Make it Beautiful , not Pretty

Unfortunately, many of us have been led to believe that beautiful and pretty are synonyms. They are not, not even close.

Beauty is truth. Beauty is both orderly and surprising. It is also multisensory, communicating a truthful idea across all our senses.

When we encounter the grandeur of Yosemite National Park, we experience a moment of awe, a moment when we realize how small we are compared to the vastness of the world. That is beauty.

When we walk among the monuments in Washington, DC, we move closer to history. Architecture, vegetation, spatial flow, sculpture, and the messages engraved on the walls are all carefully orchestrated to connect us to historical truth and evoke that same sense of awe. That is beauty.

When we observe The Scream by Edvard Munch, we immediately feel existential anguish through its chaos and deep psychological turmoil. A moment of awe. That is beauty.

Let’s bring it closer to engineers. When we attend a great math class and finally understand, truly understand a new concept, we experience that same moment of awe. That is beauty.

Now, closer to our lives as corporate citizens: when we encounter a well-articulated, clear, and structured communication of a new insight, a new truth, whether through slides, writing, or speech, we feel it again. We quickly grasp the idea and connect it with everything we’ve learned before. That is also beauty.

Beautiful things are deep representations of truth. They are orderly, and they are surprising (as noted by J. M. Miravalle). That is why they inspire awe.

Very different is something that is merely pretty. Pretty may delight the eye, but it does not necessarily represent truth, nor does it do so in an organized or meaningful way.

In today’s world, I often hear managers say, “Don’t waste time making the presentation beautiful.” That is very wrong. People should not spend time trying to make something pretty, but it absolutely must be beautiful. It should convey organized thinking, a clear connection to truth (from human insight to scientific discovery), and an element of surprise or insight.

We should walk away from a discussion, knowing something we didn’t know before, something that brings us closer to the truth.

So, please, let’s return to beauty. Let’s convert those endless PowerPoint presentations and discussions into moments of awe. Let’s craft articulate, strategic, confident, and powerful communications that inspire audiences. That inspire audiences representing a new surprising perspective of the truth, a new surprising insight.