Call a spade a spade, and not an ‘excavation implement’!
Sometimes we get a bit too clever for our own good with language.
I’m reminded of a friend’s young child talking about her older brother and saying: “I can see your lips moving but all I can hear is Blah Blah Blah.”
Politicians, business leaders and the news media have trained us to listen and talk in Double Speak, and use meaningless jargon.
We let people in power drone on. Language should be loved and treasured. Story telling can be so rich and powerful for learning and taking action in life.
Observation is a key attribute to great storytelling. Observe when people use jargon, and see if you can find more colourful and interesting ways to convey information. It’s not hard. Tell a story to illustrate a point. Sure facts, figures and graphs are important, and accuracy is critical. But the greatest communicators rap serious messages in a story, and weave in the stats, data and critical information.
The story will be remembered.
So sharpen your spade and dig for gold in language and in story telling. If you are going to call a spade anything but a spade, make sure its got a great story attached to it, and not soul less and meaningless terminology that does not connect.