The Hidden Cost of Saying Too Much

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Last week, I shared my reflections after speaking at the CFO South Africa conference - a moment of irony, alignment and storytelling. This week, I want to zoom in on a quieter force that can make or break that alignment: communication. More specifically, how easily we sabotage our own message by overcomplicating it.

I’ve been on the road doing AI training for Women in Business for one of South Africa’s major banks. There are, at this point, thousands of AI tools out there. But I stick to 3 of my favourites because I’m clear on the message I want to deliver: it’s not about the tool, it’s about how you apply your thinking to the problem. Then you use your clever AI buddy to help, but you’re still the driver.

Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow makes it abundantly clear: the brain prefers shortcuts. System 1 is fast, intuitive, emotional - dominates our decisions. System 2, which does the slow, logical thinking, only shows up when it’s absolutely necessary. The implication for communicators? If your message isn’t clear, if it’s too dense, technical or feature-heavy, it gets filtered out before it ever has a chance to land. It’s the same with AI. Prompt it with clear, unambiguous questions, and you’ll get amazing results.

This brings me to an experiment referenced in a YouTube video by Niro Sivanathan, where people were asked to place a value on two sets of crockery.

Set A had 40 intact pieces.

Set B had 50 pieces, but nine of them were broken.

Logically, Set B has more value - even with the broken items excluded, there are still 41 intact. But that’s not how people think. Set B, with its broken plates, consistently scored lower. The damage diluted the perceived value of the whole.

This experiment is a perfect analogy for how we communicate in business. We do something amazing, but then we add “just one more thing.” One more feature. One more benefit. One more exception. And before we know it, our value is buried under broken plates.

Even in pharmaceutical advertising - an industry that has mastered behavioural nudges - there’s a counterintuitive insight: including a minor negative side effect can increase overall trust in the message. It signals honesty, reduces perceived manipulation, and paradoxically amplifies the main benefit.

So what does this mean for us as business owners?

It means we need to stop overselling. Stop pitching every possible feature. Stop trying to justify our worth in paragraph form. And man, I’m as guilty as anyone of doing this. But we need to become like the apex predator, not the fleeing gazelle. Take it slow. Stay clear.

What we say needs to be obvious, emotional and repeatable. That’s how you win hearts and minds.

When we speak to our customers - or our teams, investors, partners - our job isn’t to dump everything we know. Our job is to guide them through what they need to believe. That means one story. One clear value. One change you’re going to help them make.

If we don’t, we risk becoming that second set of crockery - technically more valuable, but perceived as flawed. And in a world of limited attention, perception often is reality.

So here’s my challenge: what broken plates are you still trying to include in your messaging? What small but unnecessary “extras” are actually eroding the clarity of your main point?

PG’s Pro Tip:

I know this is tough. But keep it simple. More is sometimes less, and stay clear on your offer and clear on the way you communicate it.

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