Are you hearing a lot of noise lately?   Noise in Congress?  Noise from the media?  Noise from your customers?  Noise in meetings?  Noise in presentations? Noise in your in-box?

Words, actions, visuals, body language--these are forms of noise to our senses, and noise communicates. While noise can delight at the football game, it can also irritate when we're trying to finish a spreadsheet or get a customer proposal out the door in the next half hour.

For a moment, expand your definition of "noise" to mean anything that detracts or breaks your concentration on a key message.

Consider how "noise" annoys…
• on slides containing words, graphics, or data extraneous to the key message
• in meetings when people tell irrelevant war stories, add repetitious statements, or back-track on the process
• during panel discussions when members make "me-too" statements, adding nothing new
• with tweets that say nothing but "here I am"
• in emails that sound like stream-of-consciousness prose

On the other hand, consider the cause for a pause. Emptiness is something. A valuable something. I'm spending a lot of time lately in my executive coaching sessions telling clients to reduce the noise--in their slide designs, in content development for speeches, in duplicate "information" they send to the field. Noise, noise, noise. People tune out for relief.

Reflect on the value of
• a pause in a speech
• a slide with one simple photo that "says it all"
• the blank lines between paragraphs and headings in a book
• the break between sessions in a technical conference
• the silent nod after someone has listened intently to what you've said

In the chaos of life and work, we all could use a little less noise in our communications.