It has been quite a while since I’ve written a book recommendation. I simply haven’t come across much recently that was worth passing on to my readers.
Until now.
In Making Numbers Count, Chip Heath and Karla Starr have produced a comprehensive set of best practices for presenting numbers for maximum effect.
We all know that it is important in business communication to be data-driven, hence the need for numbers to make our case. Yet data is not enough. It’s easy to think that numbers speak for themselves, but unfortunately that’s not the case. Why not?
Persuasive communication is about getting people to act in a certain way. In order to do so, they must first attend to your message, understand it, believe it, remember it, and then act on it. By itself, data supports only action number three. Simply providing numbers without using some of the techniques in this book will guarantee that you leave a lot of persuasive oomph on the table. With these techniques, you’ll be able to grab attention, get your intended meaning across, make it stick in their memories, and evoke emotions which drive action.
Let’s start with understanding. On the face of it, nothing should be easier to understand than a number. We know that 6 is more than 5, and 60 much greater than 6. It’s obvious 43% is bigger than 17%. We know 1/3 is larger than 1/4. (Actually, that last is not so obvious. When A&W introduced a 1/3 pound burger at the same price as McDonald’s quarter-pounder, sales declined because more than one-half of their customers thought it was smaller. Just another illustration why numbers sometimes need a little help.)
On the other hand, nothing is more meaningless than a single number. Is 5 a big number? If you drink 5 ounces of water after a hard workout, it’s not near enough. If you down five ounces of liquor before driving home, it could change your life. Numbers are meaningless except when compared with something we already know.
Exceptionally large or small numbers can be especially difficult to understand. We all know a billion is more than a million, but it really hits home when you say a million seconds is about 12 days; a billion seconds is 32 years.
If you want to manage the meaning, you must choose the comparison. When you present a number without context, your listeners or readers will interpret the number relative to their own experience, which might not prompt your intended effect. If you want your numbers to count—to serve your purpose—you need to choose the proper context. Here’s an example from the book:
59% of Americans polled said that growing trade ties between countries are “very good” or “somewhat good”. When I read that statistic, I thought that since the US has traditionally promoted free trade, it’s not too surprising that 3 out of 5 support growing ties. But, what if I had told you first that of 47 countries surveyed, the US came in dead last by far?[1] (This example also illustrates how you can grab attention with a number by setting up and then breaking an expectation.)
Understanding is a good start, but often you also need to make numbers memorable and vivid. Abstract numbers tend not to stick in minds very well, so one of the best ways to make them memorable is to make them concrete, often by relating them to something familiar, such as comparing tumor sizes in centimeters to familiar objects (1 cm = pea; 3cm = grape). There are many such techniques in the book.
If you’re going for emotional impact, you will have to make your numbers vivid, especially because even dramatic numbers may fail to make an impression because of psychological numbing. To punch through indifference, we need to think about something that evokes the requisite emotion. Imagine the horror we all feel when learning about a plane crash. What if I told you that the current daily COVID death toll is equivalent to a fully loaded 737 crashing every three hours of every single day?
This post has only given a hint of the myriad techniques you can learn in the book. I don’t want to steal their thunder, and besides, I’ll probably use a few of them in future posts! The best part of Making Numbers Count is that it’s full of before-and-after examples—77 in all. You could become a more eloquent communicator simply by becoming familiar with the examples, or better yet, follow their advice and try to improve on their efforts.
[1] That survey was taken in 2007; I don’t know comparable stats for today, but that simply underscores the need to provide proper context.
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Today’s topic is creative conversations. Have you ever had a conversation with someone that just clicked? But more than that, the clicking produced a solution to a problem or a creative idea?
Today’s topic is actually a bit out of sync with the premise of Practical Eloquence, because it’s not about persuasive conversations. Persuasion is wonderful, of course, but today I want to go beyond it to talk about creation—creation of new ideas, new solutions to a problem, through a meeting of two or more minds.
Think of a creative dialogues as assisted thinking; your goal is not to win, or to impress someone, or even to persuade, but to work together to produce a positive result.
There’s a story in Stan McChrystal’s new book, Leaders: Myth and Reality, that’s a great example of what I’m talking about. In 1905 there was a young bureaucrat wrestling with a difficult problem, and he decided to talk it out with his good friend. As he wrote later,
“I started the conversation with him in the following way: ‘Recently I have been working on a difficult problem. Today I came to do battle against that problem with you.’ We discussed every aspect of this problem. Then suddenly I understood where the key to this problem lay. Next day I came back to him again and said to him, without even saying hello, ‘Thank you. I’ve completely solved the problem.’ An analysis of the concept of time was my solution.”
You probably figured out by now that the young bureaucrat was Albert Einstein. Would he have figured out the problem without a creative conversation? Probably, but it was the conversation that provided the actual spark.
I love that phrase: “I came to do battle against that problem with you.” That’s the true essence of a creative conversation, one where both sides are united in a common goal or against a common problem. They’re not on opposite sides of an issue. The issue does not have two sides; it’s a circle with an infinite number of possible perspectives to view it from, and the conversational dance allows the freedom to view it from any perspective. There is no one right, and no one who has the full answer, but working together you achieve it.
In fact, the dia- in the word dialogue doesn’t mean two, it means through. And –logue means meaning. When you combine these two ideas you get “thinking together”.
A creative conversation is one that results in new ideas, and new action. A creative conversation is, stimulating, cumulative, synergistic, and catalytic.
Stimulating
A conversation that stimulates your thinking, one that stimulates new ideas, whether in your own mind or in the mind of the person you’re speaking with, or better still, in both minds at the same time. It’s a conversation where each side feels challenged mentally but not personally;
Cumulative
They build toward something, with each contribution supporting a general direction, even if you don’t know in advance what that direction is. Many conversations are aimless because when someone says something, the other person either negates it or neutralizes it.
Synergistic
I hate to use buzzwords, but these are synergistic conversations, because something emerges that is greater than the sum of individual contributions. It’s like each side has some pieces of the puzzle, but the conversation itself actually creates other missing pieces that were not there to begin with, and never would have come out except for the interplay of meaning between both minds… Where both sides learn something,
Catalytic
These conversations are also catalytic, because they can spur action and movement. How many times have you had a half-baked urge in your mind that only became a firm resolution to act because you had a chance to “bounce it off” someone else? Perhaps they asked the question that gave you the clarity to act, or encouragement, or a suggestion you had not thought of before?
What do these conversations sound like and feel like?
Let me ask you a question: when two people dance, how do you figure out who won? Of course it’s a dumb question, because dancing is not about winning, and that’s exactly the metaphor that applies to this type of conversation, except that this form of dance is not choreographed in advance, but arises naturally through a sincere exchange of ideas and perspectives.
These types of conversations flow naturally, with very few pauses and no awkward silences. Where you’re almost finishing each other’s sentences—not in a start-stop interrupting way, but in a way that builds off of whatever the other just said, and they do the same with you. It’s a conversation where no one is keeping score, but in the end there is a balance of contribution that feels just right, as if each person (and by the way, it can be multiple people—not just two) got more out of the conversation than they put in.
It’s the type of conversation where you can easily be surprised—not only by what the other person says, but even by the words that come out of your own mouth…And just as a quick note to reinforce what I just said: there’s a common misperception that you can’t learn while you’re talking. BS. I do it all the time. A lot of times, I don’t know what I truly think until I express it out loud, and I don’t think I’m unique in this respect.
Finally, you feel challenged but in control at the same time. You get a sense of flow because you’re at the sweet spot between challenge and ability…
How do you have creative conversations?
I’m not sure it’s possible to force a creative conversation, although Einstein clearly had that intent in mind when he set up his talk with his friend. But you can at least set up the conditions so that they are more likely to happen, ensure that you have some necessary ingredients, and at the same time leave out some ingredients that can kill conversations.
Plan ahead. You need to have some intent or even an actual agenda for the conversation so that it doesn’t just wander off into any direction.
Be curious. Curiosity is all about what I’ve talked about before, about outside-in thinking.
Be prepared to be wrong. Or to put that sentiment more positively, be prepared to learn something, and don’t take it personally when the other perspective makes more sense than yours. This takes respect and the belief that you can learn from the other person, that their contribution is worthwhile and helpful.
Listen. This goes without saying, and if the conversation is really flowing, you certainly won’t need a reminder. But if it starts to go off track, take stock of your own listening posture and effort and adjust as necessary.
Say “yes, and”. You can use ideas from the world of comedy improv. In improv, one person opens with a statement, and the other person builds off of it. The statement is called an “offer” and the key rule is to use a technique called “yes, and…”. According to leadership consultant Elizabeth Doty, “Yes means agreeing with your partner’s premise, whatever it is; and means building on what he or she has offered.”
What’s the major cause of talking too long and losing your audience?
It’s something I’ve observed for too many presentations, and even one-on-one conversations. In fact, it’s the principal reason that many of my clients hire me to train their staff to become better communicators, because it’s one of their biggest sources of personal frustration—especially when they suffer through seemingly endless technical presentations.
I’m sure by now you’re wondering what it is, and I’m in danger of losing you, because I’m actually doing it to you right now.
Instead of getting right to the point, I’m taking the “long and winding road” or “tell them how to build a watch” approach, and I’m sure you’re familiar with it. In fact, by now you’re probably asking yourself, “Are we there yet?”
I call it BLAB, or Bottom Line At Bottom. As you can see, it’s frustrating, time-consuming, and even confusing.
What’s the antidote to BLAB? Simply put your bottom line at the top—start with BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front.
What if, instead, I had begun by saying: “The major cause of talking too long and losing your audience is putting your bottom line at the bottom”?
That would have helped you because you would have understood my main point unequivocally up front while you were paying full attention. At that point, you may have told me you agreed and I could have stopped. Or you may have wanted to hear my reasoning, and I could have given it to you, but at least you would have had the advantage of knowing the destination of the journey we’re going on together.
If you’re in love with BLAB, take heart: there’s still a use for it. Go ahead and use it as a summary and a call to action, if you’d like—but only as a bookend to BLUF.
But the bottom line is: move this line to the top.
No! No! A thousand times no! Business is too serious to take rhetoric seriously.
Business is all about producing maximum results with minimum input, and its lifeblood is effective and efficient communication. Business communication is plain, business communication is direct, and business communication is above all utilitarian.
If you’re cooking a meal, always remember that while people may want fancy flavors and exotic spices, what they need is healthy nutrition at a reasonable price. That’s why business communication is not about inspiration, it’s about information and illumination. It’s about profit, not poetry; efficiency not excitement.
If you try to get too cute, you’re liable to fall flat on your face. Anyone in business who enters the lion’s den of the C-suite and tries to sail against the current of logic and analysis will run aground on the shores of skepticism.
So, if you want to soar to the heights of business success, leave the airy abstractions and pious platitudes to the politicians; leave the flights of fancy to the fakers, and keep your feet firmly planted on the clearest and plainest path.[1]
[1] I hope I convinced you. If so, go back and count how many rhetorical devices you found in my 200 words.
