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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
The long-awaited follow-up to the international bestseller The Jelly Effect Communication is supposed to cause something. That's the point of it. So, what do you want to achieve following your communication? Do you want someone to answer 'yes'? Do you want to improve your relationships? Do you want people to understand exactly what you're talking about, first time? Whatever you want to achieve, you'll need decent communication to get there, and expert and bestselling author Andy Bounds shows us exactly how to nail our communication. Using the same conversational style that made The Jelly Effect so popular, The Snowball Effect is packed with short, rapid fire sections complete with visuals and special features to help us get serious results from our communication. The Snowball Effect explains how to: * Persuade people to say "yes" more quickly, more often * Enjoy your job more - because you'll be calling the shots for a change * Remove the communication frustrations you feel all too often * Get more done, more quickly - because you're getting people on your side faster (these techniques have saved people at least one month every year).
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Table of Contents
Cover
Epilogue
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Introduction
SECTION A Build your core The cornerstone of successful communication
1 How to prepare communication that works
The Problem with How People Prepare Communication
The 231 Approach: The Best Way to Communicate Effectively
How to Know Your Communication Has Worked
Focus on 231, Not 123
Two Final Things To Help Embed the 231 Approach
Next Steps – In Other Words, Your “DO”
SECTION B Get more done more quickly How to save one month per year
Why This Matters
2 When you want to ensure people do what you want immediately
Step 1: Identify what the First Step Is
Step 2: Be Clear When You’ll Do This First Step
Step 3: Ensure You Remember, By Reminding Yourself
3 When you want to find the time to communicate brilliantly
How to Find the Time You Need
4 When you want to impress senior audiences when you haven’t much time
Why Walloping Is a Time-Saving Tip
5 When you want to ensure people remember your key messages
6 When you want to quickly create presentations that work
The Five Steps of Creating a Great Presentation
7 When you want to have better, quicker meetings and conference calls
8 When you want to only attend the meetings you need to
9 When you want to prepare for meetings in the right way
10 When you want to ensure meetings generate actions, not just discussion topics
Turning Discussions Into Actions
Making Success Inevitable
11 When you want to run punchy, interesting and effective update meetings (or not have them)
12 When you want to get a quick response to an FYI email
The Problem With Speed
Getting Good Responses to FYIS
Powerful Alternatives to FYI
13 When you want to empty your inbox
How to Receive Fewer Emails
How to Ensure You Never Look at Emails Twice
How to Remove Emails Once You’ve Finished with Them
14 When you want to see how much extra time you’ve now got
SECTION C Persuade more people to say “yes” How to convince others to do what you want
Why this matters
15 When you want to understand what really motivates people
16 When you want to say things that excite people
Be Benefits-Based, not Features-Focused
17 When you want to align your agenda to everyone else’s
Identify “Why That’s Good”
Say the “Best Bit” First
18 When you want to get an enthusiastic “yes” very quickly
BO: A Better Way to Get a “Yes”
19 When you want to prove you’re someone’s best option
20 When you want to make a sale
ABCDE: The Simplest Way to Sell More
21 When you want to write a winning proposal or sales presentation
Creating Sales Communications from Scratch
Editing First Drafts Quickly
22 When you want to stand out from the crowd
Which of the Super Six is Best?
23 When you want to cause long-term change, not a short-term blip
Simple Ways to Reinforce Key Messages
Reinforce Messages the Right Number of Times
24 When you want to use the best communication channel to get a quick “yes”
25 When you want to create titles that instantly grab people
How to Create Engaging Titles
26 When you want to write eye-catching introductions
Use the 4Ws to Create Powerful Introductions
Combining Great Titles with Powerful Introductions
The 4Ws Even Works at Home
27 When you want to use analogies to make your point
How to Create Powerful Analogies
28 When you want to structure your communications so they’re more persuasive
If Star Wars Can Do It, So Can You
Three Quick Steps, to Embed the “Star Wars Way”
29 When you want to pass an exam
Focus on the Marker
Read the Requirement First
Get Easy Marks First
Break the Requirement Down into Bits
Maximize Your Marks by Seeing Things from Different Viewpoints
Stop on Time
Preparing in the Right Way
30 When you want to get a job interview
Start with the Employer’s Needs, not Your Background
Focus on the Results You’ve Caused, not the Work You’ve Done
Tell Your Unique Story in a Clear, Compelling Way
Link Your Experiences to Their Needs
And the Best Advice about Your résumé?
