Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki

Who is this book for?

Enchantment is an inspiring set of guiding principles to grow yourself and your company into a trusted and inspiring brand. This book is for anyone who is looking to make progress in their career by developing or sharpening their interpersonal skills and/or becoming competent in the world of social media.

 

Introduction     xvii

My Story           xvii

  • Enchantment: the process of delighting people with a product, service, organization, or idea.

  •  Outcome of enchantment: voluntary and long-lasting support that is mutually beneficial. 

Our Journey      xx

  • This book is for people who see life for what it can be rather than what it can’t

Let's Get Started           xxii

Chapter 1: Why Enchantment?             1

What Is Enchantment?               1

When Is Enchantment Necessary?         2

  • When you enchant people, your goal is not to make money from them or to get them to do what you want, but to fill them with great delight.

  • When you need it: Aspiring to lofty, idealist results (convince people to dream the same dream you do), Making difficult, infrequent decisions, overcoming entrenched habits, defying a crowd, and preceding despite delayed or nonexistent feedback.  

What Are People Thinking?        3

  • Imagine yourself as the person you want to enchant and ask yourself the following questions: What does this person want, is the change worth the effort, and can I change?

Where Should You Draw the Line?          4

  • The line between unethical and ethical, ask yourself these questions: are you asking people to do something that you wouldn’t do? Do your interests conflict? Have you hidden your conflicts of interest? Are you telling “noble lies?” Are you enchanting gullible people?

Examples and How to Use This Book      5

  • Enchantment isn’t black and white. Try out some of these ideas, modify and adapt as you go, abandon the losers, and run with winners. 

Personal Stories            7

My Personal Story Eric Dawson              8 

Chapter 2: How to Achieve Likability    9

  • Step one is achieving likability, because jerks seldom enchant people

Make Crow's-Feet          9

  • Smile at people. Think positively so it is a genuine smile.

Dress for a Tie               11

  • How you dress shouldn’t conflict with what you stand for (if you wear jeans, wear jeans if it is acceptable in your workplace. If you are a suit guy and don’t feel comfortable wearing jeans, keep the suit).

Perfect Your Handshake             12

  • A good handshake is a big part of first impressions

Use the Right Words      13

  • Use simple words

  • Use the active voice

  • Keep it short

  • Use common, unambiguous analogies (be mindful of cultural differences)

Accept Others               14

  • People are not binary, they are multidimensional with strengths and weaknesses

  • Everyone is better than you at something

  • People are more similar than they are different

  • People deserve a break

Get Close          15

  • “The single most important factor in determining whether or not you connect with another person is neither personality nor mutual interests – it is simple proximity” (Click: The Magic of Instant Connections by the Brafman brothers)

  • EBWA: Enchantment by wandering around 

Don't Impose Your Values          17

  • A health organization once tried to scare teens from smoking marihuana by telling them that young people who smoked it were five times more likely to engage in sex. Do you think this pitch would encourage or discourage teenagers from smoking the evil weed? 

Pursue and Project Your Passions          17

  • Pursuing and projecting your passions can make you enchanting

  • Interesting people are enchanting

Find Shared Passions                20

  • Assume everyone has a passion

  • Assume you have something in common

  • Do your homework

Create Win-Win Situations          21

  • One way to get people to like you is to create win-win outcomes

Swear               21

  • Swear infrequently

  • Swear only in cases of forehead-smacking hypocrisy, arrogance, intentional inaccuracy, and dishonesty

  •  Swear only when your audience supports you

  • Soften your profanity

  • Don’t let gender get in the way. Women, don’t be afraid to swear but follow the above suggestions

Default to Yes               24

  • A no-response stops everything

My Personal Story Fran Shea                 25

Chapter 3: How to Achieve Trustworthiness                 27

 Trust Others                  27

  • People who don’t trust others have often had bad experiences that cause them to embrace a distrusting, kill-or-be-killed philosophy

Be a Mensch                 28

  • The Yiddish word mensch means someone who is honest, fair, kind, and transparent, no matter whom you’re dealing with and who will ever know what you did

