Communication Archives | Shortform Books

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Have you read Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die? What are the key takeaways? In our hyper-connected society, important messages often fail to gain traction, while bad ideas and falsehoods go viral and seem to stick around forever. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die explores what makes some messages “stick”. Based on a wide-ranging research, the book identifies six criteria that anyone can apply for shaping a sticky message. Continue reading for key takeaways of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.

SUCESSs: A Simple Formula for Creative Messaging

Do you have to be an amazing writer or speaker to deliver creative messaging? Is there a simple formula for effectively getting your ideas across? You don’t have to be a creative genius to communicate your message well. Chip and Dan Heath show you what to do through numerous examples of messages that have succeeded and others that have bombed. Rather than sweating over an original presentation, you can follow their “stickiness” template or even emulate someone else’s idea that worked. Keep reading to learn the formula for creative messaging.

Why You Need a Decision Group and How to Form One

What is a decision group? How can it strengthen your decision-making skills? Thinking in Bets author Annie Duke cites decision groups as a key part of her growth as a poker player, especially when she was first starting out. Having a group of people to help you make better decisions is important, and Duke shares how you can find and engage with such a group. Read more to learn about decision groups.

How to Grab Attention: Introduce the Unexpected

How can you strategically grab attention and get people to listen? Can you do it without being gimmicky? To get someone to hear your message, you first have to get them to notice you. The best way to grab attention is to break a pattern and introduce the unexpected. People tune out sameness, but you can get them to tune in by changing something up. Keep reading to learn ways to grab attention.

Your Mission From God: Spread the Word of His Love

How has God called you to reach out beyond your spiritual community? Does your mission mindset need a reset? Evangelism isn’t just for preachers. If you’re a Christian, God called you to share the message of hope with the world. Your mission is to share your personal life message as well as the Gospel. Pastor Rick Warren outlines the four aspects of your life message and identifies three ways you might need to reset your mission mindset. Read more to learn how to be more effective in fulfilling your mission.

The 2 Ways to Create Interest: Mystery and Curiosity

How can you keep people’s attention once you have it? How can you create interest so people don’t tune you out? It’s one thing to grab attention. It’s another to keep it. You can create interest in two ways—by presenting a mystery or by generating curiosity. Read more to learn about these two ways of creating interest and keeping it.

Ronald A. Heifetz: Preparing for an Adaptive Change

What exactly is an adaptive change? Have you ever introduced a fundamental change to your organization’s processes? How did you communicate it to your team? According to change theorist Ronald A. Heifetz, an adaptive change is a change instituted in response to an “adaptive challenge”—an organizational problem that has no known solutions. Part of your job as an adaptive leader is to prepare people for the change, and the first step to this is to make sure that everyone has an accurate understanding of what the challenge entails and what change is about to come. In this article, we’ll look

How to Initiate Change and Get People Onboard

What can the fable Our Iceberg Is Melting teach you about initiating change? Why do so many people resist change? How can you kickstart change in your organization? In their fable about change, Kotter and Rathgeber discuss the difficulties of initiating change in a company. They discuss the difficulties of convincing others that major change is necessary and what to do when you encounter resistance. Keep reading for advice on how to initiate change in your company or personal life.

8 Keys to Concrete Communication

Why is concrete communication important? How can presenting information in concrete terms make it resonate better? Many ideas fail to stick because they are presented in abstract rather than concrete terms. They are unconnected to specific things that people easily grasp. You need to use concrete communication if you want your message to resonate. Keep reading to learn eight keys to concrete communication.

Getting Through Organizational Conflict: The 8 Steps

Have you ever dealt with conflict at an organizational level? How did it manifest? What was the underlying issue? Surfacing organizational conflict is a sign of unarticulated and unacknowledged differences in values and points of view. It won’t be possible to function effectively until this information comes to light and people understand the conflict’s underlying issues. In this article, we’ll look at eight steps for getting through organizational conflict: how to bring it to light and how to resolve it constructively.

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