Notes on The First Minute by Chris Fenning

A while ago, a friend of mine recommended The First Minute: How to Start Conversations That Get Results by Chris Fenning, and I recently finished reading it. It was concise and practical, providing a clear summary of how to structure business conversations to achieve results quickly and avoid confusing your audience.

The main ideas of context, intent, key message, and structured summaries were really helpful, as were the specific examples. This should be required reading for anyone part of a team or anyone working as a professional. Below are my main notes and takeaways.

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Intro
Prepare your audience to receive your message before you deliver it
Get to point quickly 
Focus on actions and solutions not problems
Start clearly and concisely
Context, intent, key message should be clear
Focus on one topic at a time
Frame the conversation in 15 seconds
Create structured summary of entire message
State goal and problem and focus convo on solution

1 what is the first minute
Work conversation start 

2 framing
Context, intent, key message
Name the project you want to talk about
5 categories of intent
Needing help or advice
Requesting action
Asking for a decision 
Letting someone know something is about to happen 
Provide info or input the other person asked for
Bottom line up front
Answer so what
Get to the point faster
Keep separate topics separate 
Can make summary framing covering multiple topics then give each frame one by one

3 structured summaries
Goal, problem, solution GPS
Problem is why you’re having trouble achieving your goal

4 time check and validation check point
See if audience can talk now about this topic
Ask for the actual or more time than you think you need
Ask if now is a good time
Ability and availability to help
Are you the right person to help with this

5 different situations
Emails
Context in subject line
Intent in subject or first sentence
Key message in first line
Goal, problem, and solution in bullet points
When forwarding email chain to someone new, include structured summary
Lay out long emails with headings, bullets, and summary up top
Meetings
Invitation should explain meeting intent
Framing and structured summary in invitations and start of meeting
Context and intent in subject line
Meeting purpose
Meeting output
Bold headings
Agenda
Frame each topic as meeting goes
Validation checkpoint after introducing meeting
Presentations
Frame and summary
Positive messages
Principles apply
Instant messaging
Job interviews
Framing
Context, intent, key message
Structured summary