Enchantment Summary

Chapters, PDF & Review of Guy Kawasaki’s Book

Enchantment: The Art of Changing Heart, Minds, and Action

Author: Guy Kawasaki

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People deserve a break. The stressed and unorganized person who doesn’t have the same priorities as you may be dealing with an autistic child, abusive spouse, fading parents, or cancer. Don’t judge people until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. Give them a break instead.

Chapter 1 Why Enchantment?

Enchantment is the act of evoking positive change.

It helps communicate aspirations and dreams.

Enchantment can break peoples current habits.

It gets people to diverge from the crowd.

Get people to stick with you when results or feedback is minimal.

You have to see others point of view in order to enchant them.  They doubt your motivations and have limited resources.

Be ethical, others must truly benefit in some way for enchantment to work.

Chapter 2 How to Achieve Likability

Likability is the first step in achieving enchantment.

• Make crows feet. Smile real smiles, which means use not just your mouth muscles but your oculi (eye) muscles as well.
• Dress for a tie.  Dress like the people you are working with.
• Have a good firm handshake.  Two or three seconds long with eye contact and moderate distance.
• When speaking to others keep it short. Words should be simple and in the active voice.    Make sure your analogies are common and understood by everyone.

Accept others for their strengths and weaknesses.

Don’t impose your values on others.

Passions

• pursue your passions unabashedly and share them openly with others.
• try and find out what other people’s passions are

Swear

• Properly placed swear words can increase acceptance.  Use good judgment but not using them can be just as alienating as using them.  Again use good judgment.

Yes

• Assume people are reasonable, honest and grateful.  Default to yes for small requests at the beginning of relationships.

Chapter 3 How to Achieve Trustworthiness

The first step is to trust others.

Mensch – the German word for Human Being.  Giving people the benefit of the doubt.  Focus on goodwill.  Be honest and transparent.

Disclose your interests so you can build alignment.

Don’t undervalue the role of your own knowledge and competence when it comes to building trust.

Show up – Be there to interact with people on issues that matter to you.

Work on expanding available resources instead of carving out larger chunks of current ones.

Establish your position.  You should be able to explain what you do in a short clear sentence.

“A hero is a man who is afraid to run away.”  an English Proverb

Chapter 4 How to Prepare

Your cause needs to be as enchanting as you are.  Here is a list of qualities it should have:

• Deep – many features
• Intelligent – solves problems
• Complete – serves, supports and can be enhanced
• Empowering – makes people better
• Elegant – naturally aligns with people’s flow

The “premortem”

Look at why something might fail before attempting it.  The trick is to do it once the project is no longer ongoing but before it is released.  This allows more creative and organized approaches to challenges and spots early warning signs.

Make your cause easy to swallow

• Keep it short
• Stay positive
• Show respect

Don’t underestimate, simple, easy to read and pronounce, even rhyming words.

Default to a win-win scenario (example: Forced 401K)

Establish Goals, a person with well-defined goals is more enchanting.

Create checklists related to goals. They help create action, show people you respect their time and show progress.

Chapter 5 How to Launch

Tell a David vs. Goliath type story with great aspirations and courage.  Make it personal.

Immerse people in a great demo that is as close to the real thing as possible.  Anchor and twist, explain within the realm of the familiar to give it a different meaning.

Enable hands-on trials while things are still reversible.  Make them inexpensive and easy to access.

Embrace the nobodies.  Anybody who understands your cause is worth your attention.

Ask people outright if they are going to support you.  By attempting to measure someone’s intent you can affect their actions.

Get your first follower.  The first follower is important because it gives credibility to the leader.

Chapter 6 How to Overcome Resistance

Why do people resist?

• Inertia
• They like options, don’t want to reduce them
• Fear of making a mistake
• Lack role models
• Your cause sucks

Familiarity breeds commitment, not contempt.  ex. The white iPod headphones.

Create a perception of scarcity.  Setup an invite-only beta program.

Give tours and open houses.  Show people the magic behind the scenes.

Use images, examples, and stories to move people to action.

Find a way to agree with people personally or professionally.

The goal is to invoke change not to get your own way.  Instead of thinking you have the answer, sit back and look for bright spots that are already working.

ex. Apple thought the Mac was for spreadsheets but people used it for desktop publishing.

