The BBC recently referred to Trump’s new statute as his ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’.
That’s right: the actual BBC used the term ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’.
And why did they call it that?
Because that’s what it’s called!
And why did Trump’s team call it that?
Because that’s how they wanted people to refer to it.
For example, if they’d called it “New legislation which might make some lower-income families worse off”, there’s a good chance the BBC wouldn’t have called it Big or Beautiful.
Whatever we think of the politics, the communication lesson is an important one:
- Decide how you want people to think about something
- Base your title on that!
Some examples:
- ‘Diet’ – the word suggests an end-point – ‘I’m on a diet. Until I stop being on it’. Say instead ‘I eat healthily’ (I think this end-point idea is why every ‘de-tox’ is followed by a ‘re-tox’)
- Call something a ‘review’ and you’re likely to spend all your time reviewing the past. But call it ‘preview’ and the focus becomes on previewing the future. Just adding that one letter ‘P’ has changed the focus entirely! For example: in our company, we do Staff Previews. The focus is always: ‘how can we make next year even better for you?’
- The name ‘Feedback meeting’ (for example, held after a training workshop) suggests its purpose is to feedback about the training. It’ll probably be backwards-looking, and unlikely to trigger actions. But re-name it ‘Actions Meeting’ – and everyone’s focus is now on agreeing new actions they’ll take. So that simple name-change makes it forwards-looking and likely to trigger actions
- My pet peeve: ‘Update meetings’ suggest everyone’s job is to update you. They might take ages. They might be boring. But if all you want to know is what’s working best, and what they’re doing next, just call it a ‘Best Next Meeting’
- One more: proposals. This word suggests you’re proposing something. So there’s some doubt. It’s upto the customer to choose yes/no. But change the title to ‘confirmation’, the vibe becomes ‘here’s what we’ve agreed already. This is just confirming everything’
Titles are so important. They’re our First Impression.
So they must be as powerful as possible.
(They must also be true. For example, Dulux’s paint “Once” should – when I use it anyway – be called “Twice”)
So if I wanted you to take an ACTION following this Tip, I guess I’d title the next bit as…
Action Point
- For all your most important initiatives, workstreams, projects etc…
- Ask yourself ‘Where do I want everyone to focus? How do I want people to think about it? To feel about it? To refer to it? To act on it?’
- And then give it the right title – so that everyone has the right mindset, and takes the right actions