Chapter 8 - Communication

[Paul Terlemezian]

How ads (external) work in the brain: (page 163)

1. Scare me so I do what you say
2. This is fragile (perhaps because another fear takes over)
3. Stories that spark our imagination become integral to our personal narrative

Three (external) techniques (page 163)

1. Start in the middle (middle, beginning, end) (Leapfrogging and Risky is the New Safe)
2. Focus on exceptions to the rules
3. Write in the riddle (connect two things that contradict)

and a fourth - End with the beginning (tell your audience why)

page 172

1. Prompt your audience to wonder why (begin in the middle, disrupt a narrative, pose a riddle)
2. Explain why, answering their questions for them (Provide an explanation, they'd have imagined themselves if they had more time)
3. Shut up, allowing your audience to imagine what if (sit back and let their imagination do the work)

or - "Get you audience to imagine a question, then answer it better than they can"

Internal communications (cohesion instead of dissemination)

Starts at the end and encourages the audience to imagine the middle.

Commander's Intent (page 173)

1. The goal of the mission (the end)
2. The why of the mission (the beginning)
3. Close your mouth (let them invent their own middle)

Avoid failure:

• Too many goals
• A goal without a why

External - Inspire a question and then answer it

Internal - One goal and Why

The final ingredient - Trust (page 177) and authenticity (becoming more difficult in large corporations)