Cut to the chase!
I am sure we have all heard this phrase when someone is asking us to get to the point. Although it can feel pushy and somewhat disrespectful at times, is it valid? Especially when presenting improvement work?
The saying originated from silent films and was thought to be coined by American film director and actor Hal Roach Sr.
Silent films, particularly comedies, would often climax at the exciting chase scene. The scene the audience came to witness. Studio executives used “Cut to the chase” when there was too much boring dialogue, delaying the films ability to get to the interesting scenes the customer wanted.
“A Dictionary of Catch Phrases” published in 1985 expounded on the history of this phrase with the following:
“An earlier version of the phrase (recorded 1880–1940) was Cut to Hecuba. This refers to the practice of shortening matinée performances of Hamlet by cutting the long speeches before the reference to Hecuba in Act II, Scene ii.”
So basically we have been saying this for over 100 years.
I have witnessed too many times a presenter spending the majority of their time on the uninteresting background dialogue, and in the end never getting to the chase scene of their project. What’s sad about this is it hurts the adoption of the work and can even make the project more complex due to the multitude of questions and misunderstandings. Simply stated:
We often increase the complexity of improvement through our ineffective presenting of projects.
So I plead, let us all be better at “Cut to Hecuba” when presenting improvement work. I know you as the presenter really care about all the background, dialogue, and history; but unfortunately as audience members we don’t. We want to know what you did, its impact, and how we can replicate the results in our area.
