I’ve finished reading Imagine by Jonah Lehrer. It is a treasure, with story after story worth pondering.
One of his exemplars of creativity is Yo-Yo Ma. Here is a brief excerpt.
For Ma, the tedium of the flawless performance taught him that there is often a tradeoff between perfection and expression. “If you are only worried about not making a mistake, then you will communicate nothing,” he says. “You will have missed the point of making music, which is to make people feel something.” Instead, he reviews the complete score, searching for the larger story. “I always look at a piece of music like a detective novel.” My job is to retrace the story so that the audience feels the suspense. So that when the climax comes, they’re right there with me, listening to my beautiful detective story. It’s all about making people care about what happens next.” (emphasis added).
“Make people care about what happens next.” Now this is your communication tip of the day. In your speeches, your presentations, your blog posts, your articles, even your emails, make people care about what comes next. Always.
First Friday Book Synopsis 