You and your team have a lot of ideas about how to improve the world.
But sometimes great ideas don’t gain traction. They’re met with blank stares, polite nods, or little follow up. Stakeholders and customers don’t take action on the message.
In past articles, we’ve explored ways to explain complex systems simply and market your initiatives within an enterprise. But I was excited to read “The Art of Explanation” by Lee Lefever because it clearly describes a framework for designing clear and concise explanations.
Through his company, Common Craft, Lefever makes short explanatory videos describing topics like cloud computing and net neutrality. In the book, he shares his framework for crafting explanations, derived from years of practice and research into what makes good explanations and why they work.
Explanations package facts in a way that helps people:
- learn about the causes, context, and consequences of those facts
- understand why they should care
- compels them to take action or learn more
Put in another way, explanations,
“Lower the cost of figuring out an idea and invite people to become customers of it in the future.”
Lee Lefever
There were a few tips in the book that you or your team might want to reference as you prepare for the next meeting, report, or presentation.
1. Consider where the audience is on the understanding spectrum
In the book, Lefever shares a diagram of a spectrum of understanding, which he called the “explanation scale.” Most of us tend to structure our presentations to resonate with people like us, who already know a lot about the topic, what Lefever calls the “bubble of expertise.”
However, the people we are trying to influence are often on the other end of the spectrum. The less they know about the problem, potential solutions, vocabulary, and the context surrounding the problem, the lower they’ll be on the understanding spectrum.
Considering how much the audience already understands about the subject can tell you where to start the explanation. On a scale of one to ten, with one being no understanding and ten being an expert on the topic, where is your audience? Where are you?
2. It doesn’t cost anything to start with a foundation
What if you’re presenting to a mixed group or you don’t know how much they already know?
Lefever argues that it’s always better to start with the basics. If you start with something simple, the experts may be slightly bored but they’ll more likely feel validated and refreshed on the basics. It doesn’t create a negative experience.
However, if you skip right to the advanced content, you might lose the people who needed more foundation to fully understand and act on your message. Which can cause them to tune out or feel frustrated.
So in your next explanation, start by level-setting with a few statements to set the context before diving into the details. I liked his advice to focus on helping others feel smart instead of making yourself look smart.
3. When understanding is low, lean more toward the why over the how
When understanding of the topic is low, people need to understand why they should care.
How does it relate to their life? What are the bigger themes or context to be aware of to emotionally and intellectually engage with the topic?
As the stage is set and the audience is clear on why they should pay attention, you can move more into the details of how the concept works, and talk less about the why.
4. When understanding is low, start with the forest instead of the trees
To save time, we might want to skip to the specific situation and how to resolve the problem. But when audience understanding is low, it’s beneficial to spend some time setting the context.
Like setting up a story, context helps outsiders orient themselves and follow along as you move into the details. It also helps them come up with follow up questions to further engage with the idea. And people who engage with our ideas are more likely to take action and promote it to others.
5. Link your explanation to what your target audience already knows
For newbies to your field, that means starting with facts you all know and agree with. You can also use analogies that connect the new idea to another concept they’re already aware of.
Unknown words can prevent people from understanding your message, so remove jargon and use the most basic language possible to help eliminate confusion so they can focus on the big ideas of your concept.
6. Tell a story with a human protagonist
By adding a story, you’re helping make the explanation more engaging by appealing to your audience’s empathy. The audience can see
The person could be real or hypothetical, but they need to be impacted by the concept that you’re trying to express. For example, the story might follow this simple structure: this person was like you, they had a problem, but then found a solution.
7. Go beyond recipes when you’re sharing descriptions
To make explanations actionable, think about the information that people need to take action. Like how a recipe answers “how do I use this information” by providing ingredients and step-by-step instructions to follow in order to achieve a result.
You can think of explanations in a similar
8. Prepare your explanation in three phases
The first phase of crafting an explanation is to identify a big idea or takeaway. Lefever suggests keeping a list of ideas that aren’t being adopted because of poor communication. In your context that might mean products, recommendations, or new habits that haven’t yet gained traction.
The second phase is to research and discover facts that could become packaged into an explanation of that big idea. Ask about the why behind the facts that you uncover. Why did the event occur? Why is that detail important?
Then the third phase is script
Many great ideas don’t gain traction because the explanation didn’t resonate. But with a few simple
How will you apply these tips to your next presentation?