Communication Clutter

I’ve had some insights about a different type of clutter this past month---the clutter around communication. Communication clutter can come in two forms—too much detail and not enough detail. Either way, the result is that your intended message can become lost. The challenge is to find the appropriate balance between the two. Everyone wants to deliver their messages effectively. Determining how much detail your intended audience needs to hear in order to act on the information is an art, and key to effective communication.

All this came to light for me when I realized that communication styles which had served me well in the past did not seem to be as effective with the groups I now present information to. I tend to provide as much information as space and time allows. Even though the material I’m communicating is well organized and the flow of information is clear, there can be a great amount of detail, and that can be clutter to some individuals. In my current setting, it became apparent that that level of detail was causing people to check out from my presentation. You recognize the signs of inattention—people flipping through your presentation slides instead of actively listening to you speak, checking email on their Blackberrys or Treos, or in extreme cases, the chin dropping to the chest as the person nods off for a few minutes.

Yet one must be watchful not to swing the pendulum too far in the other direction of oversimplifying the intended communication. I’ve seen how messages get condensed to sound bytes that are succinct and memorable, although no longer precise. And this introduces clutter on its own: assumptions are made using partial information. Information becomes misconstrued with each condensation of content. It’s similar to the game of Telephone—a message is relayed through several people and what emerges at the end can be quite different from the initial message.

It is challenging to find the balance so communication clutter is kept to a minimum, and I don’t pretend to have the answers. My approach with the audiences I currently present to is to identify the key 3-5 take-away points to emphasize, and build the presentation around those messages. The presentation becomes a high-level summary of information to support those key messages. Detail can be provided as supporting documentation in an appendix. I also try to limit my speaking time to 5-7 minutes. I’m finding this keeps the attention of most audience members during the presentation, and I can gauge from the questions that follow whether I provided too little or too much information around the key points. It helps that I return to many of the same audiences and thus am able to become familiar with how much information I can provide them with before it becomes clutter.

People are bombarded with all kinds of messages throughout the day—emails, voicemails, internet pop-up ads, meetings, and conversations. There’s already a great deal of communication clutter out there; let’s not add to it! Onward!
 

--Dot Snow