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Taking Complex Information and Simplifying It

4/25/2015

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The goal of a communicator is to translate. You take subject matter and transfer it to another human being.  That individual should understand your message and then be able to digest the essence of it, and send it on to another person.  If not, you’ve failed.

When I speak with others about what I do, I often say, “I’m a translator.” Think of it this way:  You get a problem sent to you in scientific-speak.  If you send it on in the same format, only those who recognize and understand science-speak will absorb your message. That means you must translate.

Readers need to get what you say.  When I worked for the U.S. Department of Energy, I remember a high ranking woman coming to me for help with a memo.  She was sending a message to the field loaded with redundancies, acronyms and big words that obfuscated her message.  No one would understand it.  My head swam reading it.

To her credit, she knew it was bad.  She just didn’t know how to fix it.  I took the three-page meandering gook and condensed it to one page of three core paragraphs.  I gave her declarative message, stated why the change needed to be made, then reinforced it in the third paragraph.  End of translation.

When I brought the changes to her, she read it quickly looked at me with a stunned expression, and said, “How did you do this?”  Her question warmed my heart because it showed how important (and often devalued) superior communication is.  I responded, “It’s my job.  I’m a translator.”  And a condenser, a simplifier and a sense-maker.

But most importantly as a communicator, you want to be a translator, taking more complex material and simplifying it so others understand.  Keep that in mind when you write, and your transmissions will gain a greater readership.

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