Practical Eloquence Blog |

Book Review: Decisive by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

By Jack Malcolm / 4.10.2013 / No Comment

I’ve just finished reading Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, by Chip and Dan Heath, and planned to write an article recommending that you read it.

But I decided not to do that. Instead, I am going to let you make the decision totally on your own, using some of the techniques outlined in the book.

The Heaths tell us that bad decisions are all too common in business and personal decision making. 40% of senior level hires by companies don’t work out within 18 months, 83% of mergers don’t create value for shareholders, and personally we all make bad investment and relationship choices all the time.

While incomplete information is sometimes to blame, the process used for making the decision is about six times more important. To put it bluntly, our processes for deciding are usually wrong, and they cite four main villains: narrow framing, confirmation bias, short-term decision making, and overconfidence. Our brains are simply not optimally wired for making complex decisions. We can’t eliminate our biases, but we can plan for them and try to counteract them.

To counteract these villains, there are four steps we should apply that encompass a number of specific tactics to improve our outcomes. The steps are described in the acronym WRAP:

Widen your options
Reality-test your assumptions
Attain distance before deciding
Prepare to Be Wrong

Let’s apply some of their suggestions to the momentous decision: should you buy the book?

Widen your options. First, the question asked immediately above is the wrong one. Too often we turn decisions into either/or choices, which automatically shuts down the spotlight of our attention and closes out other options. The real choice is: how should I invest $14.97 and the time it will take to read the book? You could buy other books that might be more useful and/or more fun to read, or you could spend the money on a twelve-pack of Heineken and save the reading time. (Although I don’t recommend this technique just before making an important decision.) There’s no guarantee that any of the other choices will be better, but one study showed that “whether or not” decisions failed 52% of the time, compared to 32% for those where two or more alternatives were considered.

Reality-test your assumptions. When you consider whether to read a book, you might read some of the reviews on Amazon. If you’re leaning toward purchasing this book, you will note that there are 50 reviews, averaging 4-1/2 stars. There is only one 1-star review. Check it out, at least for a disconfirming opinion. I don’t agree with the reviewer (in fact, I note that he did not even finish the book), but some of his criticisms contain some truth.[1]

Another technique is to zoom out and then zoom in. Zoom out means to consider the base rate. I’m assuming if you’re considering a book on improving decision making that you hope it will improve your life in some way. In this case, I’m guessing the base rate (the percentage of people who read a book and actually make positive changes as a result) is probably quite low. But then, you zoom in and consider what factors might make you more successful than the base rate. The fact that you’re reading this suggests that you’re a person who is seriously interested in personal growth and self-improvement, so your chances of getting practical benefit from the book are probably quite good.

Attain Distance before Deciding. This suggestion goes against my own self-interest, because if you click on the link above to buy the book, I will earn about 28 cents. But, you really should not decide immediately. Put some time between the stimulus and the response and you can take the short-term emotion out of it. Another great technique is to consider whether you would recommend that your best friend buy this book if she were considering making a life-changing decision. Somehow we can think more objectively about others’ choices than about our own.

Prepare to Be Wrong. Despite following the first three steps, you can never guarantee that your decision will be the right one, so one technique you can use is taken from the world of investing. It’s called “bookending”. Rather than trying to predict what a stock’s price will be in the future, “bookend” a range from reasonable worst case to reasonable best case. Then, gauge where on that spectrum the current price lies. Closer to the left means high upside and closer to the right means high downside. For this decision, I can’t see a reasonable scenario where applying these techniques will worsen the quality of your decisions, so the downside is that you spend $15, and either don’t like or don’t apply it. The upside is that you keep your company from making a multi-billion-dollar mistake and become a hero.

Of course, some of your life’s decisions are much more important than the trivial example I’ve cited here, and that’s when a sound process for making decisions can make a real difference. There’s a lot I’ve left out, but hopefully you have enough of a flavor of the techniques in the book to make the right decision. Of course, the Catch-22 is that if you’re good at making decisions, you don’t need this book!

[1] For example, I agree that Made to Stick was a better book.

Presentations

A Good Slide is Like a Good Presentation

By Jack Malcolm / 4.8.2013 / No Comment

I’ve been thinking about ways to improve the teaching of effective PowerPoint skills, and the thought finally occurred to me that a well-designed slide is put together just like a well-designed presentation. It has one main point, sufficient evidence to back it up, and illustrations (albeit not necessarily visual) to make the evidence clear, compelling and memorable.

Main point: The critical first step in any effective presentation is to decide exactly what your main point is before you begin anything else. You can’t express yourself clearly until you’ve thought clearly, and that begins with knowing exactly the point you’re trying to make.

That means that your main point has to be expressed as a statement, not a title. If you’re starting from scratch, it should not be too difficult, because your main points come directly from your draft of the presentation itself. If you’re working from an existing presentation, chances are that most of the slides have titles; go through each slide and ask, “What about it?” For example, instead of “Staffing Requirements”, you might say: “Two additional staff needed to meet schedule.”

Once you’ve decided on your main point, there’s no reason to hide it or take your time in getting to it. Audiences are impatient and limited in their attention and memory, so you need to ensure they get your message right away. There are many noted precedents for this. Bruce Gabrielle, in Speaking PowerPoint, calls it “Answer First.” Think of the main question in your listeners’ minds and give them the answer right up front. In some circles, it’s called BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front. Barbara Minto, in her classic book The Pyramid Principle, says: “Controlling the sequence in which you present your ideas is the single most important act necessary to clear writing. The clearest sequence is always to give the summarizing idea before you give the individual ideas being summarized.” Finally, psychologists who study these things have demonstrated that “advance organizers” make it easier for the audience to understand and follow your logic.

