Hi Reader 👋, Mark here.

You're receiving keys to empower you to craft world-class stories and presentations because you registered for the December keynote I did for Cornell on "Storytelling for Impact". If you don't want the keys, click here.

On Tuesday, we talked about a powerful editorial tool for being concise. For each piece of your story or presentation, ask yourself: "Does this serve my 10% Takeaway or just soothe my anxiety?"

Today I want to share why that filter is harder to apply than it seems - and how you can nonetheless craft succinct, impactful communications.

The more expertise you have, the more you're likely to struggle with brevity in your communications. Essentially, the more you know about a subject, the harder it becomes to remember what it felt like not to know it. You lose your grasp of what your audience needs to be able to understand your topic, so you load up your presentation, which only clouds your main points. Psychologists call this "The Curse of Knowledge".

But there's a way to break the curse. Include only the context your audience needs to feel the impact of your key moment.

• Drop context that makes the story accurate to your experience but doesn't impact listeners.
• Delete details that distract from the emotional or intellectual destination you're taking them to.
• Eliminate what I called "process steps" in the Cornell keynote (that is, what I had to go through to clean the kitchen, compared to the result, the only thing my wife cared about: "Is the kitchen clean?")

A practical way to be succinct: I call it The Jenga Test.

Jenga is game in which players take turns removing one block at a time from a tower constructed of 54 blocks. The game ends when a player pulls a block that causes the tower to fall over.

For every piece of context or background you want ot include, ask yourself: "If I removed this, would my audience lose the ability to feel or understand what comes next? Would my main point - my 10% Takeaway - fall apart?"

If the answer is no — pull it out.

If the answer is yes — keep it in, but trim it to the minimum necessary.

[Notice in describing The Jenga Test, I did not tell you: Jenga was created by Leslie Scott; the name Jenga is derived from "kujenga", a Swahili word which means "to build"; on November 5, 2020, Jenga was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.]

Being succinct is a challenge for all writers and presenters who want to be understood, engaging, and memorable.

When I was a freshman in college taking the writing seminar required of all first-year students, I remember agonizing over how to start my first essay in the course. The source of my frustration? How much context to include up front. I must have rewritten the opening 50 times. Exasperated, I went to see the instructor, a gifted writer and teacher. Her advice: "cut to the chase," pull out almost all the context.

This week: Find one place in a current story or report where you front-loaded context before the consequence. Flip it. Lead with the consequence, follow with the minimum context required. See how it reads.

Tuesday: We're going to talk about delivery, the part most people skip - until it's too late.

Have a great weekend and see you Tuesday!

Mark

P.S. — Working on a story or presentation right now? Can I help you sharpen it? I read every response and will send you back a note.