“This is where so much business communication goes awry. Mission statements, synergies, strategies, visions — they are often ambiguous to the point of being meaningless. Naturally sticky ideas are full of concrete images … because our brains are trained to remember concrete data. In proverbs, abstract truths are often encoded in concrete language. “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” Speaking concretely is the only way to ensure that our idea will mean the same thing to everyone in our audience.”
Adapted from Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath
