Can You Catch 20 Tennis Balls?

My very first coach, Barbara Poole, was a wise woman and a master of metaphors. 

She once told me, “Wendy, if you throw a tennis ball at someone, they can catch it. If you throw two tennis balls at them, they can probably catch them. But if you throw 20 tennis balls at them, they’re going to duck and not catch any of them.”

What on earth is that supposed to mean?

She was talking about information overload.

If you throw too much information at someone, all at once, they won’t know what hit them. The more you talk, the less communication is actually taking place.

The Communication Gap: What’s Really Being Understood?

Anytime you communicate with someone, there’s a gap.

There’s what you say, and there’s what the other person hears.

Even in written communication, the person reading your words will understand them through the lens of their own experience, knowledge, and state-of-mind.

Take this email I’m writing right now. There will be a small gap between what I’m trying to convey, and what you take away from it. There will be an even larger gap between what you take away, and what you actually remember.

The gap, my friends, is inevitable.

Less is More: The Art of the Essential

So, what can we do to make the gap smaller?

Say less. 

In the words of my first coach, quit throwing 20 tennis balls at a time.

Sometimes we have years or decades of knowledge on a topic and we want to share ALL OF IT. Or maybe we’re leaning on ChatGPT, which can be a bit, well, chatty. 

But instead of helping, we end up pelting someone with 20 tennis balls.

So today, I’m trying to say less.

I’m looking to communicate the essential information that can be more helpful or most influential because it’s not crowded out by so many words or ideas.

Putting It Into Practice

In the spirit of today’s topic, your assignment is short. 

➡️ Identify one situation where you can say less. 

I can’t wait to hear how that goes.