Jargon vs. Understanding

Humans seek to define emotions and articulate thoughts, yet a lack of understanding leads to fancy words and long-winded rhetoric. Sounding smart may protect our perceived knowledge, but as Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

To gauge levels of understanding, there are two questions to ask. First, can we deconstruct, expand, or compress what was said? Second, can we then describe the exact same idea in five different ways? If not, seek further insight to go beyond memorized jargon.

Genuine understanding leads to more transformative conversations. As you seek to translate emotions into thoughts and thoughts into words, here are quick constructs that signal a state of comprehension:

  • Actively listening with genuine interest
  • Using fewer but more effective vocabulary
  • Feeling untroubled by uncomfortable silence
  • Ongoing execution and creative adaptation

Brewed From Within
#35 📖 Leadership

By Ben McDougal, ago

Sequencing

When an audience feels informed, confidence increases and the opportunity for lasting collaboration is refined. Perhaps everything is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetition and order matters?

Understanding how everything connects is impossible for even the most methodical mind. Be it system thinking, design thinking, meta synthesis, neural networking, or whatever mindset you choose, the abstract intensity of complexity makes it hard to see how a few things relate, let alone immeasurable members in infinite streams.

Machines