I’ve always been taught to communicate in such a way that the other can understand and remember your main points, to package things in groups of three and make them connect. That is a useful method for certain circumstances, but when one is communicating to try to help the other person remember the main points, the focus is on the information in the speech.
I’ve realized another important communication method is when you can resonate powerfully with something within the listener, regardless of your message. In other words, it’s not always the information that’s useful but whether it stirred something important within the audience. This communication style takes the speaker’s focus away from him or herself and puts it on the audience and how they can benefit in a meaningful way from what the speaker is saying. And sometimes, that can have nothing to do with what the content itself.
When we read literature, for example, our goal is to get something out of it that resonates within us. But when we communicate, we often focus on ensuring the listeners remember what is important to us that they remember. In other words, it’s about us when we read literature, and it’s about us when we communicate with others; either way, it’s about us. Contrast that with Shakespeare, who was one of the greatest literary geniuses the world has known, with his insights into human nature and human psychology and his imaginative capacity to convey them powerfully in verse. He took himself out of his plays to such an extent that we know relatively little about the man himself, while most of us can’t stop talking about our opinions and our perspectives.
Perhaps a useful, and humbling, focus is on how we can communicate in such a way that the audience remembers your message not because you made it memorable, but because they made it unforgettable when something meaningful within them resonated with it.