Simple messages are hard to construct but far more effective

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPod, he had to explain a revolutionary product in a way that could be immediately understandable and capture the imagination. His crisp descriptor, “1,000 songs in your pocket,” brilliantly met the challenge.

Simplicity works. Capsule messages can communicate complicated messages to a public overwhelmed by companies and other people clamouring for their attention.

“When your message is too big and expansive, it doesn’t make it out of that head of yours. It gets stuck,” marketing consultant Ben Guttmann writes in Simply Put.

Too often, however, we opt for complicated. It seems less risky than jettisoning extra words and ideas buttressing our case. It avoids sacrifice and hard choices. But complicated can be flabby and less compelling.

He says the three sins of complicated messages are that they are selfish, prioritizing our comfort and leaving the recipient to do the hard work of decoding the important parts; cowardly, used when we are fearful and don’t know our stuff so we hide behind a wall of words; and dangerous to our bottom line.

Unfortunately, it can take more effort to design a simple message. For many of us simplicity is new, unfamiliar terrain. Simple can actually be complicated to achieve. “It turns out simple isn’t so simple – and it sure as hell isn’t easy,” Mr. Guttmann says, noting the irony that it took him a 208-page book to explain it.

He found simple messages share five principles:

• Beneficial: They focus on the needs, desires and goals of the message recipient. You must clarify what’s in it for them – how does your message help them?
• Focused: Simple messages cut out all the stuff that doesn’t matter. You are designing a message but free of ornamentation that tries to pretty things up. No empty platitudes or fluff.
• Salient: Simple messages stand out. “In a noisy world, you need to be conspicuously distinct to have any hope of being noticed,” he writes. “Salient messages zig when others zag. Simplicity stands out, complicated blends in.”
• Empathetic: The messages avoid specialist lingo and don’t demand extensive previous knowledge. They are not littered with esoteric words. They speak to the recipient in their own language and demonstrate insight into their reality.
• Minimal: “Simple messages contain everything they need but only what they need. They require the fewest number of dependencies – and thus have the fewest possible points of failure,” he says.

To achieve simplicity in messages, you need to focus on the benefits you are offering – not the features of your product or proposal. This fits the words of legendary Harvard Business School marketing professor Theodore Levitt: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!” They don’t care about how fast the drill bit turns or battery life or other features of the gadget. They want the result – the functional benefit to them. So don’t clutter your messages with endless features. Focus on the result.

You also need to fight the committee mind – the need to get everybody’s ideas into the communication, even if the result is a Frankenstein of a message. “When you have one big point, people can’t help but notice it. But when you have four or five crammed in there, they can easily lose the plot,” Mr. Guttmann says. This requires making choices, managing tradeoffs and selling the essence of your idea.

Steve Jobs did that with “1,000 songs in your pocket.” He provided the quarter-inch hole version, without the many fabulous features of the new technology. He gave you its essence – what it did for you in a few simple and ultimately catchy words.

Quick hits

• Essentialism, a disciplined process for work and life advocated by author Greg McKeown, echoes the simplicity approach for communications. Its three-step process asks you to explore your choices and goals, eliminate the unnecessary and execute on true priorities.
• The best place for ideas is alone and on the move, says author Annie Macmanus.
• Many times the final slide in your presentation is up longer than any other so make it matter, advises communications consultant JD Schramm. Restate the talk title, main ideas and your contact information. Or return to your most powerful photo or chart from the talk. Or stop the slides so the screen is not competing with you answering questions.
• Atomic Habits author James Clear asks: “What are my favourite hours of the day and what adjustments can I make to ensure they are under my control?”

Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.