Communicating effectively is shockingly uncomplicated
Summary
TLDRIn this insightful video, Matt, a strategy and operations associate at Google, shares his expertise on clear communication. He emphasizes the importance of clear thinking as the foundation for effective communication and outlines a three-step framework: knowing your goal, understanding your audience, and planning how to convey your message. Matt advises assuming zero context, avoiding jargon, and structuring your thoughts logically to ensure concise and impactful communication in various settings.
Takeaways
- 😀 Clear communication begins with clear thinking, emphasizing the importance of structuring thoughts logically before speaking.
- 🔍 A three-step process for effective communication includes knowing your goal, understanding your audience, and planning how to convey your message.
- 🎯 Knowing your goal is crucial for staying focused in conversations and ensuring that you achieve the desired outcome.
- 👥 Understanding your audience involves empathy and considering their perspective to tailor your message effectively.
- 🧐 Assuming zero context is important when communicating with others to avoid confusion and ensure everyone is on the same page.
- 🗣️ Avoiding jargon and using simple terms helps in making complex concepts understandable to a wider audience.
- 📝 Writing down your thoughts before speaking can clarify your thinking and improve the structure of your communication.
- 📈 Being structured in your communication helps to maintain focus and prevent derailing from the main points you want to discuss.
- 📑 Starting with context and ending with a call to action ensures that meetings or presentations have a clear purpose and lead to actionable outcomes.
- 🔄 Restating context at the beginning of meetings is a good practice to ensure everyone is informed and aligned.
- 📝 The act of writing can reinforce clear thinking, as it forces you to organize your ideas in a logical and concise manner.
Q & A
What is the main idea behind Albert Einstein's quote mentioned in the script?
-The main idea is that if one cannot explain a concept simply, they do not understand it well enough themselves.
Who is Matt, and what is his current role?
-Matt is a strategy and operations associate at Google, previously a Management Consultant at BCG, and he is sharing insights on clear communication.
Why is clear communication important regardless of one's background?
-Clear communication is important because it allows for structured thinking and effective, concise conveyance of ideas, which benefits anyone in various fields including students, professionals, and academia.
What is the starting point for clear communication according to the script?
-The starting point for clear communication is clear thinking, as it is essential to structure thoughts logically to convey the intended message effectively.
What is the three-step process Matt recommends for preparing to communicate effectively?
-The three-step process includes knowing your goal, knowing your audience, and knowing how you're going to say it.
Why is it crucial to know your goal before entering a conversation or meeting?
-Knowing your goal helps to maintain focus, avoid going off on tangents, and ensures that the conversation is directed towards achieving the desired outcome.
What does Matt suggest about understanding the perspective of the person you are communicating with?
-Matt suggests that empathy is key, and understanding the audience's perspective, their wants, and potential reactions can significantly improve communication effectiveness.
What is the importance of assuming zero context when communicating with an audience?
-Assuming zero context ensures that everyone in the audience has a clear understanding of the topic being discussed, preventing confusion and the need for follow-up questions about basic information.
Why should jargon be avoided when communicating with a non-technical audience?
-Jargon should be avoided because it can be confusing to those not familiar with the specific field, and clear communication requires breaking down complex concepts into simple terms that anyone can understand.
What is the significance of being structured when delivering a message?
-Being structured helps to maintain a clear flow of the discussion, prevents derailing by tangential questions, and ensures that all intended points are covered effectively.
Why is writing down your thoughts before speaking important for clear communication?
-Writing down thoughts helps to clarify and organize ideas, ensuring logical coherence, and allows for self-assessment of the message's clarity before presenting it verbally.
What role does a call to action play in a meeting or conversation?
-A call to action is crucial as it provides clear next steps or tasks for participants, ensuring that the meeting or conversation leads to actionable outcomes and progress towards goals.
Outlines
🗣️ The Essence of Clear Communication
Matt, a strategy and operations associate at Google, introduces the importance of clear communication for anyone, regardless of their background. He emphasizes that clear communication stems from clear thinking and presents a three-step process: knowing your goal, understanding your audience, and planning how to convey your message. The goal is to ensure that the message is concise, effective, and well-received by the audience, whether in a meeting, presentation, or academic setting.