SECTION D Enjoy your job more How to make work more fun
Why this matters
31 When you want to ensure everyone – including you – thinks you’re great
How to ensure you think you’re great
How to ensure everyone thinks you’re great
How your AFTERs-focus improves your communication
And finally . . .
32 When you want to build powerful relationships quickly
1. Know the right people
2. See your contacts the right number of times
3. Have the right conversations
33 When you want to get things right first time
To find lots of gold, dig deep
34 When you want to deliver interesting presentations that impress everyone
35 When you want to use “word pictures” to help people remember things
36 When you want to use initials to help people remember things
37 When you want to use games and activities to make your point
38 When you want to enjoy using PowerPoint
1. Go to PowerPoint last, not first
2. Use the visual thing for visual things
3. Make yourself smile
4. Press “B” or “W”
5. Use PowerPoint shortcuts
6. Chat, don’t rant
7. Unclutter your slides
8. And, the best one of all?
A point to ponder
39 When you want to create great visuals to enhance your message
Step 1: Improve your title
Step 2: Prioritize your points
Step 3: Remove as many low-priority points as possible
Step 4: Remove the unimportant words
Step 5: Insert slide-builds
Step 6: Make the slides look nice
Useful Tip 1: Prepare two slide-sets, not one
Useful Tip 2: Preparing “Compare and Contrast” slides
40 When you want to start a presentation brilliantly (when your audience is large and/or doesn’t know you)
Start with a bang
41 When you want to appear polished, even if you haven’t practised much
Polished presenting (when you’re in a team)
Polished presenting (when you’re on your own)
42 When you want to prepare for – and deliver – an excellent Q&A session
43 When you want to ensure your important initiatives succeed
Step 1: Communicating upfront
Step 2: Communicating throughout
44 When you want to have good two-way conversations
45 When you want to enjoy attending networking events
The four steps of a pleasant, productive networking conversation
The most important thing about networking
46 When you want to help people read your documents quickly
47 When you want to improve people’s performance through observation and coaching
48 When you want to improve people’s performance after annual reviews
Hold Previews, not Reviews
Focus on the “What and how”, not just the “What”
Get the foundations right
49 When you want to improve people’s performance when you delegate to them
SECTION E Eliminate the negatives How to remove your communication frustrations
Why This Matters
50 When you want to stop saying “no” too quickly
51 When you want to say “no” in a way that doesn’t cause you problems
52 When you want to come up with good ideas, but can’t think of any
53 When you want to remove someone’s concerns about what you’re planning to do
A Step-By-Step Guide, To Make This Easy To Do
A Final Thought
54 When you want to remove someone’s final reason for saying “no”
55 When you want to get good outcomes from challenging conversations
A Four-Step Approach To Resolving Challenging Situations
How To Prepare for Challenging Conversations
With Challenging Conversations, Does Follow-Up Matter?
56 When you want to stop procrastinating about initiating challenging conversations
Serve and Volley: How to Start Awkward Conversations
57 When you want to stop your messages becoming diluted
58 When you want to stop diluting other people’s messages
When Cascading, Be a Colour Car Wash
How to Be a Colour Car Wash
How to Cascade, When You Can’t Add Colour
59 When you want to stop hating presentations
1. Ensure Your Content Is Interesting
2. Ensure Your Delivery Is Interesting
3. Remember Your Credentials
4. Keep It Short
5. Expect Good Things to Happen, and They Will
6. Practice. a Lot
7. Work Your Body
8. But Don’t Be “Too Confident”
60 When you want to avoid people instantly doubting your credibility
61 When you want to stop wasting your time with people who can’t make decisions
Step 1 – Finding the Decision Maker
Step 2 – Getting in Front of Them
Step 3 – Saying the Right Thing to Decision Makers
62 When you want to prevent avoidable disasters
63 When you want to stop saying irrelevant stuff
Your Best Option: Ask
Another Great Option: Jolt
64 When you want to break the pattern of hearing useful ideas, but doing nothing with them
A Final Thought
Conclusion: Build your momentum
Appendix: Useful communication templates
Template To Help You Prepare All Communications
Template To Help You Prepare Better Presentations
Template To Help You Prepare Better Emails
Template To Help You Prepare Better Conference Calls And Meetings
Template To Help You Prepare Better for Your Conversations
Template To Help You Prepare Better Documents
And for more help . . .
