Make Your Message (Almost) as Vital as Air

Despite the millions already spent on one of the highest stakes campaigns now under way, what has either presidential candidate said that you remember? That's what I thought. Darn little, if anything.

How about you? Do people stop listening before you stop talking? Being quotable is essential to attracting more options into your life. Without it you may be rich, smart, hardworking, and even attractive and good hearted yet you are likely to lose to the person who paints a more compelling picture.

To become the top-of-mind choice in your profession or market, make your message almost as vital as oxygen. It is deceptively simple. To be remembered and repeated, include at least one of the three elements of A.I.R. in your message:

Actionable
Motivate people to take some first action, however small, and they are more likely to take another. Reduce the number of actions it takes for them to participate or to buy. To secure connection with your intended audience or market, aspire to offer the equivalent ease of Amazon Prime's one-click buying.

Early in some of my keynotes I'll sometimes say, "Turn to the most normal-looking person near you, shake hands, and ask them to be your partner" which usually evokes startled laughter as they look around. Then I add, "Move quickly or your options may get even more odd," causing a second wave of titters. They turn their bodies, smile and mirror each other in shaking hands — all behaviors that make them feel more open, and closely connected to each other and to me. That's because these actions evoke their warm side and make them look and act more alike.

Interestingness
Make your message so unexpected, novel, provocative or otherwise odd that they are compelled to pay attention even if they are supposed to be doing something else. "Love of the new," or neophilia, is hardwired into our brains at the deepest levels according to Winifred Gallagher, author of New who wrote that we "are attuned to things that are new or unfamiliar because they convey vital information about potential threats and resources."

Interestingness is perhaps the most powerful cue for grabbing attentions when other messages are always fighting for our attention.

For example, instead of admonishing Texas for dumping garbage on the roadside…See the rest of the A.I.R. formula at Harvard Business Review

Craft an Attention-Grabbing Message

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/make_your_message_almost_as_vi.html …. Then discover more ideas for crafting an attention-grabbing message:

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/12/craft_an_attention-grabbing_me.html … and ways to boost participation and performance through apt storytelling http://www.forbes.com/sites/kareanderson/2012/08/18/5-ways-storytelling-can-boost-participation-and-performance/

Accomplishing greater things 

T O G E T H E R

 @kareanderson

http://www.sayitbetter.com/speak

http://www.movingfrommetowe.com

Posted via email from Kare Anderson on Communicate to Connect

5 Ways Storytelling Can Boost Participation and Performance

Remember how the jury consultant, played by Gene Backman, attempted to bribe jurors in the movie Runaway Jury?  It seems that jurors can be swayed by much less – by the same cues that affect us all in other settings. Here’s how.

A college professor of Jayson Zoller described a past class project in which students were offered the opportunity, by a federal judge to research ways to improve the jury deliberation process.  They researched factors as diverse as the mix of ethnic groups, ages, jury instructions and even the food jurors ate. They interviewed past jurors, trial attorneys and others players in the situation.

Much to their surprise, none of that mattered as much as one unexpected feature of the jury room.

According to Paul Smith in Lead with a Story, the shape of the table had the biggest impact. If it was rectangular, then whoever sat at the head of it “tended to dominate the conversation.”  Jurors were less open in expressing their views. Conversely they were more egalitarian when the table was round or oval. Consequently, writes Smith, it was those juries with round tables that came up with the most accurate and just verdicts.”

Hint: When you want convivial and collaborative meetings, or dinner parties you know what table shapes to seek.

But that wasn’t the biggest surprise. Learn what I discovered, reading the rest of this story at my Connected and Quotable column over at Forbes. Continue to conversation at @KareAnderson

Posted via email from Kare Anderson on Communicate to Connect

Ping Pong Presidential Politics as Primer for Protecting Your Reputation

“Mr. President, you did not kill Osama bin Laden, America did. The work that the American military has done killed Osama bin Laden.

You did not,” asserts Ben Smith, a former Navy SEAL in a 22-minute mini-documentary created by a group of former U.S. intelligence and Special Opps operatives that was leaked to Reuters On August 15th.

Within hours, Team Obama dubbed the attack “Swift Boat tactics.”

Then Fox News pinned a label back on Obama, “Team Obama has transformed the 2012 election into a Chicago knife fight.” And the mini-documentary- related TV ads for the battle ground states haven’t even aired yet.

Ping pong back and forth faster.

The speed of attack and response is spiraling up. Minutes matter in how swiftly opponents must respond in this non-stop battle for the presidency. Every corporation and cause-backer should follow this multi-million dollar campaign as a free primer on the pitfalls and the practical policies to put in place to protect reputation in this “always on” world.

See, for example, how long (in Internet time) the delayed, uneven response to the “loses girl on solo trip” story is sticking to United Airlines. Or compare the usually adept Southwest Airlines’ flubbed response to the glitch in its Flash one-day ticket promotion as compared to El Al Israel Airlines’ customer-delighting, rapid response success in its response to a ticket offer error.

From my consulting with companies on rapid response preparedness, I have found that many smart leaders in the C-suite make certain mistakes.

Top management sometimes:

• Believes that they are already adequately prepared and believe that the savvy and connections that got them to the top will service them sufficiently well in crisis.

