When I first connected with the cloud industry, I found myself wondering what they were talking about. Knowledgeable in English and IT I was nevertheless unable to understand what they were talking about.

I experienced myself as being impressed but also somewhat dumb and incapable. Whenever I asked about one of the words they were using, they explained them with other words I couldn’t grasp either. After a while, I developed a sense of what they were talking about. I then tried to shift my approach and described what I had understood in as simple terms as possible. However, these descriptions of what I had understood created awkward moments. Their somewhat grandiose description had given them a sense of importance and safety they dreaded losing. Listening to a quite simple description transformed what had until then been an impressive idea for them. They didn’t know If they liked it.

It seemed to them that the impression they had created had fallen apart, a bit as if they had been unmasked.

For me, those moments usually were lightbulb moments, I had understood what they had been talking about. I could imagine it, discuss it, and learn more about it. It was the moment whatever they had described became tangible. However, I also experienced them as disappointments. The promise of something important, innovative, and even grandiose couldn’t be fulfilled. Another disappointment was that it had been up to me to figure this out.

One could have thought that I simply wasn’t trained in their vocabulary or that it was a professional language I had to learn. In parts this was true, but the more I looked into it, the clearer it became that most of them actually had no clue as to how they could describe it in plain words or with a simple story.

It also became clear that they saw this way of describing things as a means to sell more or better. Their assumption was that they needed to impress customers. What sounded like expert language seemed to be the way to go.

It was a shortcut. One that meant more work for others.

Figuring out how to talk in plain language and use simple words to describe something will always take more time and more work. When we have an in-depth understanding of a matter there is way more to say than there is time or space to explain that matter to others. Learning to choose the one facet that is relevant to others, distilling the essence of a matter, and knowing what to leave out are skills that become available when one seeks to be understood.

But it also is the starting point from which other people can become interested and will want to learn more. If the plain and simple description leaves some room for more.

PS. This reflection was triggered by the book “The PATH to Strategic Impact” by Dr. Michael Gerharz. Note that the P of PATH means “plain and simple.”