March 2021 Communication Tip

Take-Home Points

As we approach all sorts of anniversaries around the pandemic, many are thinking about how they might summarize the last year or identify the “Take-Home Points” about what we’ve learned.  (In COVID, perhaps it makes more sense to call them “Stay-Home Points.”)

Regardless, the idea of Take-Home Points is a great one and a crucially important skill for good Communication.   Many recognize that humans can only remember a few things at one time.  Most memory experts think 3-4 is the usual number of “chunks” humans can remember or keep in mind in “working memory.” 

Communication experts generally recommend 3 as the right number of points to make in order to have your listener remember and process what you said.  This is sometimes referred to as the magic Rule of Threes.  For example, both politicians and advertisers often use the Rules of Threes:  “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” or even the 3-word slogan “Just do it.” 

Hala Borno, MD, a UCSF medical oncologist (photo attached, with permission) who has been a communication star, described it like this:

“I find that the most important part of communicating with patients is delivering clear, simple, and concise take home points that help a patient to better understand their disease and the treatment it deserves.” 

It’s good advice to make sure to leave your patients with a few, clear take-home points.  For sure, there are lots of subtleties to the work that we do, but it’s terribly difficult to try to communicate well more than 3 major take-aways. 

As always… “Just try it” this month and let me know how it goes.

Best,

mike