If you haven't seen the urinals that they use in the Amsterdam airport, here is a picture. There is a black fly etched into the urinal. You might be asking yourself: why? Why would they etch a fly onto a urinal? Well, the reason is simple: spillage at the airport has dropped by 80% because of the fly. Apparently, if you give a man something fo focus on, they stay on target. Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein's talk about this in their book Nudge. They state "tiny changes in environment can influence behavior" and they call this "choice architecture." I think its great that men need to have something to focus on when using the bathroom to avoid spilling. There are now even companies that have been created following the Amsterdam model. The Urinal Fly company gives you stickers that are guaranteed to stay on the toilet.
What does this have to do with communication? Well, how many times have you felt that people were not focusing on your speech? Have people tended to drift when you speak? If this has happened, you need to change the way you do things so you can give them something to focus on. People tend to drift and daydream when they don't have a compelling reason to focus. Your message needs to have that fly to focus on.
Figuring out what that fly on the urinal should be can be tricky. However, just being aware that you need to have something compelling for people to focus on is a start. From there, you just have to keep working on it and figure out which one works...and which ones are just going to keep spilling over.
Travis
