When I began coaching scientists on giving compelling presentations, I typically advised
them to make their talks more accessible to listeners outside of their fields of expertise. I got a lot of pushback on this advice. Often, I heard things like:
“You probably can’t follow this presentation because you don’t have a Ph.D."
“I need to use technical language so people take me seriously.”
“You don’t understand, Shaheen - talks like this are SUPPOSED to be boring!”
It usually took me a few sessions to convince them that it was possible to keep the depth of their talk while making it comprehensible for a wider audience. This quote from Russell Ackoff, organizational theorist and Wharton professor, captures my sentiments nicely:
I once had a brilliant student, now a well known professor, who wrote a highly technical thesis. I asked him to assume that I was an ordinary corporate manager. Would he explain his thesis briefly? He went to the blackboard and began to cover it with mathematical symbols. I stopped him to remind him that I was an ordinary manager, not a mathematician... After a long pause he said, “I don’t understand what I’ve done well enough to explain it in non-technical language.” Unless people can express themselves well in ordinary English, they don’t know what they are talking about.
The students that were the hardest to convince were often the ones who made the most progress. It’s so satisfying when they reach that “AH-HA!” moment that they can use simple concepts and straightforward words to frame a talk, while preserving the technical depth. I bet all of us can think of a technical presentation that could have been easier to understand!
Do Professor Ackoff’s words resonate for you? Check out the book (it’s from 1986!), Management in Small Doses: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/6062875.
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