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In 2000 Australia was buzzing because we had the Olympic games, and I was buzzing too but not because of the games. I was about to fly to Sydney to pitch to Macquarie Bank for venture capital for my new idea. The idea was for a technology to enable two systems to communicate more easily without requiring additional programming. In a nutshell it sent Smalltalk between the client and the server in a similar way to how JSON works now. I even had a demo where you could speak commands into a microphone, they were converted to Smalltalk, sent to the server and the response came back and was spoken to you. I learned an important and expensive lessing during this time, that describing ideas with or without a prototype is hard, and that VC’s are more interested in what technology enables than technology itself. Aside from that I wish I could have described my idea in such a way that the audience just “got” it, and I could have if I had read “The Back Of The Napkin, solving problems and selling ideas with pictures” by Dan Roam before hand.

“The Back of the Napkin” presents a process for breaking down your thoughts, seeing their relationships and a framework for selecting the right diagram to best represent those thoughts when showing them to others. There is even a section on how to give the pitch once the thoughts and diagrams are ready, including a detailed example from start to finish involving a Software company and it’s lagging product. I think this example in itself is worth the cost of the book.

Dan presents ways to better ’see’ problems and discover your ideas, the SQVID process which is a series of five questions that refine our idea and bring out what is important to us and our audience, and  a process for developing and showing those ideas. It is easy to read and entertaining.  I think “The Back of the Napkin” is another one of those books I wish were mandatory reading at school since the process and framework could have served me so many times when I needed the audience to just “get” my idea.

Have you ever wanted to hear ‘Yes’ rather than ‘No’ to a question you have asked ? I’m guessing you just said ‘Yes’, which shows me that reading the book “The Science Of Influence, How to Get Anyone to Say “YES” in 8 Minutes or Less“, by Kevin Hogan was worth reading, and it probably is for you too.

The book helps you to communicate more effectively by helping you understand the many complexities of communicating. Complexities like verbal, non-verbal, time, place, tone, pace and peoples behavioral patterns are all taken into account and explained. The book also covers what to do when someone has said ‘No’ before or the equally disappointing ‘Ill think about it’.

I read this book because I want to be a more effective communicator in my role as a change agent, introducing Agile development practices in new organizations, but I could use these techniques everyday, wherever I want to get a ‘Yes’. However, I believe the techniques not assist me in winning and argument with my wife, not even after reading Chapter 10.

he book was an easy read for me, with an appealing size type and what felt like a logical sequence of chapters. Here is the Table Of Contents:

1. Influencing Others to change
2. The First Four Seconds
3. The Delta Model of Influence
4. Credibility: The Pivot Point of Persuasion
5. The New Principles Of Influence
6. Introduction to Omega Strategies
7. Framing Principles, Persuasion Techniques, and Influential Strategies
8. Applying the Laws of Influence
9. The Influential Secret of Oscillation
10. Mind Reading: How to Know What They Are Thinking
11. I’ll Think About It
12. How Their Brain Buys …You!

The book has key questions and call outs to throughout the book which serve to drive home a point and I found myself making a list for quick reference later. Here are a few as an example:

Nothing persuades like credibility in people’s decision-making process.

When faced with too many choices, most people can become paralyzed and do nothing at all.

The brain makes stuff up out of thin air to fill in the blank spots.

What people say and think they will do bears little relationship to their actual actions.

How we dress in large part determines how much people will trust and like us.

Good presentations are very hard and that is why I am reading “Presentation Zen” by Garr Reynolds, which is excellent in its presentation and reasoning. It would be rather strange if it wasn’t.
I take notes as I read books to drive into my mind the important themes, advice or facts and with this book I have taken more notes than ever because it is full of excellent guidance. I simply can’t wait to be able to present again and put the information into practice. The principles outlines by Garr can also be applied to code and other areas of life.
One chapter of the book is about simplicity and Garr shares a letter he received with a wonderful story on reducing the nonessential:

When Vijay opened his store, he put up a sign that said: “We Sell Fresh Fish Here.”
His father stopped by and said that the word “We” suggests an emphasis on the seller rather than the customer, and is really not needed.
So the sign was changed to “Fresh Fish Sold Here.”
His brother came by and suggested that the word “here” could be done away with — it was superfluous. Vijay agreed and changed the sign to “Fresh Fish Sold.”
Next, his sister came along and said the sign should say “Fresh Fish.” Clearly, it is being sold; what else could you be doing?
Later his neighbor stopped by to congratulate him. Then he mentioned that all passers-by could easily tell that the fish was really fresh. Mentioning the word fresh actually made it sound defensive as though there was room for doubt about the freshness. Now the sign just read “FISH.”
As Vijay was walking back to his shop after a break he noticed that one could identify the fish from the smell from very far, at a distance form which one could barely read the sign. He knew there was no need for the word “FISH.”

