3 ways to stop overcommunicating
People today are bombarded with information, so presenters tend to push even more details—resulting in an overwhelmed and tuned-out audience. Time to try a different approach.
In our distracted world consumed by COVID-19 chaos, it can feel like no one is listening.
At least they aren’t listening the first time, or the second. Maybe the third time’s a charm? Because of this, we feel the need to overcommunicate.
As often as we can we send as much information as we can—because after all, the devil is in the details. That means even the smallest things can trip us up if we don’t pay attention to them.
So, our paragraph-long email turns into two pages, and our 10-minute presentation is now pushing an hour. After all, we’ve got to cover every little detail—and multiple times for those who were distracted.
The devil might be in the details, but so is the distraction. We can’t let details cloud our communication. Otherwise, they become the dreaded distraction.
Instead of overcommunicating, we can use simplification, repetition and amplification to get our message across. These three techniques are highlighting strategies, meaning they help our audience understand and focus on what matters most:
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