“Message Science: From Telling to Getting Through” — Is Your Message Reaching Them? The Theory of Evolution from “Telling” to “Getting Through” [Column] Science of Thought (No. 35)

📘 “Message Science: From Telling to Getting Through” Science of Thought: No. 35

—— Is your message reaching them? The theory of evolution from “telling” to “getting through”

🔍 3 Key Points of This Column

• 1️⃣ A message only gains meaning when it is not just “told,” but “gets through.”

• 2️⃣ Applying perspectives from mathematics and physics allows us to see the structure and delivery methods of a message in three dimensions.

• 3️⃣ We will create a fictional discipline called “Message Science: From Telling to Getting Through” and explore its application in real life.

🌱 Introduction | The biggest waste is “thinking you’ve told them”

“I explained it so clearly, so why didn’t it get through?”

Business presentations, school lessons, family conversations—everyone has surely experienced the frustration of “thinking you’ve told them” only for it to fall flat.

I myself have had many moments in educational settings where I tried to share a vision and felt, “Huh, it didn’t resonate as much as I thought...” The content I spoke was not wrong. But it didn’t “remain” in the other person’s heart—perhaps that is exactly what it means to “not get through.”

From there, a question suddenly occurred to me: Are “telling” and “getting through” two similar but distinct “different processes”?

This question can be applied to various fields:

• 💼 Business: When you share a philosophy with a team but their actions don’t follow.

• 🎓 Education: When you teach carefully in class, but it doesn’t lead to student understanding.

• 💬 Human Relationships: When words spoken out of care for the other person end up creating distance instead.

• ✍️ Self-Expression: When you feel your thoughts don’t resonate even after posting them on social media or in writing.

In all these cases, there is an invisible “gap” between “telling” and “getting through.”

🔍 In this column, to think about how to bridge that “gap,” we will break down and reconstruct “telling to getting through messages” by incorporating scientific perspectives (mathematics/physics) and metaphors.

📣 Recommended for those who:

• Feel frustrated that their messages are “not getting through.”

• For those who want to improve their "communication skills" in education or business settings

• For creators who want to convey their thoughts more deeply

🧭 Don't just end with "I thought I communicated it," move toward a "future where it is understood."

Please enjoy this 35th column as an entrance to that journey✨

🧠 Chapter 1 | What exactly is a "message that goes from communicating to being understood"?

"I'm sure I explained it properly, but for some reason, it didn't get through" — haven't you had that experience too?

In fact, while we focus on "communicating" in our daily lives, we often don't think deeply about the design of "being understood."

Let's pause here and organize together what a "message that goes from communicating to being understood" actually is🧩

🔍 Everything can become a "message"

A message is not limited to just words.

• 🗣 Spoken words, written text

• 🙆‍♀️ Attitude, gestures, tone of voice

• 🎨 Design, color scheme, layout

• 🏡 Space, atmosphere, white space

Everything becomes a message the moment it carries an "intention to convey something."

However, if the information you "intended to deliver" is not converted into a "meaningful experience for the receiver," then it has "not been understood."

📌 This is what "not being understood" means

For example, can you think of any cases like this?

✏️ In an educational setting

• Even if an educational philosophy is put forward, if the teachers feel, "I see, but I can't apply this in the classroom," then it has "not been understood."

🏢 In Business

• Even if you broadcast a brand message, if people think, "What are you actually trying to say?", then it hasn't "connected."

👪 In Human Relationships

• If words spoken out of consideration are felt by the other person as pressure or stress, then that too has not "connected."

✨ So, what does it mean to "connect"?

For a message to "connect" means:

In other words,

• "Empathy" when it touches their values

• "Conviction" when it clicks and makes sense

• "Behavioral change" where they think, "Maybe I'll try this"

Only when these occur can we finally say it has "connected."

💡 Summary: A message is a "seed that creates change"

A message isthe act of sowing "seeds" of change in the other person's heart.

Whether in business, education, or life—by adding the perspective of "designing for connection" to the thoughts you want to deliver to someone, the potential of your message will surely expand significantly🌱

In the next chapter, we will break down "how to make it connect" from a scientific perspective and explore it in a more three-dimensional way.

🔍 Chapter 2 | What is "Connecting"? — Thinking with a Scientific Approach

"Telling" is "broadcasting," while "connecting" is "transformation."

Clearly being aware of this difference will elevate the quality of your thinking and expression to the next level.

In this chapter, we will unravel the mechanism of "connecting" through a "scientific lens".

By factorizing it with mathematical formulas and structuring it by comparing it to physical laws, let's make the intuitive concept of "connecting" more reproducible📐✨

🧮1. Mathematical Thinking: Factorization via "Perspective × Field of View × Focus Point"

Whether a message "connects" can be explained by the multiplication of the following three elements:

• Elements

  • 👀 Perspective:Where you look from (the other person's position, values)

  • 🗺 Field of View:How much is visible (background and context)

  • 🎯 Focus Point:Where you pay attention (emotions and keywords)

🎓 Concrete Example: Communicating a school's vision to faculty and staff

• Perspective: Start by speaking from a perspective that empathizes with the teachers' daily tasks and challenges

• Field of View: Show the "big picture" including connections to educational policy and the local community

• Focus Point: Extract keywords that overlap with each teacher's individual educational philosophy

By factorizing in this way, you can see "where the communication is stopping" and "which element needs to be improved."

🧠 Since it is multiplication, if any one of them is zero, the "degree of connection" also becomes zero—this is the key point.

🔬 2. Physical Thinking: Comparing Message Transmission to the "Three Principles of Heat Transfer"

A message that connects is like "heat." It is the transfer of enthusiasm or emotion from inside one person to the heart of another.

Here, we will examine the "three principles of heat transfer (conduction, convection, and radiation)" in physics by likening them to modes of message transmission.

🔥 Conduction Type

• 👥 One-on-one dialogue or coaching based on a close, trusting relationship

• ☕ Taking time to let it sink in slowly

• 💬 Example: The “expectations for the future” a boss shares with a subordinate, or a message a teacher gives to a student

🌬 Convection Type

• 🌀 Spreading naturally through space, culture, and atmosphere

• 🏫 Open campus, the atmosphere in the staff room, creating a space for events

• 🖼 It is effective to “hint at” the message

🌠 Radiation Type

• 📡 Messages that reach even from a distance (visuals, stories, design)

• 🎥 SNS videos, brochures, logos, brand movies, etc.

• 🧲 The key is a mechanism that makes the other person “want to receive it themselves”

📌3. Summary: A “Scientific Mindset” for Designing “Connection”

• Message delivery is not just about chance or intuition; it can be “designed”

• By factorizing like mathematics and using physical phenomena as metaphors, things become clearer

• “Telling to Connecting” requires the multiplication of structure, emotion, and environment

By adopting this perspective, what you want to convey will reach “more reliably and further” 🚀

In the next chapter, let’s establish a fictional faculty to learn this “Telling to Connecting” in earnest 🎓✨

🎓Chapter 3 | Founding the “Telling to Connecting Messaging Faculty”!

Anyone can “tell.” But “connecting” is something that is polished through learning.

In this chapter, based on that premise, I will conceptualize what it would be like if there were a fictional faculty where you could systematically learn about “Telling to Connecting Messaging.”

I have designed it so that readers interested in education, business, and life hacks will think, “It would be interesting if there were such a course!” 📘✨

🏛1. Purpose, Core Values, Mission, Vision

🎯Purpose

Don't let it end at "I thought I told them." This is a place of learning that creates warm connections in society through the power of messages that generate empathy and change.

🌟Core Values

• Empathy: The ability to capture emotional shifts

• Structuring: The ability to organize complex content

• Narrative: The ability to convey meaning as a story

• Trust: The ability to build relationships with others

• White Space: The ability to leave room for the recipient to interpret

📌Mission

As people with diverse backgrounds and values intersect, we cultivate both the "power to convey" and the "sensitivity to receive," training professionals in social communication skills.

🌍Vision

We aim to be a department that produces practitioners who connect people through "effective" design in all situations, including education, business, and cultural activities.

📜2. Three Policies (Admission, Education, Graduation)

📝Admission Policy (Enrollment Policy)

• Those who have the courage to express themselves

• Those who can value the experience of not being understood

• Those who have an attitude of listening to diverse values

📚Curriculum Policy (Educational Curriculum Organization Policy)

• Learning through the "back-and-forth movement" of theory and practice

• Experience dialogue, translation, design, and storytelling in a cross-disciplinary way

• Hone your own words while imagining how others receive them

🎓 Diploma Policy (Degree Awarding Policy)

• Able to convert your own thoughts and ideas into a “form that gets through”

• Able to design expressions suited to the recipient and the situation

• Possesses the ability to build relationships of trust through communication

📚 3. Curriculum Proposal (Major Subjects & Syllabus)

◾️ Major Subject: Empathy Translation Seminar

🧾 Syllabus Overview

• Subject Name: Empathy Translation Seminar

• Objective: Cultivating expressive power that reaches people with different values

• Content:

  • Translate the same message for 10 “different recipients”

  • Verify and discuss the intent and effect of the translation through pair work

  • Incorporate experiential use of sentiment analysis tools and generative AI

• Evaluation Method:

  • Accuracy and creativity of expression

  • Logicality of translation reasoning

  • Feedback from others (peer evaluation)

🎯4. Examples of Career Paths After Graduation

The “power to get through” learned in this department is utilized in every field.

🔗 Examples of fields of activity:

• Public Relations/Marketing Roles: Design of brand messages, empathy design for advertising copy

• School Teachers/Facilitators: The power to convey educational visions as “words that resonate”

• Social Entrepreneurs: Active as leaders who operate with empathy and dialogue as their core

• Communication Designers: Designers of “getting through technology” in collaboration with AI and ICT

✨Summary: Learning is the process of cultivating the power to get through

Not just “telling,” but seriously learning how to “get through.” If there were such a department, what kind of classes would you want to take?

In the next chapter, we will consider how to apply this learning to real life—in business, education, and life applications. 📘🌱

💼Chapter 4 | How is this study useful?

The “power to get through” goes beyond mere communication skills.

It is the power to change the very way people, organizations, and society “connect.”

In this chapter, we will introduce how the ideas of “Message Studies: From Telling to Getting Through” can be applied to our business, education, life, and life hacks, scene by scene. 🌱

🏢1. How to apply it in business

✅ For designing workshops to share internal visions

• How can we not only “tell” a vision but also have people “make it their own”?

• Interactive workshops, design of questioning, and experience sharing are the keys

✅ For creating brand content that resonates with customers

• Organizing the 'passion' and 'narrative' behind products and services

• Public relations strategy combining the three types of message heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation

✅ Also for team building and 1-on-1 meetings

• Visualizing gaps in members' perceptions based on the formula: Perspective × Field of View × Focus Point

• Can also be used for facilitation to resolve 'language gaps' between supervisors and subordinates

🎓2. How to apply it in educational settings

✅ For permeating philosophy and co-creation among faculty and staff

• Instead of one-sidedly 'informing' them of educational policies, create a space for dialogue that 'rediscovers' the philosophy starting from the voices on the ground

✅ Converting to 'inquiry-based messages' for students

• Engaging with questions like 'Why do you think that?' or 'What do you want to do?' instead of giving instructions or warnings

• Message design as a facilitator to turn learning into something 'personal'

✅ Application to career support and guidance

• Utilizing it in 'self-introduction workshops' where students can learn to speak in their own words

• Providing a 'structure for getting through' for interview preparation and portfolio creation

💡1. How to apply it to life hacks and daily life

✅ Preventing misunderstandings with partners and family

• Practicing understanding differences in perspective to eliminate the 'I said it, but it didn't get through' scenario

• Developing the habit of communicating while imagining the other person's 'emotional layer'

✅ Balancing the 'courage to communicate' and the 'power to receive'

• When you are afraid to share your feelings... having appropriate 'options for how to communicate' makes self-expression easier

• At the same time, cultivate the flexibility to be okay with being misunderstood

✅ Improve the quality of your outreach activities, such as on social media and blogs

• Instead of just posting information, you will develop the habit of structuring it by working backward from the question, 'What kind of emotional shift do I want to trigger in the reader?'

📌 Summary: The 'power to connect' is useful in every aspect of life

• Refining how you communicate is about nurturing your relationships with others

• The habit of thinking 'How can I make this connect?' before you communicate will help you in every situation

This discipline is a 'life skill of thought and expression' that is deeply rooted in business, education, and daily life alike🌿

In the next chapter, we will explore how 'communicating to connecting messages' will evolve in the future through co-creation with AI🤖✨

🤖 Chapter 5 | The Future of 'Communicating to Connecting' Co-created with AI

With the evolution of generative AI, we have entered an era where anyone can easily 'speak words,' 'organize information,' and 'create text.'

In other words, 'means of communication' have become accessible to almost everyone.

However—what is truly important is the design of 'connecting' that goes one step further.

In this chapter, we will explore the 'division of roles' and 'possibilities for co-creation' between AI and humans, while keeping an eye on the future.

⚙️ 1. 'Communicating' is an area where AI excels

AI is already demonstrating high capabilities in 'communication support' such as the following:

• ✍️ Text generation (copy, articles, emails, speeches, etc.)

• 🎨 Design support (image generation, document layout)

• 📢 Automation of information dissemination through audio and video

This is perfectly compatible with the 'Radiation' style of message delivery.

❤️ 2. 'Connecting' is a domain handled by human sensibility

On the other hand, to achieve "getting through",

• 🤝 Relationship with the other party (trust, empathy, atmosphere)

• 💭 "Decoding" the other party's emotions and values

• 🎯 "Redesigning meaning" to fit the context of the situation

and other advanced human sensibilities are essential.

For example, even with the same text:

• when communicating to someone close to you

• versus when communicating to someone you are meeting for the first time

the "temperature of the words" and the "timing of the pauses" should change.

This "fine-tuning" is the true essence of a message that "gets through."

🤝3. The Division of Labor and Co-creation Model of "Communicating x Getting Through"

In the future, this is the image of how AI and humans will co-create:

By utilizing this division of labor model,

• the communicator can stabilize the quality of expression,

• and the receiver can focus on deeper and more careful design.

🌐 4. What will the future "getting through" learning environment look like?

If we were to incorporate "Communicating vs. Getting Through: The Science of Messaging" into future education, we can see a scene like this:

• 🧑‍🏫 "Empathy translation exercises" conducted in pairs with AI

• 🎥 Emotional response analysis for storytelling in virtual spaces

• 🧪 AI proposes a “conveyance style” tailored to each individual student

• 💬 AI continues to support message design in educational settings

In short, AI becomes a “co-creation partner” for expression.

📌 5. Conclusion: In an age of technology, it is the “warmth” of people that makes a message resonate

• “Conveying” is a domain that AI will evolve

• “Connecting” is a culture that people warm and nurture

• The key to the future is “co-creation” — moving toward an era of designing human-like “connecting power” together with AI

In the next chapter, we will look back on this column and reaffirm the changes that “Message Studies: From Conveying to Connecting” brings to our lives 📘✨

📌 Summary | To whom and how is your message reaching?

In this column, we have delved one step deeper into our words, expressions, and communication through the fictional discipline of “Message Studies: From Conveying to Connecting.”

Finally, while reflecting on what we have learned this time, I would like to pose a question to your own messages as well 📘✨

✅ Summary of this time’s “Connecting Points”

🧩 “Conveying” and “Connecting” are completely different processes

• Conveying: The act of transmitting (information, thoughts)

• Connecting: A state where changes in meaning, emotion, and behavior occur within the recipient

🧠 Mathematical and physical thinking allows us to see messages structurally

• The “degree of connection” becomes visible through the factorization of Perspective × Field of View × Focus Point

• We can understand the “flow” of transmission using physical models of heat conduction, convection, and radiation

🎓 By imagining a fictional department, we can illuminate “conveying power” from the future

• With what values do you learn, what subjects do you use to train, and in what settings can you apply it?

• Imagination is the power to design learning

💼 Applied skills directly linked to business, education, and life hacks

• Workshop design, sharing philosophy, family communication, social media posting...

• Designing for 'getting through' is useful in every situation involving 'connections'

🤖 Toward a future where 'conveying' is democratized and 'getting through' is deepened through co-creation with AI

• Efficiency and precision of expression are supported by AI

• Humans are responsible for the 'temperature adjustment' of intent and relationships

• The key from now on is, 'With whom, in what way, and what kind of future will you create?'

💬 Question: What is the next thing you want to 'convey'?

• Who do you want to deliver that message to?

• Have you tried imagining that person's perspective, field of view, and focus?

• What kind of 'change' would you be happy to see happen after you convey it?

The first step to turning the 'want to convey' within you into 'getting through' is to design even the 'way it gets through'✍️🌱

I hope this column serves as a hint for that first step.

Please look forward to the next installment of The Science of Thought series📘✨

✍️ Afterword | This column was written together with ChatGPT

This 'Science of Thought' series is a column that explores the 'why?' and 'how come?' questions in daily life, a bit humorously, but sometimes quite seriously.“Why?” “How come?” questions in daily life, a bit humorously, but sometimes quite seriously.

This time, I conceived and wrote about the difference between 'conveying' and 'getting through' while engaging in a dialogue with the generative AI, ChatGPT.

The attempt at co-writing with AI was also a process of rediscovering the boundary between 'conveying' and 'getting through'.“the process of rediscovering the boundary between 'conveying' and 'getting through'”

• AI can polish our words, but

• I am realizing once again that what thoughts we imbue them with and where we place the warmth is ultimately up to human 'inquiry' and 'desire'.

'I want to convey,' 'I want to be understood,' 'I want to reach someone' — I believe these feelings are deeply human, warm, and are in themselves a force that shapes our lives.

I hope this column serves as a little 'hint on how to convey' for your daily communication, thinking, and creative activities.

📣 A final request and a thank you ✨

• If you found this interesting or helpful, I would be very encouraged if you could support me with a 'Like' or a follow 🌟

• Comments and messages are always welcome!

See you again in the next 'Science of Thought' 📘🌱

Profile | Kazuomi Matsunaga

Biography:Graduated from a national university engineering department in Kyushu (Materials Engineering) => Engineer at a metal materials manufacturer in the Chukyo region (Production Technology) => Advertising sales for a local free paper in Nagasaki Prefecture => University staff member (← currently here). A person in their 50s living in Nagasaki Prefecture.

I am a writer who plays with thoughts daily at the intersection of 'inquiry' and 'curiosity.' Recently, I have been writing about my own unique perspectives on themes such as education, storytelling, psychology, AI, and design, centered on the serial column 'The Science of Thought.' I am exploring 'free knowledge design' that transcends existing frameworks. My motto is 'Imagination opens up the world.'

In my professional life, while working in university and education-related fields, I value carefully observing 'the moment someone starts to like something' and 'the scenes where questions sprout.'

🧭 I hope to deliver articles that leave you with a 'new perspective' after reading them.

📮 Comments and messages of support are always welcome!