During the Crimean War, in 1854, Lord Raglan, overall commander of the British forces, sent an order to the famed Light Brigade of the British cavalry to capture a small battery of cannons to prevent the Russians from removing the captured guns. He could easily see this battery of cannons from his position high above the battlefield.

 

When the order arrived through the chain of command it read, " Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front, follow the enemy, and try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns."

The only cannons the Light Brigade could see from the floor of the valley were the well-fortified Russian artillery more than a mile down the valley.

 

Light Brigade mounted their steeds charged the mile-long gauntlet taking artillery fire from three sides. This is captured in the poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson, The Charge of the Light Brigade,  " Theirs is not reason why, Theirs but to do and die. Into the Valley of Death rode the 600."

This is an extreme and tragic example of the speaker speaking from his viewpoint and not addressing the viewpoint of the intended audience.

It is all too easy to get caught up in what we know, what we see, what we want to tell the audience. Great communicators communicate based on what the audience knows, what the audience can see, what the audience is able to duplicate.

 

When speaking, whether from the stage, in sales, in management, or to your family and loved ones, it is best if you can craft your message based in the viewpoint of the person or group that is going to receive it.

 

There are two ways I see this:

To ensure the correct message is understood by your audience, take a look at how they view things and speak to that!