  • Focus on goodwill

  • Give people the benefit of the doubt

Disclose Your Interests              30

  • People will wonder what your motivation is, so get this out of the way

Give for Intrinsic Reasons                      31

  • Reciprocity 

Gain Knowledge and Competence                       31

 Show Up                       33

  • In digital speak, this means answering your e-mail, tweets, voicemail, and video chats

Bake a Bigger Pie                      33

  • Baking a bigger pie increases your trustworthiness and yields these benefits: people work together, the “state of the art” progresses and changes and customers increase in number and diversity

Enchant People on Their Own Terms                   34

Position Yourself                       35

  • Four good qualities of a good positioning statement: short, clear, different, and humble

Be a Hero                      36

 My Personal Story Tony Morgan             37

 Chapter 4: How to Prepare                    39

 Do Something Great                   39

  • Qualities of a great product: intelligent, complete, empowering, and elegant

 Conduct a "Premortem"              42

  • Prevent the potential problems in order to increase the likelihood of success.

 Set Yourself Up for Success                   43

 Make It Short, Simple, and Swallowable              45

  • Communicate in an easy-to-swallow manner. Ways to do this: Use tricolons, use metaphors, use similes, keep it short, (email: sex sentences, video: sixty seconds, PowerPoint: ten slides, business plan: twenty pages), stay positive, and show respect.

 Remove the Fences                   47

  • Company and product names should be easy to remember and pronounce

  • Use unusual names to stand out (Haagen-Dazs, Amazon, Zappos)

 Provide a Default Option                         49

 Establish Goals                         50

  • Stating goals adds to your trust factor

 Create a Checklist                     51

  • It helps people take action

  • It shows that you respect people’s time and communicates that you know how to get things done

  • It motivates people and gives people a sense of accomplishment

 My Personal Story Mike Stevens                        53

 Chapter 5: How to Launch                    55

 Tell a Story                   55

  • Four storylines: great aspirations, David versus Goliath, profiles in courage, personal stories

Immerse People                        57

  •  The level beyond storytelling is immersing people in your cause

  •  Examples: enable vicarious experiences, get as close to the real situation as possible, make a great demo, anchor, and twist

 Promote Trial                 60

  • Your trials should be easy, immediate, inexpensive, concrete, and reversible

Prime the Pump                         61

  • The right environment can enchant people

 Plant Many Seeds                     61

  • Embrace the nobodies

  • Give up the illusion of control

  • Plant many seeds

 Ask People What They're Going to Do                 63

  •  Three benefits of asking people if they intend to support you:

    •  You’ll know where you stand

    • The act of asking can make people reach the tipping point and commit to you

    • If people do commit to you, then they’ll want to live up to their word

 Reduce the Number of Choices               64

  • More choices can lead to dissatisfaction because people may look back and wonder if another of the options would have been better.

 Increase the Number of Choices             65

  • Test out what is the right number for you and your product

 Illustrate the Salient Point                       66

  • Does the information help a customer make a decision?

 Present the Big, Then the Small Choice               66

  • If you can get people to agree to small favors now, they are more likely to grant you big favors in the future

 Get Your First Follower               68

 My Personal Story Matt Maurer               68

 Chapter 6: How to Overcome Resistance                      70

 Why People Are Reluctant                      70

  • Five common sources of resistance: inertia, hesitation to reduce options, fear of making a mistake, lack of role models, and your cause sucks!

 Provide Social Proof                  72

  • People may infer that doing something wrong is OK if others are doing it, too.

  • Turn an inconvenience into positive marketing

 Create the Perception of Ubiquity                        74

 Create the Perception of Scarcity                        75

  • People assign value to something if they think it’s scarce

  • Scarcity encourages people to create secondary markets

 Show People Your Magic                        77

  • When people see how your magic works – manufacturing, brewing, cooking, designing, etc. – they develop an interest in what you do and are more likely to buy your products.

Find One Example                     78

  • Large numbers can overwhelm people. Instead, use images, illustrate the numbers, and tell stories.

 Find a Way to Agree                  81

  • After establishing a toehold, beachhead, or common ground, you can build from there.

