The following article is a powerful example of the meaning of words. To be a leader, Coack K needs to be sure his players understand and follow him. His words either move them or they don’t. This article in the WSJ shows a few powerful examples of what it means to him to be an effective and efficient communicator.

Check out the article here.

In 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia burned up on re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere because of a hole in its wing. All seven crew members died in the accident.

Engineers discovered the problem while the shuttle was still in orbit and quickly put together assessments of the damage. They presented their assessments using PowerPoint slides.

Like many organizations and businesses, NASA was extremely reliant upon slide presentations. In this case, it contributed to a fatal error, according to Yale professor emeritus Edward Tufte.

As a data analysis consultant for NASA following the Columbia accident, Tufte analyzed the reports and research produced during those days the shuttle was in orbit and determined that the way the information was presented in the slides minimized the threats to the shuttle. Tufte concluded that written technical reports were the best way to present critical information like that related to the Columbia mission.

The Columbia shuttle case is an extreme instance of how our reliance upon slide software like PowerPoint can actually hinder a presentation instead of helping it, but there is still a lesson to be learned. As Tufte relates in a column in Wired magazine, PowerPoint is meant to compliment a presentation, not be the presentation.

From the time we were children we have learned through stories. We may have learned the importance of hard work listening to our grandfather telling stories about how he worked as a young man to provide for his family. We may have learned the value of treasuring good health listening to a friend share a story about her struggles with a serious illness.

We also learn through stories in business. In a column in Forbes magazine Harvard Business School professor John Kotter writes about the importance of business leaders recognizing the power of stories.

“It is important that executives ask themselves these questions: What are the stories that define us in light of our customers, employees and shareholders? And are these the stories we want to tell – and have others tell about us?” Kotter wrote.

Demonstrating the power of a story, he recalled a well-known one of Chrysler head Lee Iacocca paying himself a salary of $1 while asking his employees “for sacrifices that ultimately turned around and saved the company.” Many people can recall hearing that story and they may have never owned a Chrysler or worked for Iacocca. It is a story that sticks.

In this age of information overload, stories have the power to catch someone’s attention and influence outcomes. What are your stories? How can you use your stories to cut through business jargon and data excess to make your company more successful? What really explains why you compete, struggle and win?

Lots of experts out there offer suggestions about how to become a better listener. Here are few of their more frequent suggestions:

• Listen for their narrative thread. Trying to listen to everything is nearly impossible, yet it’s much easier once you have found the point that holds it together. Remember, this requires patience.
• Show you are engaged. Make eye contact. Ask relevant questions. Show reactions. Want to be interested.
• Repeat it. If your mind wanders for a minute and you miss a point, start to repeat silently in your mind what they are saying with a one-second delay. Or if you don’t quite understand what they are saying, ask a clarifying question to get them to explain it again.
• Watch the other person. Experts say much of our communication is nonverbal. What is going on between the lines? What are the person’s gestures, tone of voice or facial expressions saying about what they are speaking about?
• Leave yourself behind. When you enter a conversation, go in without any points to get across or wisdom to impart. Don’t try to “win” the conversation or wait for your turn.
• Be quiet and patient. Let the other person talk. If it takes them a while to make their points, be committed to hearing them.

In his best-selling book “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” Dale Carnegie devotes an entire chapter – and parts of others – to how being a good listener in conversation can win over almost any person. Becoming a better listener is something most everyone can improve upon, especially in business. In this fast-paced world we skim emails, breeze through data on our computers and only half listen when someone is talking to us. Despite all the changes continually taking place in the world, people are still the same. We all want to be heard.

When we listen to someone with genuine interest, that person feels it and is complimented, Carnegie writes. In chapter four of his book, Carnegie explains how he was at a dinner party and spoke with a botanist, giving him his rapt attention asking questions and showing interest in his field. Afterward, the botanist described Carnegie to the host as a “most interesting conversationalist.” Carnegie had barely said a word during the conversation. Instead, he was a good listener.