There are important lessons in the book “Presentation Zen” and I recommend you get a copy, if improving your communication is important to you.

The web sites and coders that appeal most to me are the ones that really understand the nonessential.

At a recent Melbourne Extreme Programming User Group meeting the presenter Paul Monks mentioned the book “Getting to Yes, Negotiating an agreement without giving in” by Roger Fisher & William Ury & Bruce Patton.

Paul said the book helped a great deal in understanding how to negotiate to get Agile practices adopted at his place of work.

It’s rather hard to convince anybody of anything, so I thought the book must be magic.

I rushed out and bought a copy and sat down and read it and what follows is the five minute summary, however this isn’t a substitute for getting the book yourself as various examples in the book help understand the practices and how they are applied so consider this a quick reference.

Negotiation should:

• produce a wise agreement if agreement is possible.
• be efficient.
• improve or at least not damage the relationship.

A wise agreement:

• meets legitimate interests, to the extent possible.
• resolves conflicting interests fairly.
• is durable.
• takes community interests into account.

Positional bargaining produces an unwise agreement.

Basic elements for negotiating:

• people: separate the people from the position.
• interests: focus on interests, not positions.
• options: generate a variety of possibilities before deciding what to do.
• criteria: insist that the result be based on some objective standard.

Negotiators are people first. Always ask yourself “Am I paying enough attention to the people problem?”
Think in terms of perception, emotion and communication when dealing with the people problem.

Communication Problems:

• not really talking to each other.
• not really listening.
• misundestanding.

Invent Options and avoid the four major obsticles to inventing options:

• premature judgement.
• searching for a single answer.
• assumption of a fixed pie.
• thinking that solving their problem is the problem.

A little more detial for those who have time …

The Problem

Don’t Bargain Over Positions

• Arguing over positions produces unwise agreements.
• Arguing over positions is inefficient.
• Arguing over positions endangers an ongoing relationship.
• When there are many parties, positional bargaining is even worse.
• Being nice is no answer.

The Method

Separate the People from the Problem

• Negotiators are people first.
• Every nogotiator has two kinds of interests: in the substance and in the relationship.
• The relationshop tends to become entangled with the problem.
• Positional bargaining puts relationship and substance in conflict.

Separate the relationship from the substance; deal directly with the people problem.

Perception:

• Put yourself in their shoes.
• Don’t deduce their intentions from your fears.
• Don’t blame them for your problem.
• Discuss each other’s perceptions.
• Look for opportunities to act inconsistently with their perceptions.
• Give them a stake in the outcome by makeing sure they participate in the process.
• Face-saving: Make your proposals consistent with their values.

Emotion:

• First recognize and understand emotions, theirs and yours.
• Make emotions explicit and acknowledge them as legitimate.
• Allow the other side to let off steam.
• Don’t react to emotional outbursts.
• Use symbolic gestures.

Communication:

• Listen actively and acknowledge what is being said.
• Speak to understand.
• Speak about yourself, not about them.
• Speak for a purpose.

Prevention works best

• Build a working relationship.
• Face the problem, not the people.

Focus on Interests, Not Positions

For a wise decision reconcile interests, not positions.

• Interests define the problem.
• Behind opposed positions lie shared and compatible interests, as well as conflicting ones.

How do you identify interests?

• Ask “Why?”
• Ask “Why not?” Think about their choice.
• Realise that each side has multiple interests.
• The most powerful interest are basic human needs.
• Make a list.

Talking about interests

• Make your interests come alive.
• Acknowledge their interests as part of the problem.
• Put the problem before your answer.
• Look forward, not back.
• Be concrete but flexible.
• Be hard on the problem, soft on the people.

Invent Options for Mutual Gain

• Separate inventing options from deciding.
• Brainstorm options with both sides.
• Multiply options by shuttling between the specific and the general: The Circle Chart.
• Look through the eyes of different experts.
• Invent agreements of different strengths.
• Change the scope of a proposed agreement.
• Identify shared interests. There is no fixed pie.
• Dovetail differing interests.
• Ask for their preferences.

Make their decision easy

• Who’s shoes?
• What decision?
• What would you hope for?

Insist on Using Objective Criteria

• Deciding on the basis of will is costly.
• Principled negotiation produces wise agreements amicably and efficiently.

Developing Objective Criteria

• Fair standards.
• Fair procedures.

Negotiating with objective criteria

• Frame each issue as a joint search for objective criteria.
• Reason and be open to reason.
• Never yield to pressure.

For answers to questions like “What if they are more Powerful?”, “What if they won’t play?” and “What if they use dirty tricks?” you will have to read the book; I think you will be glad you did.

The Pyramid Principle, logic in writing and thinking, by Barbara Minto.

After reading this book I felt I had a much better understanding of how to target my writing; that the subject, the questions and their answers would be clear in the mind of the reader.