Filters and Funnels

Awhile back I had a discussion with a colleague and brought up Maclom Gladwell’s Tipping Point. He harrumphed and said, “Psshhh Gladwell just recycles everyone else’s ideas.”

My response was, “Uh huh, how come his books are selling like hot cakes at Barnes and Noble?”

Because Gladwell never claimed to come up with anything new – he just does a better job of filtering and packaging the hard work of academics and a gaggle of other smarty pants types that I’m sure are a riot at parties and have a large collection of hounds tooth jackets and extensive knowledge of scotch.

Ever hear of John Krohn?

He’s also known as RJD2, a famous DJ who is best known for creating the opening music to Mad Men. Is he a classically trained musician? No. Is he a dyed in the wool jazz head who studied under the masters? No. He’s a club rat from Ohio who does an above average job of shoving jazz, R&B, and rock through a funnel and filters out the sound of music into some of the best jams being played today.

Would Freakonomics be a bestseller if journalist Stephen Dubner wasn’t there to craft Levitt’s “rogue” economic theories into such an accessible form? A journalist’s job is to distill everything from science to geo-politics into a medium designed to help you pass the time in the bathroom. Are you, oh bathroom reader, any less informed because the journalist did the filtering for you?

As trainers and educators we should all strive to take the glut of information no matter how infected it is with technical or corporate-ease and shove it into the funnel and filter out the elements that disrupt the audience’s ability to process the information.

Be little Gladwells – don’t fear research but consume in easy to digest bits from sources that use pretty pictures and nice looking graphs. Scratch that turntable to a beat your audience can dance to.