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NEW LINK: What was she trying to say?
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If you are wondering, this was the story that Michael J. Katz shared in the article he wrote:
"If you're old enough to know your total cholesterol count off the top of your head (217), you may remember a man by the name of Jim Fixx.
Fixx gained prominence in 1977 with the publication of his book, "The Complete Book of Running," and is widely credited with single-handedly starting the jogging craze in this country. Unfortunately, Fixx died suddenly in 1984.
Hearing what had happened, my Aunt Esther - a woman known for sometimes not quite getting her facts straight - gave me the news: "The guy who invented running died."
Admittedly, a bit of an oversimplification. However, with those six simple words she had captured the essence - if not the absolute factual truth - of the story. Before Fixx's book came out, running around the neighborhood for exercise was not a common practice, and in many ways, he had "invented" running.
I'm here to tell you that when it comes to effective communication with an audience, my Aunt Esther had it right - essence matters more than facts.
How many times have you been forced to endure 85 slides worth of a speaker's Power Point presentation, getting to the point where you start looking for a way to unobtrusively commit suicide? Invariably, the problem isn't that the data is wrong or even lacking in value, it's that it's delivered in a way that is too detailed and too convoluted for the average human being to digest. You arrive eager to learn something, but the delivery itself gets in the way."
Then he goes into the 3 tips I gave you.
I think his Aunt Esther knows Gertrude.
Posted by: Rosa | April 24, 2005 at 09:53 AM