Change your words

On a beautiful spring day a blind man was sitting in a central London park. By his side was a hat along with a sign that read: I am blind.

A creative director of an advertising agency was walking by and saw that the blind man had only a few coins in his hat. Before dropping in some more coins he took the sign and added a few words. He then put it back and went on his way.

Later that day, as the man came back past, he stopped and noticed that the hat was now full of coins and notes. The blind man started speaking to the man, saying how delighted he was that people had been so generous.

The man then admitted he had changed the sign earlier that day and so the blind man asked what he had written.He said that he had just added a little to what was already there, which seemed to make all the difference.

The sign had been changed to: It is springtime and I am blind. 

Words matter. What we say matters. The way we say it matters.

With our words we paint pictures. We invoke emotions. Those pictures and emotions will vary enormously depending on what we say, how we say it and the frames we use.

To be more creative in your communication you can tell stories, use metaphors and analogies, which often speak to people’s unconscious minds because their conscious mind is focusing on the story and not on the underlying meaning.

At times you can be very precise with what you say and at other times you can be artfully vague – a technique that’s widely used in hypnotic and persuasive language patterns.

Being vague allows people to fill in their own meanings to what they hear – as Sister Mary discovered.

Sister Mary was enjoying her daily bath when there was a knock at the door.

“Who is it?” she asked.

“It’s John the blind man. I need to come in.”

Being a little lazy and seeming as he wasn’t going to see anything anyway Sister Mary said “ok, you can come in”.

The door opened and John the blind man came in. 

As he walked past Sister Mary, still in the bath, he said “lovely rosary beads Sister, now where would you like me to hang the blinds?”