Why can't I explain my work so people understand it?
You open your mouth, and the technical words come out first — because that is how you think. The listener's eyes glaze. You assume you need simpler words. You do not. You are still speaking from inside your own head, not from inside theirs. This is not a flaw in your knowledge. A weak grasp of the subject could not confuse people this precisely. You are strong on the subject and weak on the bridge — the path from what they already understand to what you want them to understand. Stop trying to dumb it down. Start finding out what ground they stand on, and build toward them from there, one plank at a time.
You are not failing to explain. You are refusing to translate. The words you reach for first serve your colleagues, not this listener. Stop polishing your explanation. Start studying the person in front of you. Learn what they already know, then build from there — not from what you know.
What changes unlock by starting
- You explain something complex and the listener nods because they followed it, not to be polite.
- You reach for comparisons out of habit instead of jargon.
- People stop interrupting mid-sentence to ask what a word means.
- You find you understand your own subject better once you strip it down.