Acknowledgments
About Andy Bounds
Index
“Our world is made up of those who make things happen and those to whom things happen. The leaders and the led. And what makes the difference? The leaders get their own way. They know how to persuade. I have never met anyone who knows more about this than Andy Bounds. And in this book, he tells you exactly how you can acquire it.”
Drayton Bird, the world’s leading authority on direct marketing
“Another excellent book from Andy Bounds, designed to help businesses communicate more effectively. Ours is one of the world’s largest accounting networks, and over the last 12 months Andy has transformed the way we speak with our clients, prospects and colleagues. His techniques and methods are simple but effective, and they are making a big difference to our business.”
Geoff Barnes, CEO and President, Baker Tilly International
“Yet again, Andy Bounds provides us all with effective, quick to use and impactful advice and techniques. In today’s and the future business environment, where everything is online, 140 characters, and sometimes even face-to-face, communication is everything. Making each of these interactions outstanding for the other person marks you out as someone different. With Andy and this book as our guide, we can become better communicators, step-by-step.”
Paul Patterson, Sales & Marketing Executive Director, Fujitsu
“I’ve seen the great impact this book’s techniques can have. My colleagues have embraced Andy Bounds’ advice, and are communicating better than ever before – both with each other and with our customers.”
Matthew Dunn, Sales Director, Data & Analytics, Experian Marketing Services
“Andy Bounds is one of the most insightful and inspirational global business experts. His ideas transform companies. Having seen the impact he has on an audience, and having met managers who have benefited from his ideas, I am in no doubt that The Snowball Effect should be required reading for anyone who wants to see their business thrive.”
Alan Stevens FPSA, PSAE, Past President, Global Speakers Federation
“A must-read book! In today’s fully global, fast-paced society, communication underpins everything people do and effective communication is crucial for success in both business and in life. This is the essential, practical, easy-to-read guide that will revolutionize the way you communicate in order to get more done and do it more quickly, more pleasantly, and less stressfully for optimum results in all that you do.”
Ivan Misner, Ph.D., NY Times Bestselling Author and Founder of BNI®
“The impact that Andy’s advice has on people is, quite simply, stunning. Andy’s techniques are easy to implement; more importantly, they deliver results. I guarantee anyone will pick up new ideas from his book. Even better, new ideas they can use the second they put the book down. The Snowball Effect isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have book. Buy it, read it and reap the rewards.”
Bev James, Bestselling Author of Do It! or Ditch It and CEO of The Coaching Academy
“Andy Bounds is an expert at helping people communicate more effectively. The Snowball Effect is full of new ideas that, simply put, you can use immediately – an excellent read and a must-have for anyone looking to achieve more in less time.”
Claire Scholes, HR Director CHI, British Gas Services Limited
“Andy Bounds is not only one of the nicest and most sincere people I have met, he is also a truly fine communicator. His approach and skills are applied in the most practical and focused fashion in helping deliver that most vital of fuel to your business – more sales. He helps you achieve this in a pragmatic, no-nonsense and clear manner, and in his new book he gives some wonderful insights as to how you can apply his wisdom on a daily business to achieve clear and meaningful results. Read the book, and give Andy a call.”
Martyn Best, President of the Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants, 2011/12
“The ability to communicate is essential to our personal and professional lives and success. Andy Bounds provides a practical guideline for anyone who wants to improve, polish and accelerate their ability to connect, relate and converse in any room!”
Susan RoAne, Author of the International Classic How To Work a Room and Keynote Speaker
“Successful responsible businesses communicate actively with their customers, employees and wider stakeholders. We live in a world that is increasingly interconnected and we are communicating much more frequently by ever-evolving means. What is vital to maintain trust in a company, and achieve growth, is making sure that communication is clear and effective. This book has useful lessons for companies large and small. It will make you think about how you communicate and, more importantly, give you practical tools to start improving immediately – a must-read.”
Stephen Howard, CEO, Business in the Community
“A toolbox of powerful techniques that will help anyone communicate more powerfully, effectively and confidently than ever before.”
James Caan, Founder & CEO, Hamilton Bradshaw
“This fast-moving, helpful and practical book shows you how to develop instant rapport, connect with the basic interests of the other person, and persuade him/her quickly to your point of view in a warm, professional manner.”
