“One bitter cold Sunday, an old farmer trudged for miles through a blizzard to reach the small mountain church he attended. No one else showed up,except the preacher. Looking around the empty pews, the clergy man leaned over the pulpit and suggested to his lone congregant that it hardly seemed worth proceeding with the service with such a low turnout. Perhaps we’d do better is we returned to our nice, warm homes and had a hot drink,’ he said in a tone that blatantly encouraged the old farmer to agree. The old farmer looked at the preacher and said, ‘I’m just a simple farmer, but when I go to feed my herd, if only one cow shows up, I sure don’t let her go hungry.’ The preacher felt embarrassed and a bit guilty, so he conducted the entire service – hymns, readings announcements and a sermon. The whole thing lasted over an hour. After the service, he said to the farmer, ‘I hope that met your needs.’ The farmer said, ‘I’m just a simple farmer, but when I go to feed my herd, if only one cow turns up, I sure don’t force her to eat everything I brought for the lot of them.’”
Moral of the Story :
It’s important to adjust what information you deliver and how you deliver it based on who’s on the receiving end.