seconds from 12 seconds over the past decade. To put that into perspective, consider that a goldfish can pay attention for nine seconds.
Interruption
Professionals are interrupted six to seven times an hour, or 50 to 60 hours a week; approximately 40 percent of the time, after a distraction they will not return to their previous task.
Impatience
Nearly 75 percent of professionals admit to tuning out a presentation in a minute if it does not have a clear point. More than 43 percent of them abandon complicated e-mails in the first 30 seconds.
Delivering a clear and concise message is emerging as a non-negotiable standard these days. Professionals that lack this essential business skill will pay a hefty price for their lack of discipline and clarity. Creative ideas and breakthrough innovations that get buried in excessive detail will lose people’s interest; complex strategies that are not simplified will confuse the teams that need to implement them; and subject matter experts who cannot deliver a two-minute executive summary will dishearten busy decision-makers. Even though brevity is a critical (yet often unspoken) business basic, many professionals still think it is someone else’s problem. The brutal reality, however, is that this skill is expected of everyone. Here are five things any businessperson can do to become a master of brevity:
1. Feel their pain.
The people around you are buried in a flood of information,
so respect their time and do not push them under. They will feel instant relief when you say more by saying less.
2. Take time to prepare.
Before speaking or sending an e-mail, take a few minutes to determine your key ideas and the main point that matters most. That additional preparation ensures that your message will hit the mark.
3. Trim excessive information.
Gauge your audience’s appetite for detail, and only give them the level of detail they need.
4. Listen more, talk less.
What matters is not really what you say, but what people hear. Active listening is the only way to know what works.
5. End when you are clear.
When you have made your point, stop talking. Over-explaining quickly leads to overselling. Enough said.
Standing out in a communication-laden business world is a constant challenge. By developing a deeper conviction that less really is more, you will give yourself a real head start.
Joe McCormack is an experienced marketing executive, successful entrepreneur and author. He founded and serves as Managing Director of The Sheffield Co., an award-winning boutique agency recognized for its focus on narrative messaging and visual storytelling. His new book “Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less” (Wiley & Sons, 2014) tackles the timeliness of the “less-is-more” mandate. In 2013, he founded The BRIEF Lab as a specialty institute to help business and military leaders become lean communicators. There are currently facilities in Chicago, Illinois, and Southern Pines, North Carolina.
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