🤔 Knowing Your Audience and Context
This paragraph delves into the importance of understanding the audience's perspective and having empathy in communication. It highlights the common mistake of assuming shared context and the need to explain complex concepts in simple terms, avoiding jargon. The speaker recommends starting any presentation or meeting by restating the context to ensure everyone is on the same page, which prevents confusion and ensures that the audience can follow the discussion without feeling lost.
📝 Structuring Your Message and Writing It Down
The final paragraph focuses on the practical aspects of delivering a clear message. It stresses the importance of having a structured approach to presenting information, which helps in maintaining focus and preventing derailing. The speaker advocates for writing down thoughts as a way to clarify thinking and ensure logical coherence. A structured message typically includes an introduction with context, a detailed discussion, and a conclusion with a call to action. The call to action is crucial for moving forward after the meeting or conversation, and writing things down helps in refining the message before speaking.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Clear Communication
💡Structured Thinking
💡Empathy
💡Context
💡Jargon
💡Call to Action (CTA)
💡Alignment
💡Push Back
💡First Principles Thinking
💡Fineman Technique
💡Delegation
Highlights
Albert Einstein's quote emphasizes the importance of simple explanations for clear understanding.
Matt's background includes roles at Google and BCG, providing a foundation for his communication advice.
Clear communication is beneficial across various backgrounds, including students, professionals, and academia.
Clear communication begins with clear thinking, structuring thoughts logically to convey points effectively.
A three-step process for effective communication includes knowing your goal, audience, and how to articulate your message.
Understanding your goal is crucial for concise and focused communication in meetings or presentations.
Empathy and understanding the audience's perspective are key traits of great communicators.
Technical jargon should be avoided; complex concepts should be broken down for better audience understanding.
Assuming zero context is important when communicating to ensure clarity for all participants.
Starting meetings with context prevents confusion and ensures everyone is on the same page.
Jargon should be removed for effective communication with non-technical audiences.
Einstein's quote and Richard Feynman's technique stress the importance of simplifying complex ideas.
First principles thinking applies to all fields, emphasizing the need to explain concepts in basic terms.
Knowing your audience and their perspective is essential before engaging in any conversation.
Being structured in your communication helps maintain focus and prevents derailing from the main topic.
Writing down your thoughts before speaking aids in clear thinking and effective communication.
Including a call to action in meetings ensures follow-through and progress towards objectives.
Ineffective meetings often lack clear action items and delegation, leading to lost momentum and objectives.
Transcripts
Albert Einstein famously said if you
can't explain it simply you don't
understand it well enough hi my name's
Matt I'm a current strategy and
operations associate at Google prior of
that was a Management Consultant at BCG
and today I'm going to explain to you
how to communicate clearly it doesn't
matter what your background is if you're
currently a student a working
professional or maybe even in Academia
clear communication is something that
anyone can benefit from because at the
end of the day the ability to think in a
structured way communicate those
thoughts to another human and do so in a
way that is concise and effective is a
skill that literally anyone can benefit
from so let's get right into it so the
first thing we need to understand before
we even get into how do I communicate
clearly is where does clear
communication start and I would say that
at the core clear communication really
starts with clear thinking because if
you cannot structure your thoughts in a
way that makes sense in a way that is
logical and in a way that conveys the
point that you want to get across to
someone then you're at a loss before
you've even opened your mouth now the
next natural question from here is well
then how do I think in a way that is
clear well I'll get into that later in
this video but it's important to keep in
mind that the root of all clear
communication starts with your ability
to think and your ability to be
structured and to be logical but that
said there is a three-step process that
I recommend following when you are
preparing to say speak in a meeting or
give a presentation whether it be in
school or at work or anywhere else and
this three step process is one know your
goal two know your audience and three
know how you're going to say it okay and
so I'm now going to dive into this
three-step framework and it'll make a
lot more sense why you should know your
goal know your audience and know how
you're going to say it if you want to be
able to come out of a meeting or an
interview where the person on the other
side of the table is thinking to
themselves wow that guy is a great
communicator so with step one which is
know your goal you would be surprised
how many people go into a conversation
or go into a meeting or even a
networking call without knowing what
they actually want to get out of it like
sure you could say yeah I just want to
you know learn a little bit more from
this person but what actually is your
goal here are you trying to learn
specifically about their role are you
trying to learn a little bit more about
their thought process in switching into
this industry or are you trying to just
ask them for a referral for a job
knowing your goal is the first step to
being able to convey your ideas in a way
that makes sense and is concise and so
that you don't ramble because whatever
your goal is you need to keep this at
