Have you ever sat through a meeting, or a conference call, or a presentation, and thought to yourself… “Oh my god… I wish this person would get to the point…“? Yeah. Me too. Many, many times. We all know what it feels like to have our time wasted by someone who just won’t, or can’t, get to the point.
Have you ever sat through an in-person meeting or presentation and watched nearly everyone in the room, especially the most senior people, immediately flip to the last page in the deck? Yeah. Me too. And guess what… even if the meeting is virtual, the same thing is still happening. Even if they don’t have the deck in hand to flip ahead, they are mentally flipping ahead, even if not physically. And that is just as bad.
Why do people do these things? Because they want to know what the point is. And most of us suffer from a chronic inability to make our point quickly. Somewhere along the way, we all read the same book that taught us to try to keep our business audience in suspense for as long as possible.
We’re not writing movie scripts here, people. Your colleagues will not walk out of your next presentation and say “That was great. You kept me in suspense right up until the last slide. I had NO idea where you were taking me. It was fantastic!” People will never, ever say that to you.
The point here is that in the 21st century business world, our communication needs clarity AND brevity. We have to make our point clearly AND quickly. Attention spans are shorter than ever. Everyone is busier than ever. And the world is noisier than ever. So, your ability to get to the point quickly will be a mission critical skill set for you.
Final question of the day. You all know what it feels like to have someone else waste your time by not getting to the point. Now, the harder question. How often do you think people feel that way when they are listening to you?
Exactly… time to get to work.
Have a great day.
We believe that great communication skills change the world. We transform people and organizations of all sizes with simple, repeatable techniques, through an integrated platform of corporate training, coaching, and asynchronous learning.
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