Forget new. Aim to be unexpected.

Not a day goes by without some tech bro on LinkedIn telling us we need to 'innovate or die'.

We get it, Chad.

But coming up with something genuinely new is, frankly, knackering.

True originality takes deep thought and hard work – and yet it's what we're told we need if we want to stand out, get noticed and 'win'.

But I have good news!

The secret to getting your message to stick isn’t necessarily novelty. It’s – ta da! – surprise.·

Cognitive neuroscientist Carmen Simon explains why on the Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast. Novelty is something your audience has never seen or experienced before – genuinely, completely new. Wonderful in theory. Exhausting in practice.

Surprise, she says, works differently. It's something your audience has seen before, just not in this combination. Not here. Not now. Their brain notices the mismatch between what it expected and what actually happened – and that's what makes it memorable.

So what does that look like your actual business communication? A few things worth trying:

• Open a presentation with one big image and no words (when everyone expected a title slide and a ‘please-god-when-will-this-be-over’ bullet-point agenda.)

  
  

• Send a voice note instead of an email when the client was expecting text. (Works especially well if you have a soothing voice like Joanna Lumley or that guy off the Headspace app.)

  
  

• Start with a question instead of context-setting: 'What's the last thing a client said to you that you're still thinking about?'

  
  

• Use a physical object in a virtual meeting. Hold something up. I've used a banana, a cuddly toy and a watering can. (The watering can needed the most explaining.)

  
  

• Write a subject line that references something specific: not 'Following up' but 'The thing you said on Tuesday.' (This one gets opened, fast)

  
  

Thankfully, none of these need a flash of genius or a eureka moment. You just need to notice what your audience might expect, and take one small turn away from it.

So it’s over to you, now. Have a look at something you've got coming up. What does your audience assume it'll look like? Where could you introduce one small plot twist?