Talk Less, Say More: Three Habits to Influence Others and Make Things Happen

Chapter 5. Why Convey?: Information Management

Create Clarity, Not Information Overload with Messages

Using the strategies you discovered in the previous chapters, you've already connected successfully, earning the person's attention. Why lose them by conveying information in a sloppy manner? Conveying successfully leads to clear understanding, which will allow you to convince them later on.

Let's start with this premise: Smart conveying is radically different in today's information-laden society than it was just a few years ago. Social scientists say we're buried beneath an avalanche of information ten thousand times bigger than what an earlier generation had to deal with.

Your world is full of communiclutter, which you need to conquer in order to convey successfully. What's that? It's my term for communication overload—when you're bombarded with endless streams of communication 24/7, making it difficult to focus and process all of the short-burst, incoming electronic information. Sound familiar? Your inbox is cluttered, your cell phone is cluttered, your desk is cluttered—and as a result, your mind is cluttered. You need shortcuts to process and understand it all.

Com-mu-ni-clut-ter® n. Information Overload Caused by Being Bombarded

In our new world, communiclutter is inescapable. What we can't prevent, we must embrace—and manage. Just as you manage your incoming communications, you should also manage your outgoing communications to cut through other people's information overload ...