Mastering Brevity and Clarity in Leadership Communication and Decision-Making
How to make an impact in 3 seconds, 30 seconds and 3 minutes
Brevity and Clarity
I value brevity and clarity in the books I read; hence, these values have an outsized influence on my writing.
In my latest book, Before You Step Into The Office, I exemplify this approach with a concise 12,000-word manuscript that spans just 74 pages, unlike typical business and leadership books that range from 250 to 300 pages.
In our fast-moving world, I prefer provocation to prescription.
Achieving brevity and clarity in writing is challenging. Crafting concise and clear communication often demands more effort and time than longer, verbose content. As Blaise Pascal (French philosopher and mathematician) wrote in a collection of letters called "Lettres Provinciales",
"I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."
Why?
As Paul Graham writes,
"Writing about something, even something you know well, usually shows you that you didn't know it as well as you thought. Putting ideas into words is a severe test. The first words you choose are usually wrong; you have to rewrite sentences over and over to get them exactly right. And your ideas won't just be imprecise, but incomplete too. Half the ideas that end up in an essay will be ones you thought of while you were writing it. Indeed, that's why I write them."
I agree.
I write extensively on leadership and coaching. I view writing as a process by which we improve our thinking and learning. Refinement, editing, and removal of superfluous words, sentences, and even paragraphs improve our understanding of the subject we are focusing on.
Richard Feynman, the famous theoretical physicist, was fascinated by how things worked and driven to understand and gain mastery over them - whether nuclear physics, for which he is renowned or his many hobbies, such as safe-cracking. Feynman's approach to cutting out jargon, vague words and complexity that reveal a lack of understanding is summarised in four key steps (The Feynman Technique):
Choose a concept you want to learn about
Explain it to someone else - write it down
Reflect, Refine and Simplify - edit, remove redundant parts
Organise and Review - return to step 2 and iterate, refining further.
Writing and using this four-step process to improve our understanding of a topic will help upgrade our:
thinking and hence the quality of decisions we make.
comprehension and, hence, the ability to explain things and influence others.
mastery and hence make us better communicators.
The 3-second, 30-second, and 3-minute conversation framework effectively illustrates the necessity of concise communication in leadership and management.
This heuristic further reinforces the value of effective communication. Effective communication lies at the heart of both a business's strengths and weaknesses. When problems arise and people become upset, the overarching complaint is often the need for better communication.
Danny Meyer, in his book Setting The Table, boils it down to this:
Understanding who needs to know what.
When people need to know it and why.
And then presenting the information in an entirely comprehensive way.
Let's explore the 3-second, 30-second, and 3-minute concept in the context of written (asynchronous) and verbal (synchronous) communication to link it back to the importance of being concise (brevity) and clear:
It should be self-explanatory that clarity is valuable in all six communication scenarios in the table above. Clarity improves the likelihood that the intended audience will better understand the topic of focus, whether it is 3 seconds, 30 seconds, 3 minutes, a text, an email, or a report.
In fact, brevity is also valued in all cases, even for the longest communication. People's time is increasingly scarce in the workplace (for good and bad reasons—mostly bad ones). Removing unnecessary words (spoken or written) will almost always improve the quality of communication.
Clarity is also helpful in all decision-making situations. For example, removing ambiguity and being clear with your team on expectations such as time scale, resources available, and desired outcomes will almost always lead to better outcomes.
However, brevity and conciseness are not universally good when it comes to making decisions. That is because cognitive biases are at work whenever we make decisions. A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that occurs when we process and interpret information in the world around us. It affects the decisions and judgements we make.
Here is a powerful explanation by Tony Blair (former British Prime Minister) of the impact a 3-second versus 30-second versus 3-minute approach has when it applies to politics and popular policies - do you see how this also relates to making decisions?
Not all decisions are equal.
Shorter communication allows more room for our cognitive biases to take hold.
Which is ok for the Type 2 decisions.
Type 2 decisions are of lesser consequence and are reversible. You don't have to live with the results. You can change your mind relatively quickly and with little impact if the original outcome isn't quite what you want.
These are decisions with a small "d". There's little impact on your life if the original outcome differs from what you want.
Many busy executives face the pitfall of allocating too much time and energy to this type of decision. These are small decisions that should be made quickly, with the available information, or even delegated to others. Successful executives develop habits that help them sidestep overthinking and procrastination.
Hence, brevity and clarity are suitable and should be encouraged when facing type 2 decisions. That way, you can spend more time on consequential and irreversible matters.
Type 1 decisions are consequential and often irreversible, necessitating a shift towards processes that enhance decision quality. Utilising robust decision-making frameworks, seeking diverse feedback, and considering multiple perspectives are crucial to mitigating the risk of poor decisions.
These are decisions that have the potential to change the trajectory of our careers.
Therefore, it is vital to take time to make these decisions right. Brevity is of lesser importance as frameworks are required to improve the quality of decisions made and mitigate cognitive biases. Frameworks help avoid common issues such as groupthink, self-interest, confirmation, and anchoring bias. We're all guilty of having these cognitive biases. If unmitigated, they'll inevitably lead to poor decisions.
The probability of poor decisions, influenced by cognitive biases, grows when rushed, often because people want a quick response that can be confused with being decisive.
Avoid applying the 3-second or 30-second logic to consequential and irreversible decisions. Such an approach is not decisiveness; it's irresponsibility.
📫 - A quote that I am currently pondering
"Management is a practice that has to blend a good deal of craft with a certain amount of art and some science."
Henry Mintzberg (writer and educator)
I am spending a lot of time delving into the concept of "accidental managers" (those who have not received appropriate training on how to be a "good" manager). I have been forming a hypothesis that the accidental nature of many managers contributes to the growing mental health crisis in the workplace. More will come on this topic in the future.
🤔 - If you did have the answer to this question, what would it be?
"What am I not saying that needs to be said?"
⚖ - Et cetera
Perhaps the following will provide insight and be of help with a problem you are currently facing:
RYse Journal - a blankish notebook for when you are ready to build a coaching culture. One person at a time.
Before You Step Into The Office - a roadmap of practical tips to help you avoid forming bad habits and feeling lost when challenges arise - tilting the odds in your favour for career success.
