K.I.S.S.

In a former life I was in sales. It was horrid. I started down the path we’ve all thought about because it was cash heavy. I won’t deny it, I was after money pure and simple. I had just left university, piled up with debt and a degree.

The ads were plentiful in the papers. £40,000 OTE, £50,000 OTE, £100,000 OTE. You were lured in by big numbers and the thought of making quick money and getting on. Cars, girls, clothes; what more could you want?

The reality was oh so different. The first week was training. How to sell and sell well. And it all came through the medium that teachers so rely on: acronyms and mnemonics.  Needless to say I didn’t remain in sales. The footballer ties, the intense competition, the aggressive maleness of the environment gave me a headache. The lies and damned lies that were spun to hit targets, the primitive, simian collective thumping of desks as the latest sale was written up on the board, the ridiculous drinking were all a little too much and a little too pointless.

But I did take something away. In a little corner of my mind an acronym remained. KISS. Keep is short and simple.

The idea in sales is to convince your prospect that what you are telling them has worth and what you are selling them is worth it. The process is the same in the classroom. You need to convince the students they need what you are selling, get them to buy in to the topic, effectively make that sale.

The process of simple, straightforward, short, sweet (the S.S. in K.I.S.S. can stand for a number of things) gets the students started properly.  By beginning with simply expressed concepts they can then build. When you over complicate your pitch you lose the customer, when you complicate the lesson too soon you lose the student.

This works for the students as well. Start your work from its basic premise, work from the very simplest of premise and you cannot go wrong. All maths starts with 1+1. All history with causation. All Physics with a big bang…

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