*inspired by Marie Kondo

You can’t escape the phenomenon of Marie Kondo that is sweeping the world and inspiring us all to declutter our homes. Her books were hugely popular a few years and ago and her new show, “Tidying Up”, on Netflix has gripped the nation; everywhere I look – on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – everyone is showing off their tidy drawers and their KonMari’d closets.
We too work with our clients to declutter their messages and to streamline their event content, so how can we take inspiration from Marie Kondo’s rules and apply them to help companies filter, tidy up and transform their communications?

The Rules:
1. Look forward
What’s the best possible outcome from this communication? Start the ‘tidying up’ process by determining what is the vision of the future? What do you want your audience to think, feel and experience as a result of this communication?

2. Simplify and organise
The temptation can be to throw a whole ‘kitchen sink’ of messages at an audience but we need to streamline and think about what’s relevant. Take your content and categorise it – challenge yourself to break down the communication into three to five key categories rather than a list of endless bullet points. These will serve as a filter – if a message sneaks in that doesn’t neatly fit in one of these categories then you know that it doesn’t belong in this communication.

3. Speak to the heart – AKA ‘Spark Joy’
Keep the audience at the heart of the communication. Go through every little message that you want to deliver, hold onto it for a moment in your mind and ask yourself: will this spark joy and have meaning for the audience? Is this message relevant for them? If so, keep it; if not let it go. Streamlined content creates a more joyful experience; it will hold their attention span and will help them retain those key messages. The Japanese for ‘spark joy’ is tokimeku which literally translates as ‘flutter, throb or palpitate’- a great reminder to speak to the heart!

4. Let it go
Only keep the content that fits into those categories and sparks joy for your audience. If it doesn’t meet that criteria then let it go. Marie Kondo works mindfully and thanks every discarded item for its service, but I won’t make you take it to this extreme! It can be difficult to let go of messages that you’ve worked hard to refine, but perhaps those messages still have a place but just not in this communication. They may be relevant to another audience, time and place.

5. Create beautiful displays of content
The practice of KonMari is built on the Shinto spiritual practice of creating displays that show that you value the things that you have kept. Tidy up the words you use, make them concise and beautiful. Neatly ‘fold’ the messages and show that you value them by presenting each one with amazing visuals and a display that brings each message alive and creates value for the audience.

Karen Kadin, joint managing partner, Brands at Work