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b"Going all the way back to the laconic Spartans, the ability to be succinct\\xa0in one's communications has been to others a sign of strength and a well-appreciated gesture. But it's a skill that's never been more important than it is today, when people are bombarded with information and don't have the bandwidth to digest long and convoluted\\xa0messages.\\n\\nMy guest today is an expert in helping people get to the point, the founder of the BRIEF Lab, and the author of Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less. His name is Joseph\\xa0McCormack, and we begin our conversation\\xa0with how his work grew out of his development of a communications curriculum for the military's special operators. We then discuss\\xa0how being brief is not just about conciseness but first about achieving clarity, and the high costs of not shaping\\xa0our communications with these qualities -- especially in a world where attention is a scarce resource. Joe explains why it's actually harder to exercise verbal discipline than it is to use lots of words, and four\\xa0techniques\\xa0to make your messaging clear and concise. We then discuss how to apply these techniques\\xa0to shortening meetings, condensing emails, and distilling how you describe your role when people ask what you do. We end our conversation with how to create more meaningful interactions during fluid\\xa0conversations\\xa0by actually preparing for these encounters, rather than simply trying to wing it.\\xa0\\n\\nGet the show notes at aom.is/brief."