On Communicating: Expectations

Some call it the "TED Effect”. A communicator has less than twenty minutes to dazzle the audience. A TED presenter, often times a leader in a specific field—an expert—can present a very difficult concept or idea or dream in less than 20 minutes. That, of course, becomes the standard for all presenters on all topics. TED has set the social bar for what can be conveyed in less than 1/3 of an hour.Experts write books, too. And people buy them and spend days reading 100’s of pages. (Book sales, not just e-copies, but tangible, ink-on-paper books sales are up in recent years.)How do we reconcile those two phenomena?That’s because good communicating is not about conveying more information in less time, but captivating an audience for the length of time expected. TED limits talks to 20 minutes. The presenter knows that. The audience knows that. Same with a 200 page book.Good communicating is about knowing expectations. And being able to adjust your message to fit within the parameters of those expectations. Between those parameters is a world of possibility.The first question for excellent communication, then, is “Who am I talking to?” and the second question is “What do they expect from me?”