Consumable communication

Three times in the last week, I have had the same déjà vu-inducing experience. First, when I was helping a client prepare a high-tech conference speech, second, when writing an article about dark pools of liquidity in the European equity trading landscape (welcome to my world), and finally, while listening to a friend bemoan her ineffective interdepartmental meetings. My friend perfectly summed up the common thread in these experiences: “How are we supposed get anything done if we can’t understand a word anyone says?”

If Dove can have a campaign for natural beauty, then I’d like a campaign for natural simplicity. Simple, consumable communication. In other words, speaking in a way that reasonably educated people can understand.

How often have we left meetings muttering that our colleagues ‘just don’t get it’? Clearly, they’re not smart enough, right? How often do we dress up our points in overly ornate vocabulary, trimmed with electrifyingly eloquent verbosity in an attempt to blind our colleagues with our brilliance? (For full effect, read the last sentence in very posh English accent).

I’ve been in numerous meetings when the crack team assigned to solve a problem has been summoned to provide an update. Enter the team, all keyed up, PowerPoint ready. Within minutes, their audience sits with eyes glazed, baffled by jargon, diagrams and detail.

From a marketing perspective, clear, consistent communication is drummed into our heads from the first day on the job. For example, have we clarified the features and benefits? Is it clear how products and services can help clients solve their problems?

But what about every day life? We live in a jargon-filled world that is only getting more incomprehensible. (My variation of Moore’s Law: as the cost of technology halves, the quantity of jargon doubles.) And that’s fine, but why does everyone have talk as though they have swallowed a technical manual?

Communication consists of two parts. What you say and how you’re heard. If you’re not getting your point across, what message are you communicating? How clear are you?

It’s not rocket science. I know, because I’ve worked with a rocket scientist. He has the generous gift of breaking things down into simple, digestible parts. Everyone around him understood him and so his projects were highly successful.

So let’s campaign for natural simplicity. Simple, consumable communication. Unless I’m just not smart enough.

Contributed by Julia Streets