  •  Methods to find a way to agree:

    • Get personal

    • Get professional

    • Harmonize objections

    • Ask “What if…”

    • Move the window

 Find a Bright Spot                      83

  • Instead of thinking you have the answer and trying to implement it, you should shut up, back off, and find bright spots that are already working

 Assign a Label               84

  • Applying a label that complements your cause can encourage people to embrace your enchantment

 Use a Data Set to Change a Mind-Set                 85

 Incur a Debt                  87

  • Once a person has helped you, he’s more likely to help you again because refusing would mean he made a mistake in the first place

 Enchant All the Influencers                     88

  • It’s naïve to think that you need to enchant only one person, so work on all the influencers

 Frame Thy Competition              91

  •  Know your competition

  • Analyze the competition

  • Frame the competition

 Control the Haptic Sensations                 92

  • Simple tactile sensations influence high-order feelings and judgments (soft chairs, heavy clipboards, smooth objects)

 Remember Charlie                     93

 My Personal Story Richard Fawal                        93

 Chapter 7: How to Make Enchantment Endure              95

 Strive for Internalization              96

  • Three stages: conformity, identification, internalization

 Separate the Believers               97

  • Pluralist Ignorance: the concept that people go along with something because they assume others will agree with it. This leads to “collective conservatism” or the unwillingness to change. A downward spiral you don’t want to be part of.

 Push Implementation Down                    98

  • The middle and bottoms of organizations are important, too – after all, that’s who does the real work

 Use Intrinsic Methods                99

  • Extrinsic rewards such as money are not necessarily effective

 Invoke Reciprocity                     100

  • Give with joy, give early, give often and generously, give unexpectedly, and ask for reciprocation

 Catalyze Commitment and Consistency               103

 Build an Ecosystem                   104

  •  How to incite people to create or join your ecosystem:

    • Create something that’s worthy of an ecosystem

    • Identify and recruit your evangelists

    • Pick a champion for building the ecosystem

    • Give people something meaningful to do

    • Publish

    • Welcome criticism

    • Foster discourse

    • Create a reward system

    • Publicize the existence of the ecosystem

 Diversity the Team                     109

  • You should have various points of view in your organization. Here is a good mix:

    • Advocates

    • Skeptics

    • Visionaries

    • Adults

    • Evangelists

    • Rainmakers

 Promote Spreadability                110

  • Encourage people to share freely

 My Personal Story Chris Anthony                        111

 Chapter 8: How to Use Push Technology          112

 General Principles                      113

  • Engage fast

  • Engage many

  • Engage often

  • Use multiple media

  • Provide value

  • Give credit

  • Give people the benefit of the doubt

  •  Accept diversity

  • Don’t take any crap

  • Limit promotion

  • Disclose your conflict

 Presentations                115

  • Customize your introduction (use pictures)

  • Sell your dream

  • Think screenplay, not speech

  • Dramatize

  • Shorten

  • Practice (practice a lot)

  • Warm up your audience

  • peak a lot

 E-mail               123

  • Get a real email (@yourcompany.com)

  • Get an introduction

  •  Personalize the subject line

  • Keep it to six sentences

  • Suck up

  • Minimize attachments

  • Ask for something concrete

 Twitter              126

  • Get started

    • Spruce up your photo

    • Provide a descriptive profile

    • Repeat your tweets

  •  Post informative links

    • Push your own

    • StumbleUpon

    • SmartBrief

    • Alltop

    •  Interns

  • Engage people manually

  • Promote your cause

  • Make it personal

My Personal Story Garr Reynolds                       133

 Chapter 9: How to Use Pull Technology                       135

 Web Sites and Blogs                 135

  • Provide good content

  • Refresh it often

  • Skip the flash (and Flash)

  • Make it fast

  • Sprinkle graphics and pictures

  • Provide a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page

  • Craft an About page

  • Help visitors navigate

  • Introduce the team

  • Optimize visits for various devices

  • Provide multiple methods of access

 Facebook                      139

  • Add a landing tab to your fan page

  • Make us of Friend Lists

  • Use your personal profile for professional networking

  • Use @ tags strategically

  • Provide an area for your fans to promote themselves

  • Respond to fans’ posts promptly and personally

  • Surprise your fans

  • Give special gifts

  • Chat live with your fans

  • Get fans involved in product and content creation

 Linkedln                        142

  • Make a great profile (make sure your profile is up to date)

  • Get Visible

  • Reach out

 YouTube                       144

  •  Provide intrinsic value

    • Inspiration

    • Entertainment

    • Enlightenment

    • Education

  • 19.4% of views stop watching within the first ten seconds. Make sure you have a good opening.

