Communication is one of the fundamental concepts in our modern society. It’s fascinating to think about how we share our thoughts and feelings and how the techniques were invented and evolved in the first place. I think the 80-20 % rule applies to communication as well. You can transmit 80% of the information with 20% effort, but how you send the rest of the 20% makes the whole difference.
For instance, let’s consider “Before Sunrise” (Such a beautiful movie); the primary information the creator of the movie wanted to communicate is that a boy and a girl met on a train and had spent a remarkable day together. I conveyed what happens in that movie in less than 100 words. But you are far from the experience the movie gives its viewers.
Being good at communication is a skill. However, from my experience, I feel the most critical aspects are knowledge about the audience, coherence, and passion to give the audience a great experience.
Be it a movie or a talk at a conference, the audience will lose interest if they have no idea what you are talking about or can’t connect the dots you are laying down. Based on these two factors, setting the right amount of abstraction and coverage of the background ensures the audience can connect their past knowledge to the new information they are receiving. (For instance, I assumed whoever is reading this knows about the 80-20% rule earlier; if it was a bad guess, check it out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle)
If the experience of the audience finding relations for the new information with what they know is smooth, then they will continue doing it. This means they will understand better what you are trying to communicate. The experience is smoother when there is better coherence between transitions. Examples include paragraph breaks, slide changes, and different subplots/scenes in a movie. Having coherence is kinda tough the part in communication. Mainly in text format because you can’t explain yourself by talking out if your readers are lost & clueless about what you are saying.
And finally, passion. It’s not actually passion; I am talking about the fingerprint the information provider leaves, be it a movie, song, or blog. It’s the personal expression that is unique. The way of approaching the audience and connecting ideas during the process. Everyone has their own style. For instance, some movies are very realistic (making it easier to understand as they are similar to our daily lives), and some movies are not at all realistic, but the narration makes you feel like “wow.” This part directly affects how you accomplish the essential aspects we discussed above.
I just blurted out what I was thinking. What should I do? I get all the ideas for what I am writing on my site late at night (1:46 AM this time), where my brain says, “Go to sleep,” and my gut says, “……”. You know what my gut said!
Good night