Patio Pondering: When Words Don’t Connect

The sun rose in a clear sky with the promise of another great day here on the patio. My coffee is hot, bold, and satisfying as I watch the morning unfold in the backyard landscaping.

After my comments yesterday about the lack of training or exposure to even the rudimentary rules of parliamentary procedure, I kept thinking about another piece of communication that fell short this week. I watched a press conference, and one thing stuck with me: the lack of transitions.

The prosecutor reading the prepared statement wasn’t the issue — in fact, with the gravity of the topic, a script made sense. What jarred me was how the speaker moved from one section to the next. Instead of giving the listener a signpost, they simply read the title of the next section:

“Evidence.”

And then continued on, as though the audience could seamlessly switch gears without any guidance. To me, that wasn’t unusual. I’ve seen this too often in meetings, speeches, and classrooms. It makes me wonder — do we still teach the basics of speaking?

Good transitions aren’t filler; they’re road signs. They prepare the listener for what comes next and give them a chance to adjust their attention. Think of how much clearer the message would have been with a simple phrase like:

“Now I’ll share the evidence we’ve collected.”

The content is identical, but the presentation is worlds apart. One respects the listener’s time and comprehension. The other assumes they’ll keep up, no matter how abruptly the road turns.

We should expect more from our speakers — especially when the message is important. Words matter. So do the bridges between them. Without those bridges, even the strongest ideas risk getting lost in the gaps.