Intelligibility

The very first principle of all

As I was going through an Excel sheet this morning, I felt my heart pounding, an overwhelming rush of stress and I just wanted to scream… WHAT THE FUCK !!! There I said it… I’m in a place where I can’t really scream, so here I am, writing about what I believe if the the very first principle of all principles : INTELLIGIBILITY.

Few weeks ago, I was in a meeting during a tense negotiation between two parties. I was surprised about the lack of synchronisation between them. The lines were blurred between the intentions on one side and the posture on the other. And it wasn’t even intentional. I couldn’t tell whether they wanted to actually work together nor if they had everything they needed to both make an informed decision. It was baffling of approximation. I stepped in to clarify everything on each side until they were in a position to actually talk, negotiate and decide.

Those lost of translation moments, this lack of clarity, absence of understanding framework is often observed in conversations. It’s unfortunately very common and I can understand why. The process of iteration requires to take step back in order to understand and adapt towards a better version of something, which isn’t an easy task during a live discussion.

However, this same process of iteration is not only expected when you work on a note, an email, a presentation, an excel sheet, or even an oral pitch prepared in advance, it’s required and critical. One doesn’t have an excuse to come up with approximation, your level of intelligibility defines your level of clarity and therefore your ability to share those things in the best possible way towards your audience.

And don’t get me wrong, it’s no easy task. It is always complex to turn a lot of information into a simple and complete narrative, whether it’s in words or numbers. But your presentation or excel sheet are not about you, they’re about what you manage to convey intelligibly often in a short period of time and if possible autonomously, meaning that a short voice over should be enough to explain your work.

So, when you’re working on a presentation, a note, a sheet, few things to keep in mind:

• Learn to teach, use the Feynman principle, even for a sheet.

• Less is more. Reduce words, slides, tabs. Don’t expand.

• Trim down. Don’t try to cover everything, choose your battles.

• Make things linear, like a story, it’s not a choose-your-own-adventure book.

• When people ask something, make sure you really understand the question.

• Ask people to rephrase / re-explain / repeat what you’re telling them.

• If people don’t understand, it’s your fault, not theirs. Retry.

I wish the excel sheet I was looking at had magically turned into an intelligible dashboard while I was writing this piece. If only :)

Have a great day !