poseycorp helps innovators become great communicators. (Sometimes by sending out helpful stuff in a newsletter.)
ISSUE 61
Details matter!
"The devil is in the details, but so is salvation."
- Hyman Rickover
Mies van der Rohe, the iconic architect and creator of the Barcelona chair, famously said, "God is in the details." Hyman Rickover, the World War II Navy admiral known as the father of the
Nuclear Navy said the opposite. They are both right.
First, the God part. When you’re giving a talk - via Zoom or from a stage - that’s beautifully put together and well-rehearsed you can focus on connecting with your audience. They see, hear, and feel your message, they don’t even notice the mechanics on your presentation. Everything just works.
When I went to the Taj Mahal, I didn’t immediately notice the absolute perfection of the geometry. I noticed how I felt - calm, wrapped by beauty, immediately immersed. It took me an hour to understand that this calm feeling was deliberately produced by an
extraordinary attention to detail. The Taj Mahal is a sublimely created world. Each archway aligns perfectly. Every tile is in its perfect place. It’s a miracle to just stand in it and breathe.
When you really sweat the details and create an immersive and beautiful talk, your audience will have the same feeling.
But, the devil is in the details too. You may never have done an online keynote before. When your demo video fails, you may never get your audience’s attention back. When you stumble over your words they shift all their attention to your delivery and away from your message. When you are
surprised by the order of the slides or your audio feed is messed up or you botch pronunciation of a customer name, your audience will just remember how awkward they felt watching you. They won’t recall what you were trying to say.
Hyman Rickover was right - the details will bedevil and irritate and provoke and annoy you at every turn. But you MUST face them.
Yes, it’s true that chasing down every single tiny detail is an enormous pain. It can feel like going through hell! And there’s so little time and energy. BUT, when you DO chase down all of those details, projects (and sometimes lives) are saved.
You’ll stand out in this new virtual world as a masterful communicator!
On poseyblog
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If you’d like great results, schedule a conversation with me! It’s easy! Reach me at inquiries@poseycorp.com.
Your business must scale, and you must scale with it. Great communicators create the change they want to see in the world. poseycorp helps innovators build powerful messages and the skill to deliver them so they can break through the noise and be heard! Lisa Poulson, poseycorp’s principal, is expert at helping innovators scale by becoming great communicators.
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