The Jelly Effect: How to Make Your Communication Stick

Shortly into the book (within the first 3 chapters), the author offers advice on how to answer the question "What do you do?" I'd never really thought too hard about that before. In the past I'd answer that question with varying responses like: "I teach at the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas." or "I teach in the Department of Joint, Interagency and Multinational Operations." The usual reaction was glassy eyes or disinterest - especially to those that had no idea what any of that meant. The author suggested answering not "what do you do?" but "what do you produce, or accomplish?" At that point in the book, telling the reader to stop and write out the answer to the question. So I did that and, interestingly enough, it worked very well. My new (draft) answer to that question is: "I educate military officers to improve their critical thinking skills and to become better staff officers." While on a business trip recently, I used my new response on several occasions and was pleasantly surprised with the conversation that followed from it.