  • Foster discovery, sharing, and identity

  Think Japanese                         148

  • Garr Reynold’s book Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentation

 My Personal Story Meryl K. Evans                      150

 Chapter 10: How to Enchant Your Employees              151

 Provide a MAP              151

  • Mastery, Autonomy, Purpose

 Empower Them to Do the Right Thing                  152

  • Let your employees do the right thing, and you’ll enchant them. And then they will enchant your customers.

 Judge Your Results and Others' Intentions                       153

  • Judge yourself by what you’ve accomplished and others by what they intend

 Address Your Shortcomings First                        154

  • People who adopt a self-criticism strategy will improve as managers because they take responsibility for lousy outcomes

 Suck It Up                     154

  • Sometimes you should suck it up and deal with adversity because that’s what great people do

 Don't Ask Employees to Do What You Wouldn't Do                      156

 Celebrate Success                     157

  • Emphasize team wins rather than individual ones and give credit to all the employees involved

 Find a Devil's Advocate              158

  • Improve your cause

  • Show that rocking the boat is acceptable

  • Foster internal communication

 Listen to Brother Bob                 159

  • Bob Sutton’s list of twelve beliefs of good bosses

 Tell Them You Want Them         161

  • Once you have decided to have a candidate, you should turn on the charm, and communicate that you want him

 How to Enchant Volunteers                     161

  • Set ambitious goals

  • Manage them well

  • Enable them to fulfill their needs

  • Ensure that the paid staff appreciates them

  • Give feedback

  • Provide recognition

  • Invite them in

  • Provide free stuff

 My Personal Story Milene Laube Dutra                163

 Chapter 11 How to Enchant Your Boss                         165

 Make Your Boss Look Good       165

 Drop Everything and Do What Your Boss Asks                166

  • No matter what the reason – and even if there is no good reason – do what your boss asks fist

 Underpromise, Overdeliver                      167

  • Set a goal that you’re 120% sure you can hit in 80% of the allotted time

 Prototype Your Work                  167

  • When you get an assignment from your boss, you should quickly complete part of the task and ask for feedback

 Show and Broadcast Progress                168

 Form Friendships           169

  • Forming friendships makes you more efficient and effective

  • Friends beget more friends

  • Many friends create a halo

  • People don’t screw around with people with many friends

 Ask for Mentoring          170

  • Ask for a mentor. You will flatter the person and (hopefully) get some great advice

  • Heed to advice, not listening can backfire on you

Deliver Bad News Early              170

  • Don’t blame anyone

  • Don’t just tell your boss the bad news

My Personal Story David Stockwell         171

Chapter 12: How to Resist Enchantment           173

Avoid Tempting Situations          173

Look Far into the Future 174

  • Consider the impact your current actions will make in a year or more 

Know Your Limitations                175

  • Become aware of your limitations

Beware of Pseudo Salience, Data, and Experts                175

  • Michael Mauboussin author of Think Twice

  • Experts are helpful except when they are wrong. The problem is, that people tend to believe experts even when they are wrong.

Don't Fall for the Example of One                        177

  • One glaring data point doesn’t determine a trend, so don’t let it sway you. 

Defy the Crowd                          178

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

Track Previous Decisions                       179

  • A written journal of your decision-making is a useful tool for tracking your history 

Let Yourself Be Enchanted in Small Ways                       180

  • Ask yourself, is there any harm if I do this? 

Create a Checklist                     181

  • When faced with an enchanting proposition, it’s useful to go through a checklist of the critical factors to consider.  

My Personal Story Tibor Kruska              182

Conclusion                    183

  •  Enchantment is a powerful skill, and with power comes responsibility