End on a high!
As you leave the cinema you walk away with an impression, an impression formed from the way the movie ended. Was it emotional, feel-good, sad, or did it leave you hanging, as though it was unfinished.
You remember the feeling that the ending left you with more than the rest of the movie.
Humans have selective memories and a bias for recency, the most recent thing we remember about the interaction.
We aren’t quite so naive though, we selectively choose what we remember and it falls under the peak-end rule.
We remember two things; the most intense point and the end of experiences.
Let us play that back. We remember just two things from an experience.
How does this apply to us, as leaders and change agents. Reflect on how you end conversations, meetings and communications.
Do you end on a go-getting high, do conversations end with a call to action, or are they more like a tyre deflating.
One of the Execs of a FTSE 10 company we worked with deliberately set out to leave each person that she interacted with in a better place than before the interaction. Better did not mean always mean happier, it could be more clarity, understanding or confidence.
A simple trick to create energy in your team, your presentation or your speech. End on a high, a call to action. Own the last few moments of each interaction.
For many years the budget carrier RyanAir used this to great effect when they landed. Rather than the normal announcements a loud (and I mean loud) fanfare is played along with an announcement that ‘Another RyanAir flight arrived on time’ or something similar. Passengers clap in celebration and leave the plane feeling that they are part of a successful flight.
To catch the other memorable moment, take a leaf from viral marketing and try using something that surprises the audiece, a data point that is ‘sticky’. Our memories discard things we think we already know as it is duplicative, but find things that surprise us and make sense, useful and store them away.
Surprise in the middle and finish strong for a lasting legacy!
Some practical advice
- When crafting communications, think about how you want to leave your audience feeling
- Put something in the middle that surprises the audience and causes a disruption in their thought patterns
- Create an ending which fits how you want your audience to feel.
This is part of our Leadership Wizdom series, bite sized leadership advice for leaders who wish to improve their leadership, but don’t have much time. For more indepth articles check out The Change Wizard.
We coach leaders and help their organisations become more adaptable at www.thechangewizard.com