When possible use data to demonstrate points.  Make the data visual.

Know your competition, if you can’t name ways they are superior to you then you are either clueless or haven’t looked hard enough.

Chapter 7 How to Make Enchantment Endure

Internalization is the goal.  It’s the third of three stages:

1. Conformity – won’t last long without constant pressure
2. Identification – shared interests motivate
3. Internalization – People genuinely believe and do it for themselves

Identify people who have internalized and separate them physically if possible.  Foster their divergent thinking.

Organization leadership support is important but the grassroot level adoption is key.

Don’t use money as an enchantment tool.

Give to others, shine their shoes to change their minds.

Build an ecosystem to intertwine other peoples success with yours.

• User groups
• Websites and Blogs
• Consultants
• Developers
• Resellers
• Conferences

Create a diverse team that will add richness and relevance to you efforts.  You want various viewpoints.

Chapter 8 How to Use Push Technology

General Principles

1. Respond Fast
2. Engage everyone not specific or worthy people
3. Remember that enchantment is a process not an event
4. Provide value
5. Provide credit (the more you shine the light on others, the more you get noticed)
6. Limit self promotion to no more than 5%
7. Disclose conflict of interests

Presentations

1. Customize the intro to the specific audience
2. Sell a better future
3. Speech as a screenplay
4. Act 1 what is
5. Act 2 what could be
6. Act 3 how to make it happen
7. Use pictures, video, and demos

The 10-20-30 Rule

1. -10 slides, 20 minutes, 30 point font
2. You cannot practice a presentation to much

Email

1. Subject line is critical and should be personalized
2. Keep emails to 6 sentences or less
3. Do your homework on the recipient and “suck up” if needed
4. No attachments without permission
5. Ask for something concrete

Twitter

1. Spruce up your photo
2. Provide a descriptive profile
3. Post informative links -Find them on stumbleupon, Smartbrief, alltop, have an Intern find them for you.
4. Post links to your own content
5. Respond to everyone (and make it personal, do your homework)

Chapter 9 How to Use Pull Technology

Push brings information to people whereas Pull brings people to information.

The primary Pull technology is a website or a blog.  It should contain good freash content, be easy to navigate, and have an About page.

Facebook

1. In some cases a Facebook page can be used instead of a website.  Often less expensive and provides reliable identities to people who interact with it.
2. It is necessary to actively engage members of your Facebook site.

LinkedIn

1. Make a great Profile – keep it current!
2. Get visible – Participate in LinkedIn Answers and join Groups.

Find people 

1. Search by name or company
2. Find shared interests
3. Find out about people you work with

YouTube

1. Provide value: Inspire, educate, entertain, enlighten
2. Keep it short
3. Use keywords wisely as well as the tile description and tags

Chapter 10 How to enchant your Employees

Provide a map which allows autonomy, supports skill mastery and gives purpose.

When looking at yourself judge the results of your actions

When looking at others, judge the intentions.

Adopt a self-criticism strategy.

Don’t ask others to do what you wouldn’t do yourself.

Find and use a devil’s advocate.

Three important words when it comes to employees “We want you.”

Volunteers

1. Manage their time well
2. Give them feedback and recognition
3. Provide free food, drinks, coffee cups, t-shirts

Chapter 11 How to Enchant Your Boss

Make them look good

Don’t think big picture, think about their big picture.

• drop everything and do what they ask

Underpromise, Overdeliver

Provide a prototype of what you are working on for feedback before you invest too much time.

Make your wins your boss’s wins

Form friendships in the workplace

• Make you more efficient
• Create a snowball effect
• Friends protect you

Deliver bad news as soon as possible.

• Don’t blame anyone
• Don’t relay the bad news without ideas to fix it.

Chapter 12 How to Resist Enchantment

Avoid tempting situations (like malls)

Make sure you take into account the positive effect you are looking for in the future.  Don’t do something that you don’t feel will put you in a better position a year from now.

Know your limitations – devil’s advocate

Beware of false claims, tricky wording, and so-called experts.

Don’t fall for the example of one, look at the whole dataset.

The wisdom of the crowd isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Track past decisions to avoid making the same negative ones again.

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