Lists, Lists, Lists, and Lists

When the general authorities for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speak at general conference, they hope to motivate and inspire listeners around the world to better live the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Therefore, they hope we will not only listen to their prepared messages, but also remember and act on what they teach.  One way speakers help listeners remember the content of their speech is to arrange their message in the form of a list.  Many of us have been taught growing up that the easiest way to organize and remember information (whether it be homework to be completed, groceries needed at the store, or a personal plan for improvement, etc.) is to make a list.  It is a form we are familiar with and comfortable using.



In the recent October conference, Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave a talk in which he addressed the youth and young single adults around the world.  He spoke of problems people of the rising generation face, including incurring debt and dating/marriage crises.  Elder Hales directly delivered wonderful advice and counsel to those he aimed to address.  Being a young single adult, I paid close attention to his wise remarks.  A few days later, his words are still fresh on my mind, and the sound counsel he gave continues to expand my understanding and influence me for good.  Why are his ideas so easy to hold in remembrance?  They were framed in tidy lists.

Here is a list of the lists he used:
1.) A list of scriptural accounts about a person or a group of people fleeing from evil.
2.) A list of sources we can turn to for guidance and direction.
3.) A list of questions we should ask ourselves to determine if he or she is "the one".
4.) A list of qualities we should strive to develop in order to be worthy of "the one".
5.) A list of blessing we will receive if we follow his counsel.

Elder Hales arranged his information in a simple, easy-to-remember format that subtly persuaded me to subconsciously remember all his words.

Just Go With the Flow!

In Plato’s Gorgias, it quickly becomes apparent that Socrates is the one driving the conversation. The other characters participate in the debate, but the way that Socrates phrases his questions and structures his replies almost forces the conversation in his intended direction. The debate never seems to drift out of his control because he carefully organizes his thoughts in a way that flows. President Bednar was not having a conversation per se, because he was addressing such a large audience, but he worded his speech in such a way that the audiences’ thoughts flowed from one idea to the next in the way that he intended. He achieved this in many forms, but I only have time and space to address two of them.

First he made lists, much like how I am doing now, in order to get his audience to focus on his main points. The same thing happens in General Conference, devotionals, etc. When someone says that they have three points and starts to talk, your attention may start to drift, but as soon as they say they are moving on to the next point you naturally pay attention again just long enough to catch what it is. The speaker does this because he/she knows that the audience will probably not have a long enough attention span to listen to every word, but the list allows for at least the main points to get across.

Secondly, his speech had a natural order to it. He started in the past and moved on to the present and the social media aspects of what he was talking about. Did anyone else notice that the people he quoted, for the most part, went in chronological order? I thought that was really cool; because of the increasing time periods he went from pictures of the prophets, to audio bits, and then to videos of increasing quality.