Whenever consultants want to say something, they always have ‘three things.’ And we mock them for that 🙂
But if you want to communicate well, there is some real science here — the science of working memory.
It turns out that our working memory can hold about 7 things (actually, it is 7 plus or minus 2 since there is some variability among people).
Therefore, if I rattle off a 7-digit number, you will likely remember. But if I make it 8 or 9 digits, you may struggle.
In fact, some people have argued that the working memory is not even 7, but more like 4. Regardless, it is easy to hold 3-4 things at a time in our memory. That is why phone numbers in the US are read in groups of 3 or 4 digits.
And this is how I learned to communicate as a consultant. If you have a group of 10 or 12 things to communicate, never do that.
- See if you can club them into sub-groups of 3-4 items each.
- Give a thematic caption to those subgroups
- Now you are back to 3 things on your list.
That is why consultants always have ‘three things.’
Because the consultant who had ‘8 things’ did not get more clients and had to start doing a real job 🙂
– Rajan