One Minute Pause No 1

In the last few years a woman named Condoleezza Rice has become one of the most powerful people in the world - recently succeeding Colin Powel as US Secretary of State and tipped by some to become the next US President. How did she do it?

By making the complicated easy.

Condi first became chummy with Dubya years ago because of their shared love of sports. But more valuable to Bush than Condi’s fondness for sport was her ability to help him understand key issues affecting the world.

Condi has the valuable ability to break down complex issues into simple explanations. As Dubya himself has said, she “can explain to me foreign policy matters in a way I can understand”. Now, instead of looking vague and blank when queried by the media Bush enjoys being asked tough questions. Why? Because he understands the most important points – as spoon-fed by Condi.

So, how do we take Condi’s lead and make the complicated, easy? Here’s three suggestions:

1. Know your audience – their level of knowledge on the subject and what is important to them. Only then can you pitch your idea at the right level.

2. Remove clutter – the human mind tends to remember things in groups of 3, so avoid long lists and include just the most crucial things.

3. Give them a clearly defined action - by clearly stating what you want them to think or do, you are making it easy for the audience to take action.

Be guided by the desire to create understanding, to make the complicated easy, and your career will flourish. Just like Condi’s.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 15th, 2005 at 11:25 am and is filed under One Minute Pause. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.