Brief Book Summary

Book Summary

15 min

Brief Summary

Think of your presentation as an elevator pitch and assume that after five minutes, your audience will no longer be listening. This way, you will be sure to put your most salient points first and leave the rest for the time remaining. You might even find that after saying what you have to say, you do not need to re-introduce the minute details, as they were extraneous information that would have ultimately detracted from your key point.

Use images and powerful headlines to connect with your audience while maintaining enthusiasm, honesty, and being responsive to your listeners’ needs.

Be concise, be quick, tell a compelling story, and most importantly, be brief!

About the Author

Joseph McCormack is the founder and CEO of Sheffield Marketing Partners, an organization that focuses on message and narrative development. Prior to entering industry, McCormack graduated from Loyola University of Chicago with a BA in English Literature. He is fluent in Spanish and has traveled abroad extensively. Additionally, McCormack founded The Brief Lab in 2013 and has served as a long-time consultant for military executives and leaders. He lives in Chicago with his wife and children.

Topics

Communication Skills

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Key Insights

We have all heard the expression less is more. Even so, we struggle to be brief: we talk too much, we share too much, and some of us even think too much. The average American consumes more than 100,500 words on a typical day. With this amount of cognitive overload, what do we truly retain?

It is only when we practice the principles of “succinct and savvy” communication that we become effective leaders.

Unless you are eating a peanut butter sandwich, be sure to cut the fluff. Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less will show you exactly how.

Only the Strong (Messages) Survive

In a world where information is flying at us from every direction, only the strong messages stick.

So, how do you make your message stand out amidst the noise?

To start, you speak succinctly and quickly, bearing in mind that the average human attention span is approximately eight seconds (the length of time it takes to speak one full sentence). Be direct and to the point.

Your total presentation time should never exceed 18 minutes or 10 slides.

An effective presentation starts with a powerful headline. The headline is the audience’s first impression of your pitch, so if it is not engaging, you lose credibility almost immediately.

One of the top headlines in the United States in 2015 was “A Hurricane Beyond Measure Approached Mexico”. Immediately after reading this, you know exactly what happened (a hurricane hit Mexico), and you are also left with questions that provide a reason to keep reading.

How bad was it? Was anyone killed? What caused this to happen?

While it can be tempting to gradually introduce information leading up to a “final reveal”, you could end up self-sabotaging by waiting too long to get your point across.

Trim the Fat

When you are done building your Powerpoint, cut out half of every slide you are presenting. If the key message still comes across with 50% deleted, the additional material never needed to be there.

And if you are struggling with what to delete, consider the following strategies:

Tell it--only keep information that supports your story

Map it--only keep information that supports your primary approach

Show it--only keep information that is visually appealing

Additionally, keep the “seven capital sins” of brevity sabotage in mind:

Cowardice--You are afraid of leaving out key information

Confidence--You are overly confident and do not need to practice or prepare

Callousness--You are not respectful of the needs or time of your audience

Comfort--You feel so comfortable speaking that you cannot stop

Confusion--You are juggling many different details in your mind and you cannot decide which details to share when

Complication--You are unable to explain your project/subject in a way that is accessible to the majority

Carelessness--You editorialize and offer commentary that is not relevant to your main points

Avoid these seven sins at all costs.

BRIEF Mind Maps

BRIEF is an acronym that stands for Background, Reasons or Relevance, Information for inclusion, Ending, and expecting Follow-up questions. By creating a mind map with this method, you are developing a visual outline that will concisely organize and explain your central points.

Consider the following example.

You...