In the past, we have talked about communication and that sometimes fewer words is more effective.
Let’s continue with that theme, shall we?
If you’re like me and have the attention span of a gnat and don’t want to read the last post, here’s the summary: When we throw too many words at our audience, we risk boring, confusing, or annoying them and diminishing our personal presence in the process. (Have I mentioned lately how much I adore alliteration? Did you see what I did there?) 🙂
If you need a brain hack to remind yourself to stick to the salient facts, look no further than Chekhov’s Gun to keep you on track.
Anton Chekhov was a Russian playwright (and physician.) Chekhov’s Gun is a narrative principle he created which states that if you’re writing a story, you only include elements that contribute to the story and eliminate anything that is irrelevant.
So if you’re writing a book (or play in his case), and somewhere in your book you introduce a gun, at some point in the story, the gun needs to become part of the narrative. There has to be a reason it was mentioned.
While this theory was intended to help burgeoning playwrights, it can easily be adapted to the spoken word as well.
Most people seem to want to provide context and details. There is absolutely a place for this. If you are introducing an org change or team restructure, you want people to understand how the decision was made and the who, what, where, when and how of the shift.
In other cases, however, context is not needed or irrelevant.
Let’s look at a basic example. Suppose you’re in a meeting and the executive team is asking when you can produce a deliverable.
Option one: “Well, I know we have a report due on Friday and I’m on vacation next week. I need to look at my calendar because the kids are off tomorrow for teacher professional development day, and I also need to check with the team and see who has capacity to help and…”
Option two: “Let me regroup with the team and I will confirm with everyone by the end of the day.”
Or, let’s say you’re late to a meeting.
Option one: “I’m so sorry… my computer was super slow this morning and then it decided to reinstall Teams and then I had to reboot and in the process, I spilled coffee all over my desk…”
Option two: “My apologies for being late. I was having technical issues.”
Storytelling is a wonderful communication tool. When the stories are memorable, they make it easier for the listener to retain the information (a picture paints 1,000 words!)
“Memorable” is the operative word here. The minutiae of our day to day lives is typically not memorable, or additive to our narrative.
The next time you find yourself starting to “explain”, think of Chekhov.
