Beware the curse of knowledge
From pings and dings to mental chatter and real-life natter, there are so many ‘noises’ that get in the way of us transmitting and receiving information.
The one I see the most - especially in technical team environments - is the assumption that our audience knows as much as we do. In fact, it’s so common that three clever economists took time to look into it and give it a name way back in 1989: the curse of knowledge.
When I live and breathe my area of expertise, it easy to overlook the fact that the people I'm communicating with may not. Even if my audience works in the same field, there’s still a chance they weren’t in the same meetings, didn’t receive the same emails or haven't retained the same volume of information.
Starting my communication two or three steps ahead of them will confuse them. And confusion is the first step to them switching off and disengaging with the conversation. My tricks to avoid falling victim to the curse of knowledge:
Speak with one or two people from my target audience to understand what they know about the topic before I communicate.
Use these insights to plan the structure, language, channel and content of my message.
Start with a refresher on the background e.g. one or two sentences at the start of an email, pre-reading before a meeting or a quick summary at the start of a presentation.
Stop regularly and ask open ended questions to get the audience talking so I can find out what they know and what more they need to know.
Avoiding assumptions about your audience's knowledge will mean less stress for you. Less stress for your audience. And ultimately, more time for everyone to spend on meaningful work.
