Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you’ve explained a concept to someone, and they just don’t seem to get it?
Repetition may be a core aspect of learning, but that’s only when the teaching lands the first time. When the other person doesn’t get the concept at all, repeating it the same way multiple times won’t help.
And the constant repetition drains precious resources — time and energy — that you could be spending on other tasks.
Before you blame your “student” (whoever is the recipient of your teaching) consider that it’s not their fault. It’s the job of the teacher to communicate in a way that the student can understand the concepts.
If you want to be effective with your time and energy, a good place to start is by communicating more effectively.
Here are 3 tips to communicate more effectively with anyone.
(1) Consider Your Main Point
Before you even open your mouth, or put your fingers to the keyboard, consider the main point that you want your audience to take away.
You may have a lot of things that you want to say, but what do you want your listener/reader/student to remember?
Make sure you don’t lose your thread.
(2) Consider Your Audience
Who are you speaking to or communicating with?
What knowledge do they have about whatever you’re talking about?
What interests them, aside from potentially the topic you are discussing with them? What are their hobbies? What are they into?
What is their cognitive capacity to take in new information?
(3) Use Metaphor
Using metaphor is one of the most effective ways to convey concepts to others — especially complicated concepts.
The word “communicate” means to make common. And that’s what metaphor does.
Through metaphor, you “translate” from one realm to another. The word means to “cross over.” Metaphor provides a bridge between one knowledge domain to another.
It also serves another purpose, which is to keep your listener engaged.
For example, in my real estate business, I know it’s easy for clients to glaze over when I discuss pricing strategies with them. But when I talk about surfing with a client who loves to surf, they engage more. By using surfing metaphors to share the philosophy of pricing a home, I can keep them more engaged and invested in the process. They’re also more likely to remember what we’ve discussed.
Once you know what your listener/student is interested in, you can draw on those interests to create metaphors that will resonate with them.
The best teachers and communicators make rich use of metaphor to convey their messages.
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