“To make our communications more effective, we need to shift our thinking from 'What information do I need to convey?' to 'What questions do I want my audience to ask?'”

Why it was said

Chip and Dan Heath make this argument in the Unexpected chapter of Made to Stick, the second of their six principles of sticky ideas. The chapter is about holding attention, and this sentence moves the focus from the message being sent to the curiosity it creates in the audience.

What it actually means

Most presentations are built as delivery: here is what I know, in the order I learned it. The Heaths suggest building them as a puzzle instead. If you start by working out which question you want the audience to be asking, you can design the talk so that they feel the gap in their knowledge before you fill it. Curiosity is what keeps people listening, and it only exists when someone knows there is something they do not yet know. The shift sounds small but it changes the structure: you open with the mystery, not the answer, and the information arrives as a resolution rather than a lecture.

How to use it

1. 1Before your next presentation, write the one question you want the room to be asking by minute three, then build the opening around it.
2. 2Replace a slide of facts with a question the facts will answer, and reveal the answer only after a pause.
3. 3In a report, put the surprising gap first and the explanation second.