Marketing Communications Turning Complex Ideas Into Easy

"It's complicated."

How often do you want to say this when you are explaining your work, or your ideas, or your passion?

Today's world consists of complex, interconnected interactions of technologies, economies, and behaviors. The problems to be solved are wicked: plagued by incomplete information, contradictory needs, changing requirements, overwhelming amounts of data, and staggering scale. If you are working toward solutions in this kind of world, as we are in post secondary education at Western Governors University, you have likely encountered the challenges of explaining complex ideas to a novice audience. You may even grapple with this complexity when explaining the challenge to a colleague or project partner.

Yet, to solve these systemic problems we must communicate effectively across diverse audiences. To help, I've distilled a mix and match list of seven tips for explaining complex things.

If you're in a hurry, here's the list.

Now, let's explore each in a little more detail.

1. Use simple present tense

Simple present tense, as its name implies, is the simplest form of the verb used for current or habitual actions: We write. We think. We solve.

Compare that to: We are going to write. We have been thinking. We might be able to solve. Save these more complex constructions for the brainstorming meeting. When explaining complex ideas, use simple present tense as much as possible. Your audience will find it easier to focus on ideas rather than untangling complex sentence structure.

"But wait!" you might say. "My ideas and solutions aren't real yet. We're still working on them. I'm not even sure they are right." In that case, use simple present tense to talk about the current state of your understanding or concepts. Those are true right now. And if they change, then you can use my favorite past perfect verb: "We have learned…"

2. Choose Plain Language

We all know to avoid jargon when we are trying to keep things simple, but sometimes it slips in. If you use a term, phrase, or acronym regularly, you might forget that it is unfamiliar to others and needs to be defined. Avoiding or defining jargon is just one way to keep language simple. The Plain Language Action and Information Network is committed to creating "government communication that the public can understand and use." What a perfect use case for explaining complex things! Their website with good advice on using plain language is worth a visit.

3. How Analogies Can Help (...or Why "Life is like a box of chocolates…"

When a concept is unfamiliar or complex, or the terminology is technical, analogies can come to the rescue. For example, if you are explaining APIs to a non-technical audience, you could say, as Wikipedia does: "Anapplication programming interface (API) is an interface or communication protocol between a client and a server intended to simplify the building of client-side software." Or you could use an analogy like Timothy Choi does and say that APIs are like the teller in a bank who interfaces between the customer and the vault. The teller knows all the protocols for getting the money safely and accurately in and out of the vault. The customer doesn't have to.

Creating good analogies takes practice, but it is a skill you can build. Try creating several, then carry them a little too far to see how long you can keep the parallels going before the comparisons break down. If you have several audiences, considering developing different analogies that will be familiar to each audience.

4. Tell Stories

Stories have power. Telling the story of a user experiencing an idea, or problem, or solution makes it real and approachable. If you don't have a real user whose story you can tell, consider creating some personas. Whether you use the user experience or marketing approach to personas and whether yours are fictional or research-based, these representative heroes can make your explanation friendlier and more accessible.

5. Leverage Thinking Patterns

Rhetorical patterns like narrative, process, description, compare & contrast, assertion, or opinion and support fall in and out of favor as a pedagogical tool. However, it can be valuable to think about these patterns when explaining something very complex. Which pattern comes closest? That may help you to organize your information in clearer, more succinct ways. Susan Fawcett has helped countless people improve their writing through her popular books Grassroots and Evergreen. She once pointed out to me that these patterns aren't hack ways to churn out boring first-year composition essays—they are thought patterns that we all share as humans. Tapping into them can help get to common ground faster.

6. Create a Picture

Making a picture to explain a complex idea is a classic solution, but some people find creating pictures intimidating. Remember, you are simplifying, so you don't need to know Photoshop or InDesign to make a useful image. Powerpoint can be a passable entry level design tool. (You may have guessed, but that's how I made the hexagon image in this article.) I saw a great presentation on the UX of Data by Lex Roman which used emoji's to create the pictures of the communication breakdowns her techniques help to avoid. A series of stock photos or icons from a site like Icon Finder can do wonders.

7. Leave Space for Sense Making

You may have committed hours that stack into weeks which stack into months understanding a problem or system deeply. If so, it is a natural and generous thing to want to share all of the details with your audience, so they can see the beautiful complexity that you do. Unfortunately, this rarely works. Ideas are like icebergs. Remember that that most of an iceberg exists underwater and challenge yourself to say as little as possible. Think of it as your MVE—your Minimum Viable Explanation. Pique your audience's interest. Encourage them to ask questions. This will help you know how deeply they can dive with you.

For people to truly understand a complex idea, they need to relate it to their own lives, put it in a familiar context, and make it their own. Leave space in your explanations for them to do that! Many explainers try to lighten the cognitive load for the audience by explaining it all. But humans like to think, solve problems, and make connections. Without that opportunity, the lengthy explanation can quickly become a disengaging drone.

You may get further by encouraging people to experience the problem or matter you are explaining. Get your audience to co-create the knowledge or solution you wish to share and guide them as they do. You are likely to find that you end up

• Using simple present tense
• Saying as little as possible
• Using analogies,
• Telling stories and using personas
• Creating pictures
• Selecting the best thinking patterns.

You may also find, in the process that you deepen your own understanding as well.

linevench1975.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/seven-simple-ways-explain-complex-ideas-joann-kozyrev

Share this post