Pssst… lean in. I know you’re busy but this won’t take long and it’s really important. There’s something I want you to know. Something that I believe you need to know. Something that I am absolutely convinced will help you. It’s a simple, yet incredibly powerful, approach to structuring any important communication. The method works well regardless of the format. Your presentations, business meeting conversations, even emails can be supercharged for maximum impact.
If you have ever wondered why nothing happened after a meeting, presentation or conversation, the answer may be found in missing one of the three critical preparation questions we will outline. Don’t worry; this is nothing weird or complicated, just powerful. Once you start using it, you will begin to recognize how great leaders make frequent use of this and just how easy it is to enjoy a whole new level of success.
As a disclaimer, I state for the record that I am not the originator of the Know-Feel-Do model and I am giving full credit to Bill Jensen who introduced the idea in his book Simplicity. Maybe not always easy, but certainly not complex. Three simple questions you can ask yourself as you plan your next important communication message.
Step 1: What do you want the audience to know? Considering the purpose of your goal for the message, what information do you need them to be aware of or to consider? What facts, what data, what information? This does NOT mean throw in every last detail and item that you know. It means that you must carefully consider what information is necessary for them to have for your message to be effective.
Step 2: What do you want the audience to feel? What emotion is necessary for them to feel in order for action to take place? We’ve all experienced information overload (too much “know”) presentations. Tons and tons of data – all designed to strengthen the speaker’s case. The problem is that facts and data have a tendency to run towards the boring end of the spectrum. Without tying the knowledge to an emotion or a set of emotions, the message will have very little, if any, impact. Well, it may put the audience to sleep but that’s not likely the purpose of the communication.
Step 3: What do you want the audience to do? Do you want them to simply be aware of something, or is there a specific action you want them to take? What is your specific “ask”? This is one of the most overlooked components of communications. We may think that the “ask” is obvious but often times it is not. We saw a movie some months back that had a clear purpose – raise awareness of a cause. Incredibly well done with great facts and figures blended into human stories that had brought the audience from joy to tears several times. Then the house lights came on and… we didn’t know what to do. Everyone seemed to feel the need to do something… it just wasn’t clear what or how. Never leave your what or how hanging.
Recently my friend John asked me to come and sit in on an interview he was having with one of his top reps who was hoping for the vacant VP role. My friend was leaning in the direction of giving the rep the job but there was a little yellow warning light going off in his head so he asked me to sit in and then share any thoughts. The background of the rep was solid. He was consistently one of the top producers. He was experienced in leading teams. He had tenure with the company, respect from other team members and he wanted the job.
“So, what do you think?” He asked me after the hour long interview. First, I congratulated him on trusting his intuition. Then I went on to say that the candidate had done a masterful job at handling the questions, responding appropriately when challenged and appearing calm and collected when under fire. I suggested that he let me work with the candidate and have him re-interview him in a couple of days.
The rep and I met and prepared his “interview” in the form of a presentation.
- Know – he wanted his boss to know all of his relevant accomplishments plus the outside activities that pointed to him having all the skill sets necessary for the new job.
- Feel – we worked on reminding John how painful and distracting the search for a VP had been. It had already cost the company quite a bit of money to hire a search firm and they hadn’t yet come up with the right candidate. He wanted John to feel this deep down.
- Do – we structured “the close” in such a way that John knew exactly what the rep wanted him to do – offer him the position right then and there with a start date on the following Monday.
A week later John called me up and said he has promoted the rep to VP! He told me that the rep had presented such a strong case that he saw him more as a VP than a Director! That’s the power of knowing what you want and then preparing and presenting based on Know – Feel – Do.
Not every communication is in the form of a presentation or even face to face. With the growing use of digital delivery mechanisms such as email, it is more important than ever to ensure that our messages are clear and powerful. I have been recruiting for a couple of additional salespeople to continue to fuel our growth. As is usually the case, we have been receiving stacks of resumes, cover letters and applications. One of the application packets really stood out. And not in a good way. Let’s review the submission based on the Know, Feel, Do approach.
- Know – none of the work experience gave any indication that they were qualified or even met the basic requirements. Is this what they wanted me to learn?
- Feel – It didn’t take long for me to start to have an emotion, two actually. Irritation and confusion. I was mildly irritated to be wasting my time reading a submission by someone neither qualified nor apparently interested enough to work to create a desire for me to hire them. Interestingly, a strong cover letter could have helped provide some human emotion into the process. It wouldn’t make the lack of skills go away but you have to play the hand you are dealt.
- Do – they did ask for an interview but after what I had learned and without the appropriate emotion, their “ask” was not effective. By placing the application in the “no further action” pile, this was not likely the “do” that had been hoped for. Then again, maybe they were completing their unemployment insurance requirements and hoping not to be contacted. If that was the case, they succeeded.
I started the article off by saying that there was something I wanted you to know, something I wanted you to feel and something I wanted you to do. Hopefully you now know how to prepare and structure important communications and you will actively use this to drive your own personal success. But there is one more do — if you find this to be as effective as I have, please pay it forward and share it with someone else. And feel free to shoot me an email with questions, comments or a story about your results from this method.
As always, positive feedback is welcome at BradIsRightOn@gmail.com and any other input is welcome at BradIsAMoron@gmail.com .
