MY FRIEND and Eve of blogging Rebecca Blood has tagged me with Paul Kedrosky's One-Sentence Challenge:

Physicist Richard Feynman once said that if all knowledge about physics was about to expire the one sentence he would tell the future is that "Everything is made of atoms". What one sentence would you tell the future about your own area, whether it's entrepreneurship, hedge funds, venture capital, or something else?

Examples: An economist might say that "People respond to incentives". I had an engineering professor years ago who said all of that field could be reduced to "F=MA and you can't push on a rope".

Personally, I'm not worthy to be added to a list that includes an esteemed nanotechnologist, futurist, people helping to change the world, and Malcolm Gladwell. Still, here's my contribution. If all knowledge about communication was about to expire the one sentence I would tell the future is:

"Everything sends a message--your eyes, your watch, whether you're on time for meetings, what you say, your silences, what you serve in the company cafeteria, what you eat in the company cafeteria, what you reward and ignore, the decisions you make and refuse--everything."

Comments

[Constantin Basturea]

Or, in the words of Paul Watzlawick, "one cannot not communicate" :)

[mediaguru @ prosoundblog.com]

TAG you're it.

[Douglas]

Learning is fun, and if what you are doing or having others do to learn isn't fun, then it's just schooling.

[Alan Nelson]

Constantin, that's a great wiki link. Most folks have never heard of Watzlawick, and I spend a good portion of my professional life translating his maxims into more portable language.

[j]

Make them want to hold for your client; give them a way to do so.