March 11, 2015
After reading this sign, would you think about and actually climb over the railing?
Here are two connecting points to show you how to increase the impact of your communication to get your recipients to do what you want.
The English language is “backwards” sometimes. Instead of saying what we mean, we say what we don’t mean. For example, when a mother talks to her young child she may say – don’t spill your milk, when she actually means drink your milk. She has actually put a vision in the child’s mind of “spilt milk”.
Point two. If someone were to say to you – don’t think of the colour “blue”. You have to first think of the colour “blue” before you cannot think of the colour “blue”. This is a two-step process. At the conscious level this is very simple, but at the unconscious level our brain only takes one step.
So What?
If you end a communication by saying – “Don’t forget to visit us on-line”, you are hoping for a visit. The problem is that because there is so much clutter happening around us our brain may have only read this at the unconscious level and it receives the communication as – “forget to visit us online”.
We see “backwards” language happening around us all the time.
Don’t litter – we visualize throwing something on the ground
Don’t lean against the door – we visualize leaning against the door.
Our communication is “backwards”.
We should be saying what we mean.
Put your litter in the garbage.
Stand back from the door.
Saying what you mean makes the communication stronger and eliminates the potential of the wrong message.
What Now?
Where possible eliminate the word “don’t” from you’re a language. Add the word “remember” in place of “don’t forget”, like in “remember to visit our store”. Listen to the language around you so you become more aware of people using the “backwards” language. This will help you make the change for increased responsiveness.