Stop what you’re doing and think about all the times during a typical week when you need to communicate important information to people so that they’ll do three things:
- Understand what you mean.
- Take the actions you want them to take.
- Buy in to your ideas and requests, so they feel motivated and invested in your plan.
It doesn’t matter whether you own a business with scores of employees, run a division at a company, coordinate a team of volunteers or spend your days parenting a few kids you probably allocate a major chunk of each week working to persuade people and get them to act as you’d like.
With that in mind, here’s a look at some ways you can potentially boost your effectiveness in your efforts to communicate ideas and plans in ways that motivate the people around you to get on board and take action.
Work on your “three-pack”: One of the more effective communication strategies we’ve seen is to present your ideas in groupings of three no more, no less. Some research suggests that our working memory can optimally process only three or four pieces of information at a time, so “packaging” your info accordingly can potentially help you get through to people more effectively.
For example, you might structure a pitch to a group as a three-part solution. Within each part, you might offer three key points or takeaways. For your call to action at the end, give them three steps you want them to take. This three-pack approach can enable your audience to stay engaged with you, because you’re not asking them to work too hard to understand your insights and what you want them to do.
Likewise, offering three choices can help you “get to yes” with a person or group faster and move forward. Presenting too many options too much freedom of choice often causes anxiety in the person having to choose, which can actually increase the chance that person selects none of the options and walks away instead.
One of the most famous examples of this is the so-called jam study.[1] Some shoppers at a grocery store found a display table with 24 different kinds of jams, while others encountered a table with six jam choices. While the big display table drew in more shoppers, actual jam sales were about ten times higher at the small table with the limited options.
More Ways to Communicate Effectively: Communicating to others, especially when the topic may be complex and getting them to take action involve more than just grouping ideas in the right-size chunks. How you talk about your three ideas, for example, can have a huge impact on understanding and, eventually, buy-in.
Know your Audience: It’s easy to simply start talking about what we know, what we think and what we want to see from others. But always remember that when you present information or instructions, it’s not all about you it’s all about the people listening to you. To the extent possible, get to know your audience before you present information or make your ask.
- What is important to them in the context of what you’re going to tell them? Are there certain pain points they want to address, for example?
- How familiar are they already with the ideas or concepts you’re going to present?
- How do they prefer to communicate and receive new ideas through data and facts, through personal stories and anecdotes, or through other methods?
When you develop a good picture of your audience’s preferences and traits and understand what the audience is looking for, you can tailor your messaging. For example, if expenses are a hot-button issue for your audience, your three points about the benefits you bring can center on cost reduction and efficiencies.
Important: You might not always have the luxury of studying up on your audience prior to speaking with them. In that case, you might start by asking questions of them such as “Who here is familiar with ...?” or “How many of you are …?” and discover what you can on the fly.
Keep Language Basic: Jargon and highly technical or academic language may sound impressive to your own ears, but unless everyone in the room shares your expertise, it’s not likely to help your audience understand you or sway them to your thinking. If you need to use complex terms or jargon, define them clearly and before you define a term, perhaps even point out that its meaning is easy to understand.
Use Analogies and Stories to Enhance Clarity: People often understand an idea better when they can see a connection between it and something else they’re familiar with. You might compare an internet security firewall to a bouncer at a club, for instance, rather than going on at length about its technical aspects (again, depending on the audience).
Let the Audience Ask Questions and Build Connections: Unless you’re dealing with someone who needs explicit instructions to do a task in a very specific way, don’t provide every single detail of your plan or idea. It may seem counterintuitive, but sometimes saying less can generate better understanding. One reason is because people like to make ideas and new concepts their own by thinking and asking questions about them. Don’t bury listeners in all the information you possess rather, give them space and time to engage with the idea on their terms and make connections that aid in clarity. Ultimately, our brains prefer to figure things out rather than be “talked at” excessively.
Getting Buy-In: Even if you present your ideas or plans in ways that are easily understandable and compelling, you’ve still got to ensure that your listeners buy in and are motivated to act. Although the previous steps move you closer to that buy-in, there are some specific things you can do that should help you build the necessary support from the people around you who will be key in making things happen. For example:
Share Your Concerns: Don’t let your confidence in your ideas make you cocky. Be clear about the challenges and risks you see in your plan, along with any areas that might benefit from others’ input. That will send a message to your people that you are receptive to their feedback—which both creates a warm and fuzzy feeling that helps with buy-in and encourages people who may have excellent ideas to speak up and make your plan even better.
Actively Solicit Feedback: Welcoming comments is one thing but buy-in is often strongest after the stakeholders are encouraged to bring their specific ideas to the table about how the plan might be altered and improved. For example, engaging in what-if scenario planning and one or more brainstorming sessions (in small groups, if necessary) gives everyone a formal venue in which to be heard. Actively engage with commenters by talking through what their ideas could mean for the plan, ”So if we did X, as you suggest, we might then be able to …”, while communicating that not every idea will ultimately be implemented.
Communicate Your Actions: If you implement some of your people’s suggestions, inform them. They will appreciate the update and probably feel more engaged with the project or plan. Regardless, keep the group updated from time to time about the plan’s progress. Celebrate wins together, as a team. If you encounter headwinds, consider soliciting additional feedback. Asking for advice will show you to be a leader who wants to see everyone involved come out a winner.
Conclusion: To be sure, there are times when it makes sense for you to dictate the actions someone needs to take, without getting into an extended discussion (teenagers come to mind). But in many situations, the ways we communicate ideas to people around us and prompt them to take action can be made significantly more effective and impactful if we first think about our audience and then adapt our approach to be as clear, concise and compelling as possible.
[1] Sheena Sethi Iyengar and Mark Lepper, “When Choice Is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000.
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