The tedium trap
The tedium trap
Short on preparation time and anxious to cover all the
bases, some businesspeople don’t identify what they really
need to communicate and then target their report, presentation, or
memo accordingly. Instead, they
throw everything but the kitchen
sink at their audience and resort to
blanket generalizations because they
don’t quite know what to do with all
the material they’ve mustered. The result is irrelevant
material, unfocused arguments, and bland language that
distract and ultimately bore the audience.
Audience members, whether readers or listeners, can
take away only a few points, says Warshawsky. Piling on the
information results in confusion; for the audience, he says,
“it’s like going to an ice cream bar and getting every topping put on.”
To make your argument more cogent, first take careful
stock of what your key message is and identify three or four
supporting points. Second, put them together in a logical
sequence. Finally, think of a few metaphors that will bring
your message alive.
If the project you’re talking about is dry or technical,
then finding a way to talk about it in terms of something
that’s more vivid or engrossing will help your argument get
heard. Say, for instance, that you are advocating that your
unit adopt new energy- and cost-saving measures. Instead
of starting off with an appeal to environmental responsibility or the virtues of frugality, you could grab the audience’s attention with a compelling comparison that drives
home your message: “When you leave computers and
lights on overnight at the office, you’re opening the company’s wallet and burning the bills inside.”
