Carl's Corner
by Carl Pritchard, PMP, PMI-RMP, EVP (September 2,  2011)

Linguistic gymnastics.  Verbal legerdemain.  Erudite elucidation.  Language is a wonderful thing.  And we love to flex it.

I'm accused of this all the time by my own family.  "DAD!  Use real words!" my son will contend.  He irritates me no end, as he's right.  If a simpler, clearer word will do the trick, we should use it.  So why don't we?

As the waterboy for the verbose among us, let me suggest that some of us use bigger words not because they're bigger, but because they're more precise.  "Cloistered" has different implications than "tucked away."  It evokes the notion of a monk in his cell, fervently working on some detailed ancient text.  It's precise.  It has meaning.  And yet, there are those who wouldn't know what it means.  So as professionals, we're left in a quandary.  Do we opt for the precision of sometimes confusing language?  Or do we opt for clear, simple, plain English?

I might suggest that we should start with the latter and move to the former.  

Clear English First

In technical conversation in particular, it's vital to start the conversation with the simple version first.  As a fan of the television show "Numb3rs," I love that the main character (Charlie) always has to boil his complex mathematical equations and principles down to simple analogies.  Rather than trying to explain what a Quincunx board is and how it relates to normal distributions in statistical probability, Charlie brings one out.  He explains if you want to find out where an outcome is likely to be, you can't just drop one ball through a series of pins.  You drop a lot of balls.  And you find out where most of them land. That's a distribution.  He doesn't use the words "binomial," "standard deviation" or "symmetric" in his explanation.  He could.  He'd be more precise.  He'd be right.  And the show would have tanked after the first season.

Similarly, we need to adapt a Charlie-like attitude on all things technical.  When we're about to explain something, it's not an opportunity to show off how much we know.  It's an opportunity to show off how we can make the complex simple.  

Complex Later (or written)

More technical aspects of the concepts should be saved for later, or ideally, be written down.  It's a language.  In high school and college, I learned French.  I used to be almost fluent.  It's now rusty.  REALLY rusty.  I can still read French, but speaking and writing are beyond me.  Unless you're immersed in a language, having it written down is a wonderful crutch.  The same applies to technical language.  If we've already provided an explanation with broad strokes in clear, plain, English, our audiences can afford to miss a word or two in the more detailed explanations that follow.  There's little or no harm.  And we may educate them along the way.  If the initial message was clear, this supports it.  If the audience is more technically astute than we initially gave them credit for, this builds on their knowledge.  

Finding the balance between the technical importance of what we have to share and the ways in which we share it is a delicate balance.  But if we take the time to think through the core elements of what we're trying to communicate, and generate them in a way that others can readily understand, we win hearts.  (We can show off later..)

Carl Pritchard appreciates and welcomes your comments and insight at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Join him for PMI-RMP Prep - The VIRTUAL Experience.  More information at www.carlpritchard.com/NEW/index.html