“How?” said one person in the packed room. “How the hell did that happen?”
More than 20 people were crammed into a small room with a dozen chairs at commscamp in Birmingham for the topic on Brexit.
After 40-minutes of pulling apart the claim, counter-claim and post-fact democracy one moment of clarity emerged of how the campaign ended as it did.
Leave won because they appealed to the heart not the head.
Remain lost because they appealed to the head.
As a piece of clarity it’s drifted into my head several times since.
That big pile of numbers you’re trying to communicate? Can you find something that appeals to the heart?
Stop. Think of times when you’ve been moved by the heart. Me? More than 12-months ago the refugee found that when three-year-old Aylan Kurdi drowned and was fetched from the surf by a policeman.
In the US, the family of the dead war veteran Donald Trump picked on appealed to the heart too.
Look around you and you’ll find more.
The ability to understand with the head but tell a story to appeal to the heart is priceless for someone looking to communicate.
Do you?
Picture credit: Bex Walton / Flickr
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