Common Sense PR

I Stared at the Lunar Eclipse and Learned that Simple Is Better

by Eric Eggertson on February 20th, 2008

I dragged the family out to see the lunar eclipse Wednesday night. One kid was home sick all day, the other didn’t have pants on. Spouse is just getting over a nasty cold.

Still, there we were, standing at the end of our yard staring at an ochre orb thousands of miles away, marvelling at the transformation it undergoes when the lights go out.

Yes, it’s one of the colder nights of the year. No, I wouldn’t take no for an answer.

I grabbed the uber Nikon Action BJ binoculars that zoom to 22X magnification. Spent about 5 minutes trying to get the focus right for that 3D look that binoculars can give you. Maybe it was the cold air bringing tears to my eyes. More likely it was the complexity of the focus knobs. No luck.

I ran back inside and grabbed the cheaper binoculars. Success. At 8X magnification, you barely notice that things are larger, but the eclipsed moon was in focus, and you could tell it was round, not just a circular blob of orange pasted onto a flat sky.

Lesson learned?  Fancier is not always better. Simpler, more intuitive and easier to fiddle with is often much more valuable.

This applies to communicating ideas, too.

We spend way too much time trying to make organizational communications complex. We add layer upon layer of planning, messaging, backgrounding, contexting, practising and analyzing.

What is needed instead is simplifying.

People understand concepts best when they are put forward using plain words.

People are less suspicious of your intentions when you talk openly and with emotion about what you want.

People respond when you clearly state what you want them to do, why it is important, and what benefit they will get from their actions.

It’s just common sense. The more verbiage and design frippery inserted between your audience and your core message, the less effectively you communicate.

Keep it simple, stupid.

(P.S.  I’m going to try the fancy binoculars again next week, after I’ve figured out how they work.)

Awesome photo sequence courtesy of Christopher S. Penn of the Financial Aid Podcast.

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POSTED IN: Audiences, Communication Plans, Communication Skills, Persuasion, Speechwriting, Writing