2023 KISSS: Keep it Simple Sergio Style

Our hope for 2023 is that change makers and saviors start to embrace KISSS: “Keep it Simple Sergio Style”.

Over the past 20-years, denizens of the change maker and “savior” spaces have created their own buzzwords and language to describe problems and potential solutions. More often than not, what gets distributed looks as if the authors have taken a bunch of buzzwords written on scrabble tiles, thrown them up in the air, and whatever order they come down in they are put to paper or posted on social media. The result is usually something that sounds intellectually cool, but frankly says nothing of any substance.

This pressing need to be thought of as “part of the cool kids table” is what causes over half the population to have zero interest in reading what is written. Furthermore, it is what drives the belief that “intellectual elite" authors sit around in ivory towers “mentally masturbating” over real world problems, while offering up solutions that at best can only be classified as “ethereal”.

In 2013 near Charleston SC, we hosted 150 people at an event called “Beyond Sustainability”. The intent was to develop a common narrative about a sustainable future that would be understood by everyone. The amazing Steven Ringlestein designed and set up a workshop where 15 groups of 10 people each had to agree upon a one paragraph message that a spokesperson then transcribed onto a flip chart. Once complete, waiters, front desk personnel, room service assistants, and managers etc., from the venue of the event, were asked to walk through the room and point to the messages that they understood. The answer, 1, one message out of the 15 was all the group could understand and today, the count may be zero. More latterly, this trend has migrated to self-assigned job titles, and one only has to browse through LinkedIn profiles to see some that are without doubt creative, but are quite frankly ridiculous.

Because of the above we believe in KISSS: Keep it Simple Sergio Style.

We believe that there is a direct correlation between how someone chooses to communicate, and the on the ground, real world impact they have. For example, if you spend any time with the amazing Sergio Fernandez de Cordova, you will immediately understand what he is purposed to do and how he is going to do it. His simple, but brutally honest way of describing something is what allows him to engage people from all over the world to get things done, and the results he produces speak for themselves.

In summary, and although it may not sound “cool” to fellow denizens, it is time to drop the intellectual mumbo-jumbo and start communicating in plain English, or, just copy Sergio.