• Puts higher priority on the problems or opportunities they are currently facing rather than on the ones that may be bigger yet haven’t yet happened.

• Is reluctant to loosen control and involve other employees in creating and participating in rapid response.

• Prefers to hold onto their turf in the firm and their close relationships outside of it rather than collaborating with colleagues to consider how to best leverage their intertwined relationships.

Here are some hints for leveraging the collective talent and connections inside your organization to quell a crisis or capture a sudden opportunity.

1. Identify and follow your key stakeholders

Involving top management, collectively agree on a core list of your most avid customers and fans and your current and potential critics, competitors or other kind of opponents. Craft a similar list of your second tier stakeholders.

2. Create a Key Contact System and corresponding Ambassador Corp

To ensure that your consistently support and strengthen your relationships with key allies identified in #1, match one lead employee with each ally. Provide a simple internal Ambassador Ecosystem through which all employees can provide information on each key contact and be tapped to support an Ambassador, if called upon, in outreach to the key contact.

Key to the success of such an approach is the “Give first and well” belief. From all parts of your organization your people regularly, relevantly and authentically provide adept support and praise to key stakeholders before the you ever need to ask for it.

Also match an Ambassador to each current or potential critic or opponent to track their actions and, wherever, build relationships with them. Recall the saying, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” In this increasingly connected yet complex world, The Law of Unintended Consequences happens more often. Interests can shift. One of your most formidable former critics might become one of your most informed allies.

Provide training on the use of the Ecosystem, and on best methods for supporting allies. Soon after your system is in place, the best learning and improvements will bubble up from the participants themselves. Giving them that responsibility and opportunity builds esprit de corps and demonstrates that top management supports social business.

3. Strengthen cross-functional connections between departments

Create concrete cross-functional communication between internal departments such as public affairs, media relations, communications, customer service, and marketing. Establish a rapid response / SWAT team approach, create “what if” scenarios for both bad and good news hitting and regularly practice your coordinated response, using one of the scenarios.  If you haven’t already done so, include related social media training and a plan for rapid response that includes comprehensive use of it.

4. Help employees become more quotable

The art of framing a situation so vividly it becomes the way that others see it will become increasingly vital in our information-gutted world.

As a quick primer, here are some of the traits of a message that will stick in others minds and move them to share it with others:

A.   Specific

The specific detail proves the general conclusion yet never the reverse. Begin with the specific detail – swift boating, for example, to then make your generalization more credible.

B. Pithy

The fewer the words the greater the chance that people will read it and remember it.

C. Familiar

Compare your point to an action, quote, personality or other immediately recognizable piece of information and you are piggybacking on that imbedded information to stick it in their brain.

For related insights see Before You Start Talking, Think by the authors of the new book, Talk, Inc. and the eBook,  Moving From Me to We.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kareanderson/2012/08/16/ping-pong-presidential-politics-as-primer-for-protecting-your-reputation/3/

Posted via email from Kare Anderson on Communicate to Connect

How to Avoid Relationship-Damaging Mental Traps

How to Avoid Relationship-Damaging Mental Traps

Ashamed as I am to admit after all these years, my instinctive reaction is to defend or retreat still kicks into gear when I feel wronged or simply slightly mistreated.

When others appear to be behaving badly, we tend to sink into our own feelings, blinding ourselves to theirs

Out of our primitive fight or flight instinct, our first move is self-protection. Empathy evaporates.  Friendships fray.  Instead, as in defensive driving where we look several cars ahead to avoid accidents, recognize these traps. The ultimate reward, as Peter Bregman so astutely noted in “Do You Know What You Are Feeling” is that you can actually deepen a relationship rather than damage it.

Avoid Some of the Damaging Ways of Thinking and Behaving

1. Mental Filter

You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it, ignoring all others. For example, one sentence of perceived criticism erases all praise you have received from someone. Just like healthy marriages, enduring relationships need at least a 5:1 ratio of positive to negative interactions to thrive. Those with negative Mental Filters need a much higher ratio and, sadly, are less likely to attract it.

“If it’s mentionable, it’s manageable.” ~ Mr. Rogers

2. Over-Generalization

You see a single, negative event as the extension of a never-ending pattern of negativity. Probably you use “never” or “always” when thinking speaking or writing about it.  This is one of the three patterns of pessimistic people cited by Marty Seligman in Learned Optimism for which he offers alternative behaviors.

“Every person you fight with has many other people in his life with whom he gets along quite well. You cannot look at a person who seems difficult to you without also looking at yourself.” ~ Jeffrey Kottler

3. All or Nothing Perception

You see things as white or black categories. If a situation is anything less than perfect, you see it as a total failure.  You probably have trouble making a decision, when faced with aplethora of choices. As Barry Schwartz notes in The Paradox of Choice, you are less likely to be satisficing — making a choice sooner, with less stress and with which you feel comfortable.

“We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.” ~ Anais Nin

See more of the most frequent mental traps, and what you can do about them at my column (that you can “follow”) Connected and Quotable in theLeadership section at Forbes. Find more ideas on human behavior at https://twitter.com/KareAnderson.

T O G E T H E R

Accomplishing greater things 

Posted via email from Kare Anderson on Communicate to Connect