Chapter 4 - Your World View - Making the Invisible Visible

[Diamond Website Conversion]

This chapter is all about the So What Filter. The So-What-Filter is a method for creating communications that are relevant and compelling for your listeners. To employ this method, you need to examine a script of your communication. You need to then see exactly how much of it is really, truly, relevant to the interests of the audience. This is a far cry from just a salespitch or stating your own credentials. The most important thing is to focus on why it is important and why the customer should care. You can use the So What Matrix to decide on which information is necessary to your conversation: For What, So What, and Now What (on page 32).
Analyze a couple of communications that you have had lately according to the So What Matrix. For what reason were you communicating? Why was it important to the audience? What was the effect of the communication supposed to me?

[Hope]

It's funny-- this communication exercise made me think first of talking to my husband and trying to get him to do things around the house. Things that seem like fairly strong hints to me ("The trash can is getting awfully full") might just seem like observations to him! I had been getting frustrated and thinking that the problem was obviously him (anyone can see the trash needs to be taken out, right?), but this is helping me rethink my strategy.

[Shelby]

I love how direct and to the point this form of communication is. I really enjoyed the examples that the author gave. The questions in the matrix are going to come in handy for life and work.

[Marty]

I really liked the For What, So What and Now What questions - When I'm writing for the web - I try to make sure that I have figured out what/who I'm writing for - what their pain points are and the solutions/ideas I have for solving their problem(s) - A really good reminder of how to really communicate in a way that actually gets your message across to the audience, the group or your significant other.

[Anne]

This reminds me of when I've gone upstairs to a room and forget why I did. I tend to answer the For What, So What and Now What questions. I know I'm an audience of one - but this clearly demonstrates how simple the So What way of thinking can be.
It feels this way too when I am interrupted while surfing the web - when I return and my screen comes back up, a well written web page will provide me with those answers and allow me to finish my task.