the back of your mind and so to give a
work context example a good example of
this is going into a meeting knowing
that you want to get alignment with some
key stakeholders say it's like the CEO
or a VP someone very high up or maybe to
push back on something right these are
the most common situations that working
professionals will find themselves in
where they either need to get alignment
on something and say hey this is what
we've been working on all we need and
what we're looking for today is your
feedback but really your sign off on
this program or this new initiative that
we want to fund or we want to go to them
and say they've given us some sort of
task or request and we want to show them
that we've done some work and we've
thought about it already but given the
available resources and what we think is
feasible we'd like to push back on this
request because we don't think it's a
good use of our time or we think that
the request simply doesn't make sense
and if you're unable to get alignment or
to push back you're never going to be
able to get anything done at work if
you're not able to get alignment nothing
will ever get ped and if you're unable
to push back people will just pile a
million things on your plate and you'll
get overwhelmed and so going into any
sort of conversations with the goal in
mind is critically important because
it's going to keep you focused in the
conversation so that you don't go off on
random tangents and also so that you can
get your point across and so that
ultimately at the end of the
conversation you can remind yourself
okay did I accomplish this goal if not
what needs to to happen maybe that's
scheduling a follow-up call or some
other next steps that need to happen but
now that we know why it's important to
keep your goal in mind before you go
into a conversation the next step is to
know your audience now most people will
say no duh of course you got to know
your audience everyone knows that well
you would be surprised how many people
go into conversations without really
understanding the perspective of the
person sitting on the other side of the
table I would argue that empathy is one
key trait that a lot of great
communicators have in common because
they're able to put themselves in the
shoes of Their audience and really
understand not just what does my
audience want but how are they going to
react to certain things that I say and
how does their thought process
potentially differ from mine so
something that maybe I say that seems
logical to me may not necessarily sound
logical to them and another great
example that I often run into because I
do a fair number of coaching calls with
students and early professionals is
often with people who come from very
technical backgrounds so for example if
you are someone who is in Academia or
you've been you've been doing your PhD
in a very technical science related
field where there's a lot of jargon or
maybe you're in the medical profession
for example often times what happens is
you've been swimming around in all of
this technical jargon and all this
terminology for so long in your
day-to-day and there's nothing wrong
with that but when it comes to finally
communicating to someone who might not
come from that background say if you're
interviewing somewhere and you're
speaking with HR for example or even
talking to your friend about what you do
at work then you try to explain it to
them in a way that makes sense to you
but then you end up using a bunch of
words that they don't understand or
assuming far too much context which
brings me to the next point which is you
need to assume in most cases zero
context now this is just a broad
generalization here there are exceptions
to this rule like for example if you're
talking with a colleague that you've
been working very closely with on a
specific project project for a while
then you don't need to explain
everything to them but in 90% of cases
when you're explaining something to an
audience a group of people there is more
than often going to be one person who
lacks a certain level of context and you
as the presenter will often have the
most context and so you always need to
assume that everyone else has a little
bit less context than you okay and so
how does this manifest in practice well
this means that at the beginning of any
presentation or at the beginning of
every meeting you start and you open
with context you say something like all
right thanks everybody for joining us
today as a reminder we've been working
on this project for the past 3 weeks and
it's focused on figuring out if there is
a possible solution to this problem and
so we've engaged with X Y and Z
different parties at the company so far
and today the purpose of the meeting is
to get everyone's alignment on the
process that we've landed on and
determine what the next steps are
something like that I'm obviously making
this up as I go but you always need to
assume zero context and I know some of
you might be thinking is this really
necessary like it feels a little bit
redundant to always have to do this and
what I would say to that is look nobody
will get mad at you for restating the
context and grounding everybody in the
pre-existing facts if somebody gets
upset that you simply spent an
additional 5 to 10 seconds laying out
the groundwork before diving into the
details that's a them problem not a you
problem so don't worry about sounding
redundant you need to be concise but you
can always restate the context at the
beginning of every meeting and I also
just mentioned this but just to write it
down remove the jargon if you're
communicating with someone who's not
Technical and a note on jargon I
honestly don't think that using jargon
is very effective in any sort of
contexts unless you happen to be
speaking with someone who also is in
that same field and would really
understand I think that at the end of
the day any complex concept should be
able to be broken down into extremely
basic components and you should be able
to explain it to someone in extremely
simple terms again going back to that
Einstein quote if you cannot explain it
