Lesson #26
When Communicating, Cut to the Chase
Basic communications supposedly started with the cavemen about 130,000 years ago—and those Neanderthals really knew how to cut to the chase and to get their message across. Using symbols and markings, they told what needed to be known: “Where's the food, fire, and danger?” When friend or foe came across the message, they immediately understood.
In 1876, telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell took a giant communications leap when he spoke through this instrument to a nearby companion device and said, “Mr. Watson, come here. I need you.” It was artful in its simplicity (the message, not the phone).
Since those times, there have been huge changes in communications, but as we all know, with innovation comes excess. Almost everyone nowadays—including businesspeople—often provide TMI in their exchanges: Too Much Information. Rarely do they cut to the chase as succinctly as the cavemen did.
The notion that “time is money” is amplified in today's real-time corporate U.S. environment, when decisions must be made in minutes and hours.
How many of us have had this problem? For instance, we ask a subordinate a basic question, and it takes 15 minutes to get what should have been a 15-second answer. Why do some people have an incessant compulsion to provide minute, detailed responses, embellished with irrelevant “He said, she said” anecdotes?
The answer lies in many people's need to be perceived as an expert. Some subordinates, peers, and even ...
