You may have “The Curse of Knowledge” as Chip and his brother Dan Heath have dubbed this phenomena in their new book, Made to Stick.
As Mark Howell encapsulates it, “Ever try to lead your team to do something...and find them looking back at you with a kind of glazed look? Like they were in a trance? Or maybe, they all were nodding their heads in a agreement but later you realized that they had no idea what you meant when you were talking about "taking the hill" or "’staying the course.’"
Once you're an expert you slip over to abstractions and shortcuts. You forget what it's like to be figuring out what to do...and instead you talk about things in a kind of shorthand language. Once you're an expert you tend to adopt grand phrases that sound elegant but are too abstract for your team to really understand exactly what it means. What it means, for instance, to actually win the game you're playing.”
For example, the Heaths cite the difference between biology students and biology teachers. One is quite capable of discussing animal taxonomy systems and the other is just trying to remember whether reptiles lay eggs or not.
The Heaths suggest getting concrete to be sticky. As Karen Bannan notes in her New York Times article, the MD Moms understand how to offer the concrete, compelling story.
Say it so they see it …
Republican pollster Frank Luntz offerings his version of George Lakeoff’s model of framing a situation in his new book, Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear.
To that let me gently add that you begin by getting specific sooner.
Discover how to “Speak English Like it Tastes Good.”
Oh yes, and clarity would help too as this overhood comment in San Francisco shows:
In a Union Square department store the other day, Angela Weber heard a woman on a cell phone say, "No, I'm not in the middle of sex. I'm in the middle of Saks.'' She paused, then answered the person on the other end of the line: "Yes, there is a difference.''