simply you simply don't understand it
well enough and Richard feeman who is
another famous physicist also advocated
for the Fineman technique which is when
you basically take a complex concept and
you write it down on a piece of paper
you try to explain it in very basic
terms and analogies and basically teach
it to yourself and at the end of that if
you don't still understand this concept
then you have to go back and even
simplify it further which really goes to
show that first principles thinking
being able to break things down into the
most basic components is applicable to
any field no matter how complex if you
cannot explain to basically a
10-year-old what you are working on then
that either means that you do not
understand it well enough or whatever
you're working on doesn't make as much
sense as people think and maybe there's
a problem but all that's to say you
really need to know your audience and
put yourself in their shoes before you
even open your mouth if you do that you
will be much more effective in meetings
and in interviews and in conversations
with people because people aren't going
to have as many questions about oh wait
why are we even having this conversation
and what were we working on before that
all of these kinds of questions can be
avoided if you ground everybody in the
facts before you get into the details
okay but that brings us to the third
step which is know how you're going to
say it and there's really two things
here one is you need to be structured
and two is you need to write it down
okay well why do you need to be
structured being structured is important
because if if you don't come into a
meeting with basically like a road map
of the things you want to talk about it
is very easy to get completely derailed
when one person suddenly asks a question
about the first thing that you wanted to
talk about and then the whole
conversation goes in that direction and
by the end of like 30 minutes or maybe
an hour all you guys have done is spent
that entire time talking about that one
thing when in reality you wanted to talk
about three or four different things and
so it's important to be structured from
that perspective but also because this
is going to force you to think about
okay how do I actually want to deliver
this message I know high level what my
goal is and what outcome I want to drive
and I know who my audience is but how am
I actually going to in practice deliver
this message in a way that is the most
effective is the most logical and is the
most likely to convince this person or
this group of people to do what I want
basically and so being structured simply
means you think through okay the flow of
the presentation or the discussion right
you're going to start with number one
and then you're going to go to number
two and then finally you're going to end
with number three and maybe there's some
call to action here now number one is
usually the context which means you want
to start with the context as I've
mentioned assume zero context from your
audience two is you want to get into the
meat of the discussion right and so this
will probably be broken out into
multiple multiple talking points if it's
a complex problem and you're going to
end with a basically a recap and CTA
which is a call to action now the call
to action is really important because at
the end of every meeting and at the end
of every conversation with like a
business partner or a professor or
anyone else that you're working with or
trying to convince of something you need
to have some sort of call to action now
this could be as simple as saying at the
end of a meeting all right so it sounds
like we've got an alignment on this in
terms of next steps it sounds like Matt
you are going to put together the
financial model for this business uh Bob
you're going to put together some
trading comps so that we can understand
what the market is currently valuing
this company at and Alyssa you're going
to start putting together a list of
potential buyers for this business so
the call to action is basically just
also delegating work to different people
or yourself depending on what the
outcome of that meeting was and you need
that because it's going to move things
forward from the meeting you don't just
want the meeting to be a meeting and
that's it in most cases you actually
want people to do something coming out
of that meeting even if it's as simple
as sending an email out to someone
because otherwise why are you even
having this meeting the most ineffective
meetings that I have ever been been in
in my professional career which granted
hasn't been that long have been meetings
where there was a discussion for like an
hour and at the end of it nobody knew
what to do and so coming out of that
meeting nothing moved forward because
there were no action items and the
person running the meeting simply wasn't
able to delegate effectively and so you
just lose momentum and the objective
doesn't get achieved but moving to the
second Point here which is you should
write it all down going back to what I
had said earlier about how the root of
all clear communication is clear
thinking I would argue that if you can
write clearly you can think clearly
because writing and thinking are very
similar and if you're able to put down
ideas on paper in a way that is logical
and makes sense if you can write
effectively then that means that you can
think effectively and if you can think
effectively and write effectively then
you already have 50% of the battle when
it comes to communicating effectively
and so I would say the biggest thing
here is again to be concise and to be
logical and the reason why I always
write things down before I have to
present something or before I have to go
into a meeting where I have to speak is
because if you read it back and it
doesn't make sense then do you really
think it's going to make sense when it
comes out of your mouth no right so
that's why it's so important to be able
to put your ideas down on paper or in
writing if you want to be able to
communicate effectively
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