Between Christmas and the New Year, I reposted my five top-rated blogs of 2022.
And I noticed a fascinating theme which runs through them.
Each contain something which I've come to think of as the golden secret for making sure your messages hit home.
Being a tease, I’m obviously not going to tell you what it is right away.
Instead, better to show you.
Because, in the words of the old saying, it’s always better to show rather than tell.
So let me give you an example with something which happened while I was teaching before Christmas.
I was in Oxford, at the University, as part of a winter school for students who might consider applying to Cambridge and Oxford.
I was talking to the class about the importance of thinking, but a young woman at the front seemed far more interested in her phone.
In fairness, she was looking at me, and appeared to be listening, but was also busy typing away.
Yes, it’s the modern world. This happens and I try not to be a grumpy old man about it, but I still find it sad.
I like to live in the moment and enjoy the real world around me, rather than disappear online.
So I just mentally shrugged my shoulders, and carried on with the show.
When I teach, I set lots of exercises and interactions to make sure the sessions are entertaining as well as informative.
So I asked the students to think about who they admired most in the subject they would like to study at university, and why.
I gave them a few minutes, then asked for volunteers to tell me their answers.
And was surprised when the young woman who had spent so much time on her phone put up her hand.
But I gave her the opportunity to share her thoughts, and they were outstanding.
She spoke powerfully and movingly about Alan Turing.
His enormous contribution to the world we know today, particularly through computing…
How he had to stifle who he really was in order to get on in society…
Before eventually being persecuted simply for daring to be himself.
It was a superb answer, both intellectually and emotionally, and I told her so.
It also meant a rapid reappraisal from me regarding her interest in the class, not to mention commitment.
I thought I knew what she would say, but I asked anyway, just to be sure.
It was indeed the case that she was taking notes on what I was saying on her phone, as well as writing her answer to my question there.
The moral of the story, of course, being not to judge by appearances.
(And, for me, to try harder to appreciate the differences between the generations.)
But! That aside, here's the point of this blog:
What’s more powerful? What will you remember?
My story about her, and the answer she gave to my question…
Or my bland statement, advising us not to judge by appearances.
Which leads us back to the tease at the start of this...
What was the common theme which ran through my top rated blogs of last year?
- It was that each and every one contained a story
So, if you want to truly get your message across, hit home with your words, and be remembered with what you say, remember…
Statements slip away, but stories always stick.
