I was in a meeting last week with about a dozen people who were planning an event for Christmas day. At the back of the room was a hard-working, good-natured gentleman who had a lot of things to say. And he said most of them out loud, without reservation, for the rest of us to hear.

It was painfully obvious to anyone, including him, that after so long, people were starting to tune him out. After a few minutes of him speaking, everyone started exchanging knowing glances. He words started to lose their effect on the group.

And so, in response to this, his solution was simple: talk more.

I'm sure you've been in an identical situation. This is the way most people to respond to not being heard. Given a barrage of information, people start to tune out, and the default response is to say more things, add more details, add more clarification, and so on. Faced with the problem of over-communication, people fight fire with fire.

If you have too much to say, you should probably say less. Even if it kills you to hold your tongue.