Brian Tracy, Author of The Power of Self-Confidence
Cover design: Mackerel Limited
© 2013 Andy Bounds Ltd
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To Em, Meg, Jack, Maia and Tom – My angels and my demons x
Introduction
Imagine how life-changing it would be if your communications suddenly became better than everyone else’s.
The benefits would be huge. After all, great communicators are more successful. They get more done. They persuade others more easily. They enjoy their jobs more.
So, there you go. It’s as simple as that. Just communicate better, and you’ll achieve great things.
The problem, of course, is that it isn’t “simple” to communicate brilliantly. If it was, your diary wouldn’t be full of tedious conference calls, pointless meetings, and presentations where you watch somebody read out their slides.
And also, it’s taken you your entire life to develop your current communication style. It’s part of you. And it’s hard to break such entrenched habits (after all, how many “transformational” workshops have you attended that changed things for 1–2 days only, if that?)
The Only Way to Improve Your Communication Skills Forever
I’ve helped some of the world’s largest companies to communicate better. I’ve spoken at conferences in 30+ countries about communication best practices. My mum is blind, so I’ve a lifetime’s experience of talking to someone who can’t see things the way I do – an essential skill when communicating. My previous book The Jelly Effect: How to make your communication stick is an international bestseller (it was only kept off the Amazon #1 spot by the final Harry Potter book).
So, I know how to help people make long-lasting improvements to how they communicate. And one thing I’ve seen again and again is:
The alternative – trying to change loads of things at once – always ends with people reverting back. It’s like how detox diets always lead to retox binges.
This means that making a permanent change is like building a snowball: you make the core, then roll it down the hill, adding new layers as you go.
This book will help you build your snowball. I’ll show you simple techniques to help you communicate better than ever before. This is something people often find hard to do, for all sorts of reasons:
They communicate in the order they think. This means that their main points – the ones that required most thought – appear towards the end. But their audience’s concentration reduces during their communications. So by the time they reach their main points, people have switched off.They prepare by thinking “what do I want to say?” not “what do I want them to do after I’ve said it?”. But communication is supposed to cause something. That’s the point of it. So, their first thought should always be to identify its purpose, then work backwards to decide what needs to be said to achieve it.They expect others to follow their thought processes, by showing how to get from Startpoint A to Conclusion Z. But what if the audience is starting at point B instead? A Londoner wouldn’t direct a New Yorker by saying “starting in London, you . . .” because the other person isn’t starting there.How The Snowball Effect Will Improve Your Communication
The book has five sections:
These contain lots of short chapters, each showing a simple technique you can use the minute you finish reading. If you like, each chapter is a new bit of snow to add onto your core.
The chapter titles show what each technique will help you achieve. You can read them in whichever order you want – each makes sense on its own. So:
Whichever you choose, I advise you start with Section A – Build Your Core: The Cornerstone of Successful Communication. This shows how to build a solid foundation. It helps you create your snowball’s core. Get this right and you can build a brilliant snowball. Miss it out and the snow has nothing to stick to.
This Book Is a Great Start. But It’s Only a Start
This book will make a big difference to you. Apply the techniques and you will communicate better.
But it’s only a start. As Irish author George Bernard Shaw said: “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” In other words, people think communication’s finished. But it often isn’t. It needs constant, rigorous, disciplined reinforcement and follow-up.
And, just as communication never ends, neither does learning how to master it. So, to help embed this book’s techniques: test them, use them, then adapt them to suit your situation.
Let’s be honest: it isn’t easy to communicate perfectly.
But it is easy to make small changes that lead to huge improvements.
And, the better you do this, the more unstoppable your snowball becomes.
Andy Bounds January 2013
SECTION A
Build your core
The cornerstone of successful communication
This section only contains one chapter. But it’s the most important one. It underpins everything in the book.
In this chapter, you’ll learn how to master the three steps of preparing communication. You’ll see:
These three steps are much more likely to work than what you do now.It’s easier to use them than it is to keep doing what you currently do.They’re very different to what practically everybody else does, so using them is a great way for you to stand out.Once you’ve mastered them, you’ve built your snowball’s core. You can then roll it through the book, picking up new techniques as you go.
1
How to prepare communication that works
Great people get things done.
This means their communications must cause others to do things.
However, most communication isn’t like this. Instead of causing the do, it transfers understanding:
Let’s share the new strategy, inform everyone of the company’s vision, update each other, upskill the team.During today’s meeting, we will discuss A, B, C.The content of my presentation is X, Y, Z.But transferring understanding only tells people things. You want your communications to cause something. That’s the point of them. They’re a means to an end, not the end. In fact, my Golden Rule of Communication is:
In other words, the only way to tell whether a communication has worked is by what the recipients do as a result. For example, a strategy roll-out is only effective if people change their behaviours. A workshop is only effective if delegates’ performance improves. An email is only effective if the reader does what you want.
It sounds so obvious. But people don’t think of this as often as they should, focusing instead on what they want to talk about. After all, how many:
Meetings go on too long and achieve nothing?Presentations leave you thinking, “OK, I get it. But what am I supposed to do now?”Conference calls make you think, “Well, that was a wasted hour I’ll never get back.”So, with communication, it’s not what you say, it’s what you cause. After all, which meeting would you rather attend? One starting with “Today’s meeting will last 60 minutes, and the agenda is A, B, C, D and E”, or “The purpose of this meeting is to help us do X and Y. As soon as we can, we’ll finish”.
The Problem with How People Prepare Communication
Communication has three elements – the start, content, and end. And people usually prepare in that order – the start, then the content, then the end:
With emails – they write the title first, then line 1, then lines 2, 3 . . . With presentations – slide 1, then slides 2, 3 . . . With meetings/conference calls – agenda item 1, then items 2, 3 . . .And this approach makes sense. After all, it’s the order in which the points will be discussed.
But, even though it’s the most widespread approach, it isn’t the best. Far from it. And here’s why.
Someone recently asked for my feedback on this email:
There’s clearly a lot wrong here! It’s rude, abrupt, and impersonal. The capitals suggest shouting. It probably should have been a phone call instead.
But there’s a bigger problem. John didn’t ask the readers to do anything. So they didn’t. He broke the Golden Rule about the DO.
You see, one of the problems of preparing communications in the traditional “start–content–end” way is that, like John, people often forget to add the DO at the end. To remedy this, they need a better approach to communicating.
The 231 Approach: The Best Way to Communicate Effectively
Since the DO is the most important thing – after all, it’s the reason you’re communicating – your first step must be to start there.
Step 1: Start with the end (the DO)
When John showed me his email, we had this chat:
There are three steps to creating a clear DO:
The bottom of John’s email now reads as:
Pretty clear, yes? And much more likely to work.
And, of course, this “DO step” isn’t just for emails:
When the last slide of your presentation says “Thank you”, your audience will say “You’re welcome”. Nice, but not the only impact you wanted. However, when the slide says “Next steps”, there tend to be some.In meetings, when you start with the agenda, people focus on the agenda. But when you start with the meeting’s purpose – the DO – everyone focuses on that. So more gets done, and in much less time.When writing a document, adding a box which says “Action required” on the front gets quicker, better responses.Here’s one final tip about the DO: in John’s example, his team had to do their DO (send the figures) before John could do his (put them on the system). Sometimes, your action isn’t dependent on people doing theirs first. When this happens, go first. Research shows when you give first, people usually feel they “owe” you, so are more inclined to reciprocate quickly.
So, starting with the DO is a great start. But there are two problems with it as it stands:
The second step removes both problems.
Step 2: Create an intriguing title/intro (using AFTERs)
Your title/intro should draw people in. Your email titles should mean they get opened. Your Slide 1 should make people want to see Slide 2. Your meeting titles should ensure people attend.
Unfortunately, most titles simply describe the content. This is what happened with John – the email was about figures, so he called it “Figures”. Other titles you’ll have seen/heard thousands of times include “Update”, “Miscellaneous”, “Q2 Overview”, “Our background/process/expertise”. And, of course, good old “FYI”.
Don’t all these sound boring?
To create intriguing titles/intros, use something I call AFTERs: explain why they’ll be better off AFTER hearing you (so, this is where you address the “why” question I mentioned earlier).
AFTERs are great for securing buy-in. They’re what people always want. For instance, nobody buys toothpaste because they want toothpaste; they want clean teeth AFTER using it. Nobody wants a hairbrush; they want nice hair. Nobody wants a newspaper; they want the news. And nobody wants an email called “Figures”.
In John’s example, the recipients’ figures had a direct bearing on how much they got paid. This gave him the title:
You can imagine how quickly people responded to this, compared to “Figures”!
And again, this step applies to all communication, not just emails:
Always include the main AFTER in either the title (like John did), or a subtitle – “Excel Intermediate: How to save a day every month”.
