A recap of INFLUX 🪐 2024
A (human) review
👋 Hey, it’s Andrés. Welcome to Astrolab’s weekly newsletter on how to become a better communicator at work. We write for knowledge workers and business owners.
Today: A quick recap of INFLUX 🪐
Happy New Year to everyone!
Instead of jumping into a new topic this early in the year, I’m sharing bite-sized recos, quotes and riffs related to the stories, tools and concepts we wrote about this past 2024.
Thanks for being around this first year of INFLUX 🪐! Here’s to many more, always with the same intention: helping you become a more interesting, trusted, inspiring and clear communicator.
Andrés and everyone at Astrolab
Dare to speak up
Be like John C. Houbolt, the NASA engineer who championed the process that was adopted by the Apollo mission to land on the moon, even when everyone challenged him.
We like to think that great ideas and amazing talent always get noticed. And, while this sometimes does happen, the sheer amount of information, noise and distractions is making this increasingly difficult, even rare.
If you want to succeed, you need to win others over. You need to be able to connect with others, communicate in a clear way, and be both relevant and memorable. Day after day.
(from You have a voice)
Do these three things if you tend to get anxious before speaking in public:
Pause and take a couple long breaths when you’re feeling jittery or downright absolutely terrified
Look for reassurance from someone you love and / or trust. This will get you out of your head.
Sleep well before an important presentation. If you need to, take a sleeping pill, but do get your required sleep time.
(from You can get anxious)
Not using stories will hinder your career.
Here’s Barack Obama on this:
When I first started running for congress, I had a tendency in some settings, including debates and impromptu remarks, of not telling stories, but rather listing off talking points, factoids and policy. I was too abstract, too wonkish, and, as a consequence, too long-winded. I just didn’t have enough reps.
(from You can become a better storyteller)
Ask!
Disney’s CEO Bob Iger on why to take the shot:
People sometimes shy away from taking big swings because they assess the odds and build a case against trying something before they even take the first step. Long shots aren't usually as long as they seem.
(from You can always ask)
Get your storytelling reps
Duolingo’s founder on learning a language:
Internally, our feeling is that learning a language is a lot like working out.
It doesn’t matter all that much whether you’re doing the elliptical or a Peloton or a treadmill. By far, what matters the most is that you’re doing it every day, whatever the hell you’re doing.
It’s kind of the same with Duolingo. Maybe some methods are more efficient than others, but what matters is that you’re doing it every day.
Substitute learning a language for finding, crafting and sharing stories at work.
(from You should always get more reps)
The 50/25/25 rule
Are you spending enough time preparing for important conversations, or are you winging them, excusing yourself because there’s just not enough time?
Here’s Terry Szuplat, one of Obama’s speechwriters when he was President:
For any speech our presentation, I spend roughly…
50% of my time thinking, researching, organizing, and outlining
25% of my time writing, and
25% of my time editing and practicing.
Have to give a presentation in a month? Spend two weeks thinking/researching/outlining, one week writing, and one week editing/practicing.
Have to give a speech in a week? Spend about three days thinking/researching/outlining, two days writing, and two days editing/practicing.
Just found out you have to give remarks tonight—in two hours? Spend one hour thinking/researching/outlining, 30 minutes writing, and 30 minutes editing/practicing.
(from You can overprepare to overdeliver)
Increase your prestige to grow your influence
Here’s Adam Grant:
There are two fundamental paths to influence: dominance and prestige. When we establish dominance, we gain influence because others see us as strong, powerful and authoritative. When we earn prestige, we become influential because others respect and admire us.
Do you want to increase your prestige? Learn how to connect with others.
(from You should always be connecting)
Win others over in small moments over time
Think about the following communication moments. How would you rate yourself in each of them?
You career, your work and your impact will advance and grow—or not— if you master these moments. Here is where you need to win others over. Here is where you fan your spark into a flame.
Can you get better in some or in all of these?
(from You can write your way out)
Make change happen
Simple ideas—those that do not require a change in beliefs or in behaviors—spread easily through networks, like COVID. Think of viral videos or a piece of gossip.
Complex ideas required reinforcement from multiple sources, trust and repeated exposure to be adopted. In other words: we change when people close to us change.
While complex ideas spread through strong social ties that look like a fishing net, simple ideas travel through a weak social ties network that look like a firework.
So, if you’re trying to make things go faster in your organization, how can you leverage this knowledge?
Make sure the distribution of ideas is built around redundancy of many people.
Here’s where communication, storytelling and influence comes to the picture: If you help leaders, managers and commercial teams become better storytellers—better at winning others over—, change and transformation ideas will spread faster.
(From You can make change go faster)
Five ways to improve your messages
Character focus is about who are you going to talk about
Why vs How is a distinction that helps you explain the reasons behind a decision, and the things that need to happen
Abstraction helps you move between context and specificity. Go for both!
Time can help you map an idea in a chronological order, therefore making it more easy for comsumption
Factfulness is about achieving a mix between things that happened and interpretations
(From You can be heard, understood and followed)
Why all this matters
Becoming a good communicator takes time, and it’s usually a messy process that involves bitter moments when things don’t go as you expected.
It also includes amazing learning experiences, adrenaline-filled opportunities to shine, and, most important of all, the chance to connect with people, to truly connect in a human way with others that you’ll encounter along your career.
It is definitely worth it.
(From You can become a masterful communicator)
Storytelling matters
Here’s Scott Galloway on the relevance of becoming a good storyteller:
In terms of one attribute, one skill you need to develop? Storytelling.
Take every opportunity to speak in front of other people. Take every opportunity to become a decent writer. Figure out what mediums you’re good at. At you good on TikTok? Are you good on the phone? Are you outside on texting?
If you want to be really successful, you have to be able to stand in front of a group of people, or send them a memo that outlines your argument, your position, and moves them to action.
Storytelling is the core competence.
(From How to become a better storyteller)
That’s all for today. See you next Thursday!
Andrés