Carmine Gallo is a fine guy who has some serious communication chops.
Recently, I stumbled upon an interview he did with none other than Annie Kritcher, a nuclear physicist who's been making waves.
If you haven't heard of her, she was actually chosen by TIME magazine as one of the "most influential" people of 2023, which is a big deal.
Hands down, Annie is an absolute genius in her field.
But what sets her apart is her incredible ability to take mind-bogglingly complex concepts and break them down into simple, everyday language anyone can grasp.
There's this particular part of the interview that blew my mind, happening right around the 2:57-minute mark.
Carmine: Can you tell us, in plain English, to a non-PhD - can you explain your experiments in nuclear fusion and why it's relevant to the world and to all of us?
Annie: We’re trying to bring the same process that powers the sun to the Earth so that we can harness energy in a controlled, laboratory setting. It’s really important because it’s the holy grail of the clean energy future, because there are no carbon emissions, and it’s unlimited. But it’s really difficult to do because we have to create these little suns in the laboratory. My job is to figure out how we can do that.
Let me introduce you to something called the Readability Score, a nifty tool that can help you gauge just how easily understandable your message is.
It takes various factors into account, like sentence length, word choice, and overall structure, to give you an idea of how your words may resonate with others.
A high Readability Score is like a green light, indicating that your idea is clear, concise, and oh-so-easy to digest.
According to Grammarly's assessment, Annie's answer is a shining example of simplicity.
Her explanation is so straightforward that even the average eighth-grader can get it without breaking a sweat.
Rather than drowning people in jargon or confusing technical terms, Annie goes for simple, one-syllable words that paint vivid pictures in our minds.
She compares her experiments to "little suns," making them easy to envision and understand.
“If you’re writing for a broad audience of adults, what grade level should you strive to achieve? The answer might surprise you: eighth grade. Content written at the eighth-grade level can be read and understood by 80 per cent of Americans. For context, academic papers, incomprehensible to the vast majority of readers, are written for grades sixteen to eighteen. The Harry Potter series of books are readable for students in grades six through eight. Amazon employees are instructed to aim for a grade level of 8 or lower.” - Carmine Gallo
Think about it.
When your message is clear and your words flow effortlessly, you have a much better chance of connecting with others.
Annie is where she is because she says more with less.
She speaks like a human.
And this is where things get interesting.
Later, Carmine puts her to the test, asking her to explain the experiment's results to a nuclear engineering PhD holder.
Guess what?
She doesn't skip a beat.
She effortlessly jumps into a deep, technical talk like it's a piece of cake for her.
“We were able to achieve ignition, a rapid increase in Deuterium-Tritium temperature associated with alpha-particle self-heating, by increasing the hot-spot plasma energy density.”
Now, she uses words that only a select few people can understand.
And that’s the point.
Annie has an exceptional ability to seamlessly translate her work for different audiences.
It’s the difference between people paying attention and “getting it” versus saying “I don’t care.”
IDEO’s Chief Creative Officer Paul Bennett understood this.
When IDEO was hired by a big hospital to redesign the patient experience, they stumbled upon something obvious, yet completely overlooked.
The hospital execs were probably expecting IDEO to deliver a long report full of graphs and stats and flashy PowerPoint slides with fancy designs for the rooms.
But guess what IDEO gave them instead.
A mind-numbing six-minute-long video showing nothing but the ceiling tiles of a hospital room.
“When you lie in a hospital bed all day, all you do is look at the roof, and it’s a really shitty experience.” - Paul Bennett, IDEO’s Chief Creative Officer
Those six minutes sparked a wildfire of action among the hospital staff.
They redecorated the ceilings, added whiteboards for visitors to leave messages to the patients, and revamped the patient rooms with a personal touch.
They even put rear-view mirrors on hospital stretchers so patients could connect with the doctors and nurses wheeling them around.
Patients went from feeling like objects to being treated as real people in pain and distress.
Both Annie and IDEO understood the power of translation.
They knew that to captivate an audience, they had to bridge the gap between complex ideas and simple understanding.
Like professional translators, they transformed their knowledge into a language that resonated with everyone.
Can you do that with your project?
After all, maybe, you are in the translation business.
PS. Do you struggle to set yourself apart from your competitors? Does your tone of voice lack a little personality? Either way, get in touch and I’ll help you become remarkable. Or get more communication advice that doesn't suck here.
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