Do You Communicate Like an Instruction Manual?

If you had been in my shoes, you would have been as frustrated as I was. Imagine that your barbecue burner is no longer working correctly. When you turn it on, only half of the grill becomes hot. The rest is as cold as a dark February night. What would you do? Right! But let's say you couldn't afford to go to the restaurant every day to have someone cook your meals for you, what then? You buy a new burner, of course.

And so I did and I spent a good part of my Friday evening trying to get the darn thing installed and working. The wrapping on the burner said it was easy to install and fit any barbecue. Now, where have I heard that before?

I confess that for the most part, it was fairly simple to install but there were some things that boggled the mind:

The installation contains 15 steps. At steps 3 and 4, they tell you to remove all the parts but to keep the old burner close by. At step 8, they ask to measure the height of the burner... while it is still inside the barbecue, as if you had never removed it.
There is only one drawing that shows the pieces included in the box. That drawing doesn't show everything: all the pieces are named, but I had to guess which ones they were.
The worst of all is step 11: in bold, capital letters the instructions say "POSSIBLE PERSONAL INJURY MAY RESULT IF THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE NOT FOLLOWED PRECISELY." Would this grab your attention? It grabbed mine! Then the instructions say: "Extend the venturi security wire to the gas manifold and secure the venturi to the gas valve." ... What??!

If you have ever bought do-it-yourself kits, you probably have seen similar instructions before. This is typical of people working in highly technical fields such as: computer programming, accounting, physics, medicine, cooking, dancing, painting, etc.

"Dancing and painting are highly technical?" you may be thinking. Yes, in fact they are. Each profession has its jargon and technical terms that only people in the field understand. To all others, it is just gibberish.

Influencing and connecting with people, whether you are on stage or meeting face to face, requires that you speak a language that the other person understands. It is very arrogant to expect everyone to understand technical terms that you consider simple.

So how can you make sure that people listening to you understand the technical aspects of what you say?

Put yourself in the other person's shoes: for example, in the case of my barbecue burner, the instructions should have been written for someone who doesn't know what a "gas manifold" is.
Provide the information in different manners: people learn using three methods: by seeing, by hearing, or by doing. If you can cover all three, you have a good chance of being understood by anyone.
Drop the jargon: jargon can include technical terms (such as "gas manifold") and acronyms (such as GSOH — and we need it more than ever today). Jargon can (sometimes) work fine if it is part of the every day vocabulary of your listener. But for anyone outside of your domain of expertise, it means nothing.
Pay close attention to the cues: if the other person doesn't understand, you will probably notice it by watching his or her reaction closely. Such cues include too much frowning, vague or uncertain answers to questions, and so on. Ask questions to clarify and make sure you are understood correctly.

Information is what you say, communication is what the other understands. If you don't make the time and effort to truly communicate with others, you become just another barbecue: letting off hot air.