Outside In

January 25, 2016

I heard someone say recently he’d be “brief” and then make a paralyzingly long speech. I notice that the “delete” and “send” buttons are often adjacent on email software programs, meaning it’s easy to inadvertently delete something you had intended to send. I receive instructions with hardware and software purchases that might as well be written in Swahili.

Why? Because too many people think in terms of themselves and not their customer, client, members, or audience. They think from the “inside out.” Yet the person we are trying to influence, persuade, improve, or entertain is not us. It’s the other guy!

Think from the outside in: If I were sitting there, reading this, listening to this, trying to use this, what would influence and impress me? Do you want to sit through a long, agonizing story, or read instructions meant for a programmer, or listen to someone who is trying to “wing it”?

I didn’t think so. And I wrote this as if I were you.