Smart Brevity

Be simple, clear, direct. Be conversational. Authenticity and relatability are essential ingredients. They help people become more willing to hear you and remember what you said.

➍ Then write it down.

Only half of employees reported reading notes from their leaders.

Tips & Tricks

It won’t get any easier. Jon Clifton, CEO at Gallup, said in the fall of 2021 that only 30 percent of all workers want to return full-time to the office.

The takeaway: The communications crisis isn’t confined to business or top leaders. The more noise and distractions there are, the more precision and efficiency matter in being heard—and remembered in all things.

Eye-tracking studies show that we spend 26 seconds, on average, reading a piece of content.

• Strong words: Any one-syllable noun (fire, boat, cage, cliff, fish). Any one-syllable verb (chop, taunt, botch, crush).

Our minds are frazzled by all of this. We feel and see it daily. We’re more scattered, impatient, inundated. We scroll. We skim. We click. We share.