Have you ever tried to share a great idea with someone, only to have them look a little confused? Before you start wondering if your idea really is that great after all, consider instead this experiment from author and University of Pennsylvania professor
Adam Grant.
In the video above, Grant asks us to consider a game. One person taps the beat to a song on a book or hard surface, another person tries to guess the song. Despite the fact that the first person hears the song so clearly in their head, and is confident their tapping is a perfect rendition of the tune, the second person almost never guesses the song. This, Grant says, can also be applied to communication.
When we come up with an idea, we've spent so much time living with it and thinking about it, that we often forget that when we share our idea, there is no way for the person we are sharing it with to know what's going on in our head. According to Grant, it takes anywhere from 10 to 20 exposures to a new idea before someone is able to really wrap their mind around it. So we have to keep both those principles in mind when communicating an idea to someone else.
Watch above and Grant breaks down our communication struggles and offers useable tips and advice to better get our thoughts across.
Adam Grant is Wharton’s top-rated professor and a New York Times
writer on work and psychology. He has been recognized as one of the world's 25 most influential management thinkers, the 100 most creative people in business, the 40 best business professors under 40, and Malcolm Gladwell’s favorite thinkers. Previously, he was a record-setting advertising director, a junior Olympic springboard diver, and a professional magician. Adam is the author of two New York Times
bestselling books: The Originals and Give and Take.