No More Megaphones: Two-way communication works best

Notice how many headlines on this web site ask a question?

That's no accident. Few people can read a question without reflexively coming up with an answer. So, from the start, you've started a conversation.

Why is that valuable?

You want readers to be your equal partners. Maybe they'll read some more to compare their answer with yours. If they agree, then they'll feel that they "own" your answer. It will be their idea, not yours.

Is this a rhetorical trick? No, because all communication is a transaction. We trade our time and attention for something of value. As long as we feel the transaction is fair and useful, we stay with it.

For example, if you don't feel you're getting something valuable from reading this page, you'll stop reading it. But if you feel that it will make you more effective in your work, or more amusing at dinner tonight, or a shrewder citizen, you'll stick with it.

Messages about social problems reach many different audiences: the general public, a half-dozen influential targets, and the media. Doesn't asking a question create more room for people with different experience, ideas and values?

After all, one of the features of life today is that many people feel alienated. They wonder how they can make any difference. They're convinced that nobody cares what they want. As we become less connected and more isolated as individuals, we also become less tolerant of being told what to feel and think - let alone, what to do. We want to experience our own truth. Authenticity is precious.

Megaphone messages that lump us all together never worked, except by coercion. "This is authority speaking!" Whenever we communicate now, we talk with individuals. Even if they haven't yet given much thought to your particular issue, they have deeply-held values and opinions about things.

Doesn't it make sense to tap into that energy and conviction? To invite engagement, do what's natural. Ask a question. And make sure there are channels open for people to respond.