Some of the most visible and important topics we encounter every day can also be some of the most difficult to explain.

As communicators, be that journalists, marketeers, statisticians, teachers, or parents, we are often encouraged to find the story. Find the angle. Make it memorable. Make it connect.

Scientists translate years of research into public guidance. Teachers condense entire subjects into lessons. Journalists reduce events into headlines.

Different professions. Arguably, the same challenge.

So, how do you take something enormously complex and explain it in a way that somebody else both understands, engages with, and remembers, all without losing the essence and truth of what makes it important?

It would be impossible for any one of us to be aware of every facet, nuance, or thread that makes up the fabric of reality. Even more challenging to transfer everything we know into someone else’s mind. Communication, therefore, inevitably requires selection.

Making something understandable, however, is not the same as making it simple.

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Simplifying the translation

In its simplest definition, communication is a process of the sharing or exchanging of information.

As communicators, marketers and strategists, we have a responsibility to carve narratives that convey complex messages in a way that connects with others. Is understood by others.

Part of that requires an act of simplification.

However, how much can we simplify before we begin changing the way in which that idea is ultimately understood?

Imagine spending ten years researching and developing a subject, only for it to be condensed into an eight-word headline, a thirty-second explanation or a single image meme. Topics such as economic growth, healthy eating, artificial intelligence, climate change. Countless variables and enough nuance in any of those topics to sustain interest and propel the next generation of research.

Yet, somehow we are expected to understand them, and form an opinion on them, in the time it takes to scroll past a social media post.

The purpose of communication, in my opinion, is not to make something simpler, nor simply to push out information. It is to make it understandable.

Communication doesn’t end when I stop pushing my message out. It begins when you understand what I am trying to communicate.

The skill, therefore, comes in knowing what can be removed and what can stay, while preserving the essence of what is meant to be conveyed to the people you are trying to engage.

Translation requires judgement

Two people can hear the same message and understand or remember completely different things. Emotion, previous beliefs and identity, influence what resonates and what we both understand and retain.

We can’t control how people interpret a particular message, data or piece of information. But we can influence what is put in front of people to begin with for them to interpret.

This is why technical experts often fail by saying too much.

Focusing on too much detail. Unwilling to trim anything because everything feels of equal importance. Creating friction by forcing those they communicate with to infer their own interpretation across complexity. Assuming knowledge, context and subject familiarity that may frankly not exist outside of their own competence.

This is equally why marketers sometimes fail by saying too little.

Stripping away so much of the essence that meaning itself is omitted. Making the message accessible, but either so generic or bland it blends into obscurity, or too simple that it creates false understanding through lost data fidelity.

Notice that both approaches fail to connect with the audience.

Perhaps, then, communication is not found in either extreme. Complexity is not the enemy. Neither is simplicity.

It would be rather easy (or even lazy) to write that what is required is a balance between both. That would be diminishing and oversimplifying the skill of good communicators. Those exercising judgement based on the context, audience, purpose and underlying message of the original information. Considering how much technical detail is needed to connect messaging without distorting it. And determining who, ultimately, decides what can be safely omitted.

Where do we draw the line?

Perhaps we place too much emphasis on treating simplicity of messaging itself as the objective. Making statements shorter, clearer, easier to consume. Equally, we shouldn’t be measuring how much complexity we managed to remove or leave in. None of these guarantee understanding.

Maybe that is why good communication is such a challenge.

There is no universal standard or correct level of detail that can be referenced. What may be necessary in one scenario, could be utterly superfluous in another.

Every act of communication is an act of editing.

Every explanation leaves something out. Every headline omits detail. Every presentation chooses what deserves attention and focus, and what frankly doesn’t make the cut.

We don’t overly notice these decisions. Microseconds of judgement.

They do, however, shape how we understand the world around us. How we help others understand the world around us. How we consume and engage with shared information.

That, perhaps, is the ultimate responsibility of communication. Deciding not simply what to say, but what is needed for shared understanding.

Blackboard with scientific formulae and calcuations. Image from Shutterstock.

How marketing is understood rather than delivered is a theme I explore often. If that resonates, subscribe to follow along.

When marketing in your organisation feels busy but not effective, you are not alone. There is usually a deeper challenge in how marketing is being understood.

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