Skip to the action

☞ Microprinciples

Don’t ask “can everyone hear me” on Zoom

“Make every word tell.”
–The Elements of Style

According to Wadsworth’s Constant the first 30% of a YouTube video is useless filler. Don’t be a YouTube video. Skip to the action. Some stories shine when you dispense with the setup.

Leading with action helps people understand why they should care.

“The bride decked the maid of honor at the wedding last weekend.”

Sometimes context and details can get in the way:

“I was at a wedding last weekend, in Jacksonville, and it got heated because the bride and her high school friends have had a very interesting history ever since…”

You can lead with the action and then fill in the gaps.

Ditto with work presentations. (Start without slides by the way.) This is the typical way:

• Who we are: We are the ⚙️ team
• Context: Last year, we all started to have to do that thing
• Problem: We all hate doing that thing, remember?
• Solution: We built a ⚙️ to do that thing we all hate
• Next steps: We implement ⚙️ so thing goes away

Instead, you could try:

• Solution: We built a ⚙️ to do that thing we all hate
• Context: Last year, we all started to have to do that thing
• Problem: We all hate doing that thing, remember?
• Next steps: We implement ⚙️ so thing goes away
• Who we are: We are the ⚙️ team

The sooner you get to the action, the sooner you get to the point.