Communication Breakdown

My dad used to call the little icons on his ’88 Ford Escort’s dashboard “idiot lights”. Why? Because they substituted the nuance and complexity of detailed analog gauges with big dumb binaries:

NEEDS OIL NOW! {light} vs. KEEP CALM & CARRY ON {dark].

“They think we’re idiots, hiding the details like that.” he grumbled.

“Or maybe they figure you don’t care.” I offered back.

As a technology communicator, I think of the “idiot light” tradeoff daily.

The boardroom crowd rarely has the technical background, the business-case, or the patience to get down with the arcane. Which is why side-sermons about the P vs. NP Problem get ejected in favor of speedy, but not-quite-right abstractions, metaphors, or over-simplifications: “Quantum is crazy fast!”

The server-room crowd, on the other hand, can detect charlatanism from 3 klicks out, and doesn’t have the patience for half-baked half-truths. No matter how “crazy fast”.

How to tune your message when ½ of the room is liable to think you’re… an idiot?

What I’ve come to learn: Before you talk, listen.

Specifically, consider if your audience is most interested in the 1.) “what”, the 2.) “so what”, or the 3.) “now what” of your topic du jour.

1.) The “what” crowd (scientists, engineers, etc.*) wants information. They don’t want to be inspired, nor sold-to, but informed. To help them understand a hard thing, you have to get past analogies, idioms, and idiot lights. You need to lean into prior art, first principles, and yes, sometimes even math. Don’t worry about boring them. Worry about puffery.

2.) The “so what” crowd (strategists, analysts, creatives, etc.*) wants insight. Synthesis and takeaways. “What does it all mean, and where is it all going?” I’ve found that this disposition favors models, visuals, and lists-of-n-things. If the prior group values facts in all of their hairy, irreducible glory, this group values insights, delivered memorably and in a way that snatches simplicity from the jaws of complexity.

3.) The “now what” crowd (senior execs, etc.*) wants action. Your remarks, however well-framed, are but a means to their real end: Decision-making. As drivers of the car, the “now-what” group loves idiot lights. Not because they’re not smart, but because they’re not being asked to be mechanics. It’s someone else’s job to admire the complexity and distill the simplicity. It’s their job to drive. Efficiently, effectively, and profitably. For this crew: Be brief, be bright, and be gone.

Thinking back to my then-disgruntled (now, dearly departed) dad, I might have said: “They didn’t think you were an idiot, dad. They knew that you were not so secretly more executive than mechanic.”

I think he’d smile at that.

~mb

*usually, but not always, and not only