Doing the Math ‘Making Numbers Count’ Helps Us Communicate Stakes If you’re the kind of person who loves statistics, we have bad news: You’re probably boring most people around you. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way. “Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers” by Chip Heath and Karla Starr is a practical and unique book that helps those who enjoy numbers communicate better with those who don’t. Numbers are confusing, as anyone who struggled with fractions, algebra, or calculus in school can attest. And the bigger and more abstract the numbers are, the less we understand them. Humans can solve complex equations but are much less adept at genuinely comprehending what they mean. Our brains are much more comfortable counting the number of bananas in a bunch than processing the U.S. government’s annual budget worth trillions of dollars. “Making Numbers Count” explains that even when we think we understand the meaning behind numbers, we have trouble emotionally connecting with them. We know that $1 trillion is a lot of money, but it’s so far removed from our daily lives that we struggle to comprehend exactly how much. The number is effectively meaningless. Heath and Starr explain this process is called “psychological numbing.” When we become overwhelmed by information, we tend to shut down. For example, most realize that the difference between 10 and 20 babies at a daycare is significant, and we can imagine the additional time, care, and expense those 10 babies would create. Meanwhile, the difference between 700 babies and 710 doesn’t tend to phase us because we can hardly imagine caring for 700 babies at all. Still, entrepreneurship and large numbers go hand-in-hand. Business leaders generally understand math and statistics more than most, but effectively presenting that information to employees and other stakeholders requires careful thought. How can you get them to care? “Making Numbers Count” has a wealth of suggestions. The authors argue that we should think of numbers as a foreign language that most people will need to be translated. While we tend to believe that big numbers are more impactful than small ones, the opposite is often true. Properly communicating numbers to ordinary people means breaking them down into terms they understand.
The Pros and Cons of Each — and How to Get the Most out of Both Which Is a Better Strategy, SEO or PPC? For large and small businesses alike, every marketing dollar counts, and in today’s digital marketing landscape, knowing where to get the biggest “bang for your buck” has become increasingly challenging. This is especially true when it comes to traffic-driven marketing strategies like SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click).
The Secret to a More Cooperative Team?
Personality Tests
Many businesses have put a renewed focus on improving the relationships between employees. Business leaders play a huge role in this process as they hire new employees, maintain morale, and encourage cooperation. When you hire someone to your business that’s not a strong fit with your culture or current team, it can create turnover and decrease productivity. But how do you know if someone will be the right fit for your business when you’ve only talked to them a handful of times? Some companies have started to utilize personality tests during the hiring process to ensure they hire the right candidate. When you give potential staff members a personality test, you figure out who they are and what drives them. Often, it’s on a deeper level than what you’d receive by directly asking them. After you receive the results and you’re deciding who to hire, don’t choose the person who is the perfect culture fit. Find someone who will mesh well with your team while also adding a little more depth. Personality tests aren’t exclusively used to find new hires. They’re often used with current employees to improve cooperation within the business. By giving your employees personality tests, you can determine who’s compatible and partner them up. This can be especially useful when bringing on a new team member. You can compare their test results with the rest of your team and find a suitable mentor to teach and get along with them. Another great benefit of personality tests is that they give insight into what truly drives your employees, which can be significantly leveraged during employee reviews. Your employees will even learn more about themselves through these tests, allowing them to create better goals and plans to accomplish each goal. And if you’re struggling to figure out how to incentivize your employees, their personality test results will give you some ideas. Keep in mind that personality tests are not a proven science. Some people cannot judge themselves accurately, and others will lie to appear more appealing, especially if you use the tests during the hiring process. If you’re looking for a great way to understand your team and how they work, try giving them a personality test. If nothing else, you’ll provide an excellent bonding experience for your employees.
Often, many businesses choose to employ one strategy or the other, so the nagging question is this: Which is better?
Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with one definitive answer, and your chosen strategy depends greatly on your company’s goals. But, we can tell you the benefits and drawbacks of each and why you should consider using them together . Let’s get started. What are the pros of SEO? It’s cheap. The great thing about SEO is that pretty much everyone can afford to use it. Writing itself is free, and you don’t have to use SEO software to find keywords if you don’t want to. The only cost incursion here is if your business invests in an SEO software or agency to find keywords and test how your content ranks. It’s a long-term strategy. Once you post something to your website, it stays there for as long as you want it to. So, if you use SEO correctly, your content will generate traffic to your website for years. The other nice thing about SEO is that more sites will likely link to your content once you rank highly on a search page. This is called backlinking, and search engines like Google view these links favorably. What are the cons of SEO? It can take some time. For SEO to begin driving traffic to your site, it can sometimes take up to a year to see its full results. This isn’t to say you won’t see results sooner than that, but if you’re looking for quick clicks, SEO probably isn’t the best option on its own. The barrier to entry is high. Using SEO successfully takes a lot of time and skill. While anyone can throw a few keywords into an article, not many people understand the ins and outs of Google’s algorithm. This is why many businesses outsource their content to an SEO agency instead of learning how to use it themselves.
In one notable example, the authors point out that $1 billion is 1,000 times greater than $1 million. Those numbers are big and impressive, but they don’t effectively convey the difference between the two amounts. A better way to look at the matter is to consider that 1 million seconds last 12 days — while 1 billion seconds last 32 years. It’s clear which explanation will leave more people in awe. Heath and Starr provide many more examples to help you start thinking differently about the numbers you use to impact people. “Making Numbers Count” is essential reading for anyone who must report on quarterly earnings, sales increases, and other critical business metrics. After all, clear communication is always a sound investment.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” –2 CORINTHIANS 5:17
Continued on Page 6 ...
5
4
208.297.5700
www.newsletterpro.com
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator