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What if you were able to explain complex ideas in a simple way?

As a leader of your company, there are a number of different occasions where you have to discuss various complex ideas and complex issues. 

In your native language, this can be difficult. 

It's always difficult to explain and discuss complex ideas with staff or stakeholders.

In ENGLISH, it can be significantly MORE DIFFICULT trying to use English when you're not confident using English.

Let's focus on trying to explain complex ideas in English.

There are a number of different ways to do this.

Some of my clients feel that they need to have more descriptive and more accurate vocabulary for them to be able to explain these complex ideas to their staff or have great discussions with their staff about this.

And I've explained to them that that's not necessarily the situation.

You don't have to have great vocabulary in English to be able to do this.

WHAT YOU DO NEED ARE SOME GREAT SKILLS.

I focus on helping people become confident with great communication skills.

The reason is that, even if your English isn't at the level in which you would like it to be, if you can focus on using GREAT COMMUNICATION SKILLS, you'll be able to communicate in English as well as you can in your native language.

And that's the whole idea - to make you as successful in English as you are in your native language.

Let's take a look at some different things that you can use in trying to explain complex ideas.

First, as in all communication, the MOST IMPORTANT THING is TO REALLY KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE.

AND REALLY UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE.

Who are you talking to in this situation?

What group is it? 

AND REALLY UNDERSTAND AND KNOW THEM.

And it's REALLY IMPORTANT to be able to get that point across.

Second, you want to take complex information, and BUILD A STORY or CREATE AN ANALOGY, something that THIS GROUP can really RELATE TO.

MAKE IT SIMPLE and allow them to RELATE TO whatever this complex information is.

THROUGH A STORY. 

THROUGH AN ANALOGY.

We can all understand that with different examples, and it works really well.

Next, if you have a long list of items, let's say there's The 10 Most Important Things That We Need To Understand With This Complex Issue.

Well, take those 10 and COMBINE THEM and MAKE 3 DIFFERENT CATEGORIES.

So instead of thinking of a list of the top 10, think of 3 big items and take those 10 and distribute them into each of these 3 categories and now you only have 3 categories to explain to everybody.

 MUCH MORE SIMPLE.

And again, you want to be able to have YOUR AUDIENCE RELATE TO these 3 categories.

Next, you want to make certain that YOUR AUDIENCE CAN RELATE TO ALL OF THE INFORMATION that you are giving. 

You are speaking to a specific group.

MAKE YOUR INFORMATION RELATABLE TO THIS GROUP.

And if you're explaining this complex information  to 5 different groups in your organization, you are going to explain this in 5 slightly different ways so that each of those audiences can understand what this information is about and how it relates to them.

And finally, you want to make sure that you explain this

IN A WAY THAT'S IMPORTANT TO THIS AUDIENCE.

What do they care about most?

WELL, MAKE YOUR MESSAGE VERY SPECIFIC TO THEM.

So not only can they RELATE TO IT, but it's IMPORTANT TO THEM.

And when you can TAILOR YOUR MESSAGE so that it's IMPORTANT to them.

And use it on all of the steps above that I just shared with you, it makes this communication so much more effective.

Do you need great English for this?...    NO!

You need to think about WHO YOU ARE SPEAKING TO.

You may need to make it easy through some type of STORY or EXAMPLE.

You need to make it RELATABLE TO THEM.

And, you need to make it IMPORTANT TO THEM.

And by focusing on skills, you can communicate in English as well as you can in your native language.

That's what it's all about.

Please send me a note.

Tell me if you have any questions about this.

Even more importantly, I'd love if you would tell me a story that you tried to do this and explain how it went.

I know it's going to go well. 

You can do this.  

Have a great week.

I'll talk to you soon.
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Additional Resources:

The Stanford University Graduate School of Business hosts a great podcast titled Think Fast, Talk Smart that includes many excellent tips and strategies on a range of business communication topics. 

One of the Think Fast, Talk Smart podcasts was focused on this important topic. Click on the image below (or this link) to go to the podcast and full transcript, titled How To Make Complex Ideas More Accessible.