Sunday, January 31, 2016
COMMUNICATION - CAN YOU BOIL DOWN YOUR IDEAS?
Quote from 'Inside Stephen Colbert's Creative Process':
‘As a writer it's most important to be able to take your idea, boil it down to the essentials, and convey it in a funny and timely manner to a room.
You might have the best idea but if you can’t explain your idea properly it’s never going to get picked’.
What’s the relevance of this quotation to you?
Simply this...
... When the pressure is on, can you boil down an idea to its essentials, and articulate it simply?
Let’s agree we all can get better at boiling down our ideas when under pressure. As William Strunk and EB White have memorably written in The Elements of Style, we need to ‘Omit needless words’.
Here's a practice tip to help boil down your ideas:
Find a family or friend’s 12-15 year old (if you don’t have one) and explain what you do in your work or a business idea you have – so they understand it, and can summarise your explanation.
Reflect on how much time you needed for your explanation, and on how well the teenager understood and could explain what you do.
Consider what words you could omit. Consider what re-sequencing of words/sentences might make the explanation clearer.
Small changes can matter. Consider this statement from a print journalist: ‘Put a comma in the wrong place, and it can mess up the whole sentence’.
All the best with your business communications!
Posted in
Business presentations Conference presentations Facilitating meetings Presentation skills training Public speaking Sales presentations
by effectivecommunication.com.au
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