Nice tidbit from The Tipping Point, Sesame Street researchers noticed how closely attention was tied to comprehension. Whenever the program got confusing, contentious or *flashy just for flashy’s sake, attention wandered. When the children understood what was going on, they paid rapt attention.

Now, anyone who had to read long, difficult academic papers in college (or any point in their lives) won’t find this the least bit surprising.

I say over and over to clients. You’re not “spoon feeding” information because they’re dumb, you’re packaging and framing it so that it’s easy to parse. Especially important when you consider keeping in mind the zillions of things battling for your listener’s attention.

*Anyone mesmerized by slide transitions, animations, fonts, effects & colors in PowerPoint should softly whisper this point over and over to themselves while editing a slide deck.