My best guess at what matters

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A good story is like a plane ride. You could be flying somewhere beautiful, but if no one's on the plane, you failed to do your job.

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I've seen the power of a masterful communicator up close for the past year and change. With an insight and articulation, the best of the best can build movements, attract capital, and win hearts and minds.

Combine that with the fact that the world’s knowledge is at our fingertips and technical execution is asymptotically approaching free, the ability to share ideas with other people in live situations, is what will matter most.

So as I think about the skill sets that are within my control (and importantly defensible against the machines), this seems to be top of the list. So I've begun to capture ideas from the people who do it best and what they do in various contexts.

What follows is a collection of ideas I've gathered from experts who have spent their life thinking about communication. Nancy Duarte on where to begin, Matthew Dicks on the where to end, Scott Galloway on creating drama, and Matt Abrahams on thinking faster, not speaking faster. Even just collecting these ideas have begun to shape how I think about adding value in any conversation, whether I'm talking to one person or presenting to a room.

The Foundation: What Resonance Actually Means

Everyone wants their ideas to resonate. But what does that actually mean?

The scientific definition makes so much sense in this context:

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Resonance is the amplification of motion or energy in a system by matching its frequency, not by force.

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To get ideas to resonate, you have to match the frequency in the system. What does that look like in practice? Resonance starts with empathy. Not in a mushy, yoga-babble way. But you actually should put yourself in the shoes of the person or people that you’re interacting with. Hypothesize where they might be stuck, or what they care about, and why they should give an F about what you’re saying.

One-to-One: Your Job Is to Serve

Most people (including me) forget their job when they're in a professional conversation. Someone is giving you their time, so your job is to actually engage that person.

I’ve started to view it as a little bit of a challenge. It's not to sound smart or humble either. It's to deliver information in a way that’s relevant to them, in a memorable way, in the time frame they need it. Matt Ambrahams has a framework that I’ve found somewhat useful to remember this called the WINS framework.

The WINS Framework