I was interested to read a comment on a LinkedIn post of mine from Martin Durack BL.
He was commenting on a post of mine concerning the Revenue Commissioners pursuing a taxpayer in the High Court.
My blog post had been about the Revenue Commissioners being penalised in the High Court for “throwing the kitchen sink” at a case.
Martin Durack BL commented, “As my old master used to say keep it tight Peter Kelly former president of high court used to say you should be able to outline the nub of your case in a sentence”.
I am a firm believer in this idea that you should be able to tell your story in one or two sentences.
I ask anyone looking to arrange a consultation with me to send me a brief synopsis of the issue or problem they are having.
If they then insist on sending me a deluge of documents, emails, reports or a multi-page document I will politely ask them to send me a brief synopsis.
I also tell them that if they are unable to do this then I am probably not the right person for them. For the gulf between us would almost certainly be too large.
Many employees tell me that their situation is complex, and they need to send me a huge amount of supporting documents to prove it. The fact of the matter is that most conflicts or disputes in the workplace, or elsewhere, are simple and straightforward when you get down into the weeds and the nub of the issue.
Yes, I understand the need to give context, background, colour.
But the fact remains that the dispute is almost certainly going to come down to one or two issues which are clearly identifiable. And that context and background may well be unnecessary baggage preventing a clear eyed view of the meat of the matter.
And I believe creating 1 minute videos for Instagram or TikTok is a tremendously valuable exercise. For it forces you to distil one or two concepts down into a minute or thereabouts of valuable information which goes to explain the heart of the matter, whatever that topic might be.