Let all those who feel that the world is out of their control raise their finger (do it discreetly, in front of your screen).
If you've raised your finger, I can reassure you: it's a fairly generalized feeling. Moreover, at the end of the Cold War, the American military (who are very creative people and who raised a finger long before us) chose the acronym “VUCA” to describe this phenomenon.
VUCA is a world that has become volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.
And now that interests me! How can we make this complex world easier to understand? How can creativity help us communicate complex things differently?
“SIMPLEXITE”: that's a nice neologism.
“the art of making complex things simple, legible, understandable” - Alain Berthoz, 2009.
This concept seems very useful* to communicate in the 21st century.
Because our environment is saturated with messages...
Every day, more than 5000 commercial messages attack us. Of course, we can only give a small amount of time to each of them. So, in order to be noticed, it has become crucial to communicate differently.
The famous “ad breakers” will even say that these messages pollute our landscapes and our minds. Without entering into the social debate here, it must be said that consumer resistance to advertising messages is an observed, measured phenomenon... Dominique Roux, a French researcher, has worked a lot on these topics.
Because everything has become more complex...
The world is becoming less and less easy to understand. Less and less predictable as well. On a given problem, there are more explanatory factors than in the past, and cause-and-effect relationships have become weaker. Would recent political life not give us a famous example of this?
It is possible to break problems into sub-problems, to sort and prioritize the issues... The practice of the good brief allows that. Everything then becomes easier to understand, and (often) easier to explain.
To do this, you must ensure the simplicity of your messages. Often, the less you say, the more effective it is. And sometimes, a nice metaphor is better than a long explanation... Be careful, all of this is not done without effort. Here is a nice quote from British author Mark Twain that was given to me by Vanessa Mayneris: “I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
Here is a collection of some tools that I particularly like. They are based on the use of words and visuals.
Practice the pitch, or elevator pitch, which consists of selling a concept in 1 min. Why such a short time? This is actually the time you have to convince your big boss during an elevator trip. watch videos My thesis in 180 seconds, these friendly meetings where doctoral students tell about years of research in 3 minutes. I also like pecha kucha = a presentation format in 6 minutes 20 minutes. Ideal for making knowledge sometimes available on a subject, the speaker can show 20 slides and express himself for 20 seconds per slide, but not one more... Be Brief, Be Bright, Be Gone!
Graphical data visualization is very useful for conveying messages around multiple and complex dataMind mapping and sketchnoting are 2 powerful tools for communicating differently. Thanks to Philippe Boukobza for his exciting training in this life-changing know-how.
The supermarket's fresh food department is a complex environment: many brands, very different types of products, very varied colors... What a difficulty to find your way around!
For a magnificent white cheese brand, we simplified our packaging. The result: a better impact, a better communicated message and... increased sales, of course!
But be careful... if you want to simply reproduce what is complex, there is a risk of being cut off from reality and its subtleties. And in the long run, to impoverish reality?
Authentic and open communication, based on exchange rather than one-way communication, seems to be a good safeguard.
A big thank you to Lisa Marie DIOULY OSSO for suggesting this nice subject to me.
*Alain Berthoz first introduced the concept of simplexity to examples from technological worlds such as smartphones, software... by emphasizing the role of the interface in “simplifying”. In this article, we decided to explore the concept in the wider world of communication.
A selection of articles to extend the reflection, discover other points of view and make your ideas grow.
