26 Oct Painting pictures with words: conveying complex ideas simply
Effective communication stands prominently in the hall of essential leadership skills. It often serves as a critical tool for conveying complex ideas, and leaders skilled in this area can transform intricate concepts into understandable and engaging narratives. They decode complexity, painting wayfinding paths that guide the audience through the dense forests of sophisticated ideas, ensuring that the message not only lands but goes on to flourish in people’s minds.
Consider Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock, the British engineer, space scientist and science educator, with an extraordinary ability to demystify the cosmos. Avoiding overly technical language, she uses relatable analogies and stories, creating a bridge between the world of space science and the lived experiences of her audience. Her approach makes space science accessible and captivating, turning it into a subject of universal interest and fascination. Who hasn’t looked up at the stars on a cloudless night and stood there in wide-eyed wonder?
Hans Rosling, known for his innovative presentations on global health and economics, exemplified the power of visualization in communication. Through the use of simple but dynamic graphs, a few basic props, and a long stick, Rosling transformed cold statistics into engaging stories. His unique presentation style turned numbers into narratives, allowing audiences to visualise and comprehend complicated global trends in an interactive and engaging manner. We miss his lively presence at TED these days but his legacy of communication that was as passionately presented as it was well-informed lives on.
In the technology sector, Julia Hartz, the co-founder of Eventbrite, stands out. When communicating about the platform’s underlying technologies, she focuses on the human experience, explaining how technology enhances user experiences and facilitates connections. She gets the fundamental point that a technology is not about the technology but about how it can enrich people’s lives. Hartz’s approach humanises technology, making intricate algorithms and software systems more relatable and easier to grasp.
These successful communicators consistently employ a few common key approaches:
Simplicity: They distill complex ideas down to their essence, presenting them in a clear and uncomplicated manner. This clarity makes the content more accessible and avoids overwhelming the audience with jargon or excessive detail. The assumption is, if you can make people interested in what you’re saying they will go and find out more. To overload them with detail from the start means, they probably will not.
Storytelling: Using narratives helps in packaging information into stories that are more engaging and easier to relate to. Storytelling fosters a connection between the speaker and the audience, enhancing retention of the information conveyed.
Analogies and metaphors: Comparing complex concepts with familiar situations or objects helps in improving the audience’s understanding. Analogies create a mental bridge that makes it easier to grasp and remember sophisticated ideas. Remember the famous pitch describing television? “Radio with pictures.” (OK, so maybe you don’t exactly REMEMBER it yourself, but you know what I mean.)
The right visuals: Using visual aids can enhance communication by catering to different learning styles. Visuals can make the presentation more engaging, helping to clarify concepts and maintain audience interest. They can of course also obfuscate, complicate and overload. They are not a blunt instrument with which to bludgeon the audience.
Leaders who excel in communicating complex ideas use a combination of tools and approaches to enhance their messaging. By employing these in just the right combination – and that is a very individual thing – they ensure that complicated concepts are not just transmitted but also effectively absorbed and retained by varied stakeholders, turning communication into a productive and engaging experience. Remember, “it’s not what you say, it’s what they hear.”
Circling back to the image at the top of this article, it is a useful technique to assume that the communication between you and the receivers of your message needs to squeeze through a narrow pipe, with lots of noise and distortion – just to really make your job difficult. The clearer your input, the more of it is likely to be received, and understood at the other end. Yep, if they told you effective communication was easy, they lied. Sorry.