There’s one additional benefit: when all your slides begin with the main point, you can view them in the slide sorter view and tell at a glance whether your entire presentation flows properly.

Evidence or elaboration: In a full presentation, your slide headlines will spell out the logical structure of your argument or story. On a single slide, this is where you provide the detail that supports your main point. When the audience grasps your main point, they will either agree with it or not. If you’re not sure they will agree with your main point, supply evidence to back it up. If the main point is noncontroversial, elaborate by answering the audience’s obvious question: “so what”?

When you do, it’s important to follow the Need to Know principle: Try not to exceed the minimum they need to know to understand or accept the main point. Because most slides are designed as visual aids to a presentation, there’s no rule that says you have to put every word on the slide. In fact, it’s best to use as few words as possible and produce the full text out of your mouth. Often, too much verbiage makes it harder for people to follow what you’re saying, because they can’t read and listen at the same time.

Let me also remind you that there’s no rule that says you have to use bullet points in your text, even though every text box in PowerPoint begins with bullets by default. If you can think of a different way to say it or display it, the variety will be refreshing.

Illustration: This side is used for pictures or charts which illustrate your evidence. Sometimes “just the facts” is not enough. You may need to clarify those facts with a picture, flow chart or graph. You may need to add impact; for example, it’s one thing to say that risk factors have increased, quite another to show a photo of an accident. Finally, illustrations make it easier for people to remember what you say (especially when they may decide on whether to agree to your proposal some time after your presentation). About 50% of our brain’s capacity is devoted to the visual sense, so doesn’t it make sense to devote half of your slide to it? The capacity to show visuals—vividly and larger than life—is the best part about PowerPoint; why not take advantage of it?

Because the visual sense is so powerful, resist the temptation to add irrelevant visuals. If it does not clarify, add impact, or make memorable, leave it out.

In summary, a good slide, like a good presentation, should a) tell them what you mean, b) back it up, and c) make it stick.

Sales

It’s that Time of Year Again: Annual Reports Are Out

By Jack Malcolm / 4.4.2013 / 1 Comment

If you make a habit of reading your customers’ annual reports, good for you. The bad news, however, is that the one you have is probably 15 months out of date as of this week. The good news is that it’s that time of year again—at least for companies whose fiscal year ends December 31. New annual reports are just being delivered to stockholders, and are available online in case you did not receive a hard copy in the mail.

Now is a good time to dust off your key account plan, using the latest annual report as fodder to update necessary information.

Did they announce new initiatives and strategies?
If so, are your current sales efforts and existing opportunities aligned with them?
How did they perform financially?
Is their major emphasis on revenue growth or on cost containment?
What fresh concerns or issues are they facing, and what are you doing to help with those?
Did they make any major acquisitions during the year?
This may open up additional sales opportunities for you.
If your account plan contains a SWOT analysis from the client’s point of view, the new annual report will probably provide a ton of entries to update the one you have.
You can also use the annual report as a reason to set up a comprehensive account review with the appropriate level contacts.
If necessary, pull the entire account team together to ensure shared understanding and to discuss and brainstorm new approaches to the account.
Think of your upcoming meetings and calls with people in the account. How are you going to use the new information in your next contact?
Does the Chairman’s Letter furnish any good quotes you can include in your next sales presentation?

Also, keep in mind that you don’t need to reserve annual reports just for existing accounts. In fact, the latest annual report, and the information it contains, is a great excuse to get back in touch with those prospects who haven’t been returning your calls. It shows you’re on top of things and gives you excellent specific information you can use to develop a value proposition.

Finally, the good news is that you don’t need to read it from cover to cover. If you need a reminder on how to do a focused reading, check out this post. And, if you want an in-depth education on how to use annual reports and the financial information they contain, get a copy of Bottom Line Selling: The Sales Professional’s Guide to Improving Customer Profits.

· If necessary, pull the entire account team together to ensure shared understanding and to discuss and brainstorm new approaches to the account.

Uncategorized

Quit Measuring My Satisfaction

By Jack Malcolm / 4.3.2013 / No Comment

You wish

It seems like everyone has joined the customer satisfaction bandwagon these days. Everyone wants to measure your satisfaction, no matter how trivial the transaction. Last week, I had a brief conversation with the young man cleaning my hotel room in India. He could barely speak English, but one thing he did know was how to ask me to fill out the comment card. I didn’t mind doing it for him, because I thought I could help him look good and maybe get some benefit out of it. Of course, in order to do so, I may have embellished a little bit; by the time I was done he was a modern-day Gunga Din.

That points out part of the problem for companies trying to measure customer satisfaction—the measurement process itself can distort the actual satisfaction felt.

In that example, I made things seem better than they were, but sometimes it works in reverse. When I work in San Diego, I sometimes order room service at the end of a long day, and then go to bed early because my body is still on East Coast time. But inevitably, just after I have fallen asleep, the phone rings, and it’s the hotel staff asking me if my meal was satisfactory. It took me a couple of times and a few choice words before I was able to train them not to do that.

So, companies clearly have a measurement problem. Since they are ostensibly making important decisions based on the data they collect, surely they are making some wrong decisions? (Of course, we might be more eager to provide feedback if we thought it would lead to actual changes…)

They also have a motivation problem. Lexus says “we value your opinion”. That’s the problem: you may value it, but I don’t. There is no tangible or immediate link between my time invested in letting you know about my customer experience and any measurable return to me.

In closing, I’m reminded of what a friend of mine told his wife when she complained that he didn’t tell her he loved her. He responded: “I told you I love you when I married you. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.”