The Birthday Party Theory of Personal Communication
We’re all busy. Our lives are saturated with events, information, and things to do, so many that it’s more common to feel that things are slipping through your fingers like a buttery sponge than that you have nothing to do (side note: If you don’t have anything to do, I can find something for you to do). Your message, whether it’s an event, a vote, a lesson, or an idea, has to penetrate the cloud of tasks and commitments a human carries around with them. Automation does not do that, it just adds to the cloud. It piles one more thing into it, more often an unwelcome intrusion than anything else. If you want to make sure you reach someone, you have to focus on them as a person. One way to do that is to think of it as a birthday party.