By Manny Roman
I just found the TED.com talk by Jim VandeHei, cofounder of media companies Axis and Politico. The talk is titled “How to write less but say more.” VandeHei explains that, with the advent of modern communications such as cellphones and the Internet, people just do not pay attention to reading the entire message. This is even though they might share it with others.
He then explains that we are mostly showing off when we write. We write about what we care about and for as long as we want to write about it. We don’t think about the purpose and what the audience actually cares about and wants to know. We are selfish with our writing. We need to reverse the way we think about communicating. He proposes five steps to take.
- Stop Being Selfish, Audience First. What do they actually need to know? What do they actually care about?
- Grab Me. No matter what you’re writing what is the most important item, the reason for your writing? What would you say if you only had 26 seconds to say it so they remember it?
- Keep It Simple. One sentence is better than two, one paragraph is better than two, etc. Use simple strong words in a simple sentence structure.
- Be Human. Don’t show off in the writing. If you were talking in a bar, your words and descriptions would be simpler. (At least until the alcohol kicks in at which time you elevate to incoherent – My words, not his)
- Just Stop. The greatest gift both for you and the audience is to give the time back. Use few words to clearly provide the message and stop.
OK, so now my take on the above. This is excellent advice and I will make honest attempts to implement this procedure. I love the idea of the Just Stop and giving back time to me and you.
Here’s the however: I am given a page to fill when I write this stuff. I have to embellish, not to show off, well maybe a little, but to fill the requite space. You might have noticed that I was actually done at the Just Stop and that I am now searching to fill space since I have a great deal of space to go.
To heck with it. Let them place an informative ad in the emptiness. I will Just Stop.
Wait, I have more filler. Ruth has always told me to “Just Stop.” I now wonder if she is asking for her time back.
Manny Roman, CRES, is association business operations manager at Association of Medical Service Providers.
