Heard a story from a presenter today who was using the story to draw an analogy which was very clear to the main point. Wonderful technique for helping an audience remember and apply. But there was a minor issue that really lost a lot of folks. The story was about five brothers, and ended with statements about “all the brothers”. But when the brothers were actually listed in the story, only four of them were accounted for. I thought perhaps I had missed something, but a repeat summary again indicated there were only four elements to the story, despite a repeat of the assertion there were five brothers.It’s a small issue, and did not lessen the main point the speaker had to offer, but it serves to highlight just how easy it is to lose an audience’s attention. The same negative effect can happen if facts are messed up, or even just a simple transposition of units (talking about weeks instead of months, for example). Audiences want to get the point and stay with the speaker, but it’s so very easy to lose their attention. As such, it’s important to keep everything on the same page.
A message must stay consistent and relevant.
