← Insights · Lessons in Influence

What’s your neon pink sticky note?

I’m across the table from a hotel partner, and I’m watching their eyes glaze over.

It’s my monthly meeting as a market manager at Expedia. In front of them is the monthly report. All 7 pages of it.

When I started, I was told this was the best information to support our partners. And it was useful. Other market managers handed over the whole packet, and I’d done it once or twice myself.

But the partner takes a quick look and packs it away.

I imagine them walking back to their desk, tossing this stack of white papers on top of another stack of white papers and sauntering off to the back-office lunch buffet.

Lost and forgotten.

I don’t think anyone cares about those 7 pages as much as I do. They have a hotel to run.

So I change what I bring.

Out of the 7 pages, I take away the bits we don’t need and keep the ones that tell the story. Usually, that leaves 2 or 3. Before the meeting, I highlight the numbers I want us to look at. During it, I use a pen to circle figures and make notes in the margins as we talk.

Then, to make the information more sticky, I get quite literal with it.

I attach an electric neon pink sticky note to the top of the report. On it are 3 handwritten actions we’ve agreed in the meeting.

Now, when the papers land on the desk, there’s a bright, screaming note on top. Underneath is a smaller stack of numbers, with my circles on it to remind them why.

This becomes especially useful when the way we work changes and partners need to make changes in the system themselves. I can’t do it for them. I need the explanation to last beyond the hour we spend together.

We received an email notification when a partner built a promotion. Sometimes it arrived before I got home from the meeting.

They had understood enough to act without me sitting beside them.

The digital version

Later, I apply the same idea digitally. I download a partner’s raw data, work through it and hand it back with the key insights. The first tab is simple. Other tabs hold the supporting detail, and the email sets out the actions in specific bullet points.

Was it a lot of work? Absolutely. But for the right partners, it was worth it.

Finding the insight is only part of the job. Someone else needs to see it, understand it and decide what to do with it.

Sometimes that person then has to take it to their GM, a finance leader or a colleague who will make the change. They need enough context to explain it without asking everyone to sit through our meeting again.

That means keeping the recommendation and its evidence together. Show the relevant comparison. Label the period. Be clear about anything you still need to check. A jump in bookings, for example, needs context about rate and value before it becomes a reason to repeat a promotion.

The tools will keep changing. The next step still needs to be easy to find, with enough evidence behind it for someone to make a sound decision.

Something you can try this week

Before your next update, write down what you’re asking people to decide or do. Keep it to the few things that matter.

Then imagine the report being forwarded to someone who wasn’t in the meeting. Can they find the recommendation, understand the evidence and see what happens next?

What’s your neon pink sticky note?