PPB February 2021

You talk at them versus with them. Speeches and monologues don’t capture an audience’s attention. No one wants to sit through a one-sided conversation and be talked at for a long time. When you commit to keeping your communication brief and clear, you’re taking the first step. A few suggestions: 1 First, know your (exhausted, distracted) audience. Your coworkers and bosses (and even you, yourself ) almost certainly have shortened attention spans. Consider these statistics: • People have an eight-second attention span. • They check their phone 150 times per day. • They check their email 36 times per hour. • They are interrupted 50 times per day. • 92 percent of people multitask during meetings. The first step of learning to be heard is being aware of where the listener is coming from. They’re fatigued, frustrated and have little capacity to listen. Don’t underestimate the impact of noise on a person’s attention span. Plan for it, and don’t be part of the problem. 2 Prepare ahead of time. There is no substitute for doing your homework. Assemble your thoughts in advance. This gives you confidence and allows you to speak intelligently about an issue rather than rambling, getting lost in the weeds and leaving listeners asking, “What is this person talking about?” 3 Don’t over explain. Most people speak 150 words aminute, yet our brains can process 750 words aminute. When your message isn’t on target, those 600 leftover words will surely distract them, and they’ll start thinking of other things. 4 Think and speak in headlines. Lead with your most important idea before going into the details. For example: “I have a solution for the problemwe were discussing at lunch.” Most people skip headlines and force their listeners to search for the point. 5 Cut the jargon and say what you mean. Call a moratorium on phrases like “strategically leverage platforms to scale growth” or “turnkey solutions to optimize enterprise impact.” These words are meaningless, and what’s worse, they trigger the "elusive 600" in employees and cause their eyes to glaze over. 6 Use active listening to replay the conversation. When you converse with another person, are you actually listening or are you just waiting for your turn to speak? There’s a big difference between these two. A great way tomake sure you’re listening actively is to say, “So let me make sure I’mhearing you ...” and then repeat what you heard. It’s not too late to become one of those people whose words have incredible power to make things happen. Imagine being able to easily close a sale, get a manager’s attention or win a promotion. Brevity is not a skill people are born with; it’s a muscle that you can use to streamline your communications and change your life. Joe McCormack is the author of BRIEF: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less and NOISE: Living and Leading When Nobody Can Focus. He is the founder and managing director of The BRIEF Lab, an organization dedicated to teaching professionals, military leaders and entrepreneurs how to think and communicate clearly. McCormack’s clients include Boeing, Harley-Davidson, Microsoft, Mastercard, DuPont and select military units and government agencies. He also publishes a weekly podcast called “Just Saying” that helps people master the elusive skills of focus and brevity. Speeches and monologues don’t capture an audience’s attention. No onewants to sit through a one- sided conversation and be talked at for a long time. | FEBRUARY 2021 | 35 GROW