A sentence that I keep hearing from coaches that I understand but at the same time absolutely despise😡:
➡️ Your story: Dumb it down so a 5 year old could understand it!
While I agree with the core idea behind this advice, I cringe at the connotation it gives: 5 year old need to be talked to like they are dumb (🤔 and between the lines – so do partners, investors,…?).
Often in my work I asked for my boys‘ opinion or perspective on things. They look at visuals I pick for presentations from a very different angle, they find spelling mistake I read over, they asked questions I would never have thought of.
So, I was excited about the opportunity to talk to my 6 year old’s class about what we do at Rheiazymes yesterday.
I used the same storyline, the same contents that I use in company presentations – just with more interactive and exploratory elements to help their understanding. And the discussions that arose were anything but dumbed down:
We talked about the unfairness of waste colonialism and how to prevent it, the ways mushrooms digest food, the difference between mono and composite materials, how to find answers to questions when their are not yet any books written about it,…
That’s not dumbing down, that’s widening perspectives.🚀
So, instead of over-simplifying our messages we should think of ways how to help the understanding of our audiences – whether we talk to 5 year olds, fund managers or our granny!
➡️ I would be curious to hear your take on this!?🤔