“Remember that the people you are talking to are a hundred times more interested in themselves and their wants and problems than they are in you and your problems,” Carnegie writes.

How can we become better listeners? There are some quick tips in the next post.

The average person speaks about 150 words per minute. Research shows that humans can hear up approximately 750 words per minute. So what happens to the other 600 words each minute when somebody is speaking to us or when we are speaking? That’s what some experts have dubbed the “Elusive 600.” It’s what goes on in our mind when we are speaking and thinking about what we will say next or get distracted. It’s what we are focusing on when we miss something important that a person is saying at just the wrong time.

If we are the one speaking, we need to be mindful of the Elusive 600 and what our audience is filling it with. Are they checking out our clothes? Are they planning their grocery list? Are they thinking about something completely unrelated?

How do we capture their Elusive 600 consistently with our message? Some speech coaches recommend repeatedly pulling the listener’s attention back to you with gestures and strong vocal physique. A surefire way to capture the Elusive 600 is through telling a story. A story absorbs their entire attention. That’s where Sheffield’s Narrative Mapping technique and the development of strategic narratives come in. Stories draw people in, give them something to relate to and an organizing principle that makes it easier to listen. Facts and figures can support your story, but in the end, research has proven that listeners remember the stories and forget the facts.

There is much more to explore in the realm of the Elusive 600, and we will come back to this subject in the future.

Do you find you have a big message or idea that you need to communicate, but either no one is listening or they find it hard to remember? If you answered “yes,” then you need to make your message “sticky.”

We are all familiar with sticky messages or ideas. They are the ones you find yourself retelling or remembering long after time passes. Remember Jared in the Subway commercials? His story is sticky. Jared’s case started out as a news story about a guy who lost a bunch of weight eating only Subway sandwiches. The company turned his story into a major advertising campaign and made Jared a household name.

In the book “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Die and Others Survive,” Chip and Dan Heath offer six principles crucial to “stickiness”: simplicity (find the core of the idea), unexpectedness (get the audience’s attention and keep it), concreteness (explain using sensory ideas), credibility (what are your credentials?), emotions (make the audience feel) and stories (we all love a good story).

Does your idea or message have these elements? If not, what can you do to make it stick? While you are thinking, remember that not all messages require stickiness. This concept is used for big messages or big ideas, not details at a staff meeting. There’s a warning to everyone: Too much information brings death to stickiness.

Participants learn to craft compelling narratives that are relatable and repeatable, making it easier to communicate efficiently and effectively whether they are simply trying to communicate business objectives or are trying to retell an experience to family. Seminars include:

• Stories to Strategic Narratives
• Narrative Fluency
• Active Listening
• Now to Next: Planning Conversations for the Future
• Social Media
• The Art of the Elevator Speech
• Podcast Presentations
• Presenting without PowerPoint
• Selling with Stories
• Small Group Facilitation

The courses, which vary in length from half-day to three day sessions are active development experiences that engage the participant and allow them to grow familiar in the technique in life-like scenarios.

“These expanded courses capture the unique narrative approach that we’ve been refining for years,” says Joe McCormack, head instructor, “I’m very excited to be able to share this proven methodology more broadly so people can communicate more clearly and create the desired impact every time — no matter the situation.”

Although their mission was clear, the way they communicated their story wasn’t giving their mission half of the justice it deserved. Sheffield took this opportunity, and helped them develop a brief and energetic video that captured challenges that MEF tried to solve on a daily basis. The video was a powerful overview that shared MEF’s message succintly. It was quick, yet it was thorough, and it really shared what set MEF apart.

“MEF has incredible story, but they really struggled communicating it,” shares Charley Thornton, project lead, “So, this video was a breakthrough for them, because we finally clarified their message. It really had an impact on the audience — people were paying attention. They were ‘getting’ it.”

“The stories they share are enlightening and the ideas they share are fresh,” says Matt Cornelison, video producer, “It was an awesome experience to interview such interesting minds, and we’re excited to expose young minds to this shifting industry.”