Noise

Chapter 17Wanted: BRIEF Communicators

Blah, blah, blah.

We’ve all grown accustomed to hearing lots of noise. Another meeting (blah, blah, blah). Getting a safety briefing (blah, blah, blah). Checking for more e-mails (blah, blah, delete).

As the words pile on, it’s hard not to ignore most of it.

What if we could be consistently clear and concise? The value of receiving communication that’s brief is golden. An infamous writer, known for his brevity, once shared his secret by saying that he intentionally would leave out words people would probably skip.

Be brilliant, be brief, and be gone. Imagine what our world might look like.

• What if the meeting started with a clearly stated objective and agenda? It would save precious time and improve productivity.
• What if the airline safety briefing clearly stated the risks? It would ensure passengers were ready to respond in an unexpected emergency.
• What if the subject line of an e-mail provided a point up front? We’d confidently open it, quickly grasp the message, and know how to reply.

Frustration is a term I’ve heard defined simply as an unfulfilled expectation. When it comes to our communication, people around us anticipate brevity but get irritated and annoyed when they have to sift through long, complicated messages. They constantly struggle to find the main points as they drown in useless and inessential information.

They expect brevity as a lifeline and drown when it isn’t thrown to them.

When So Many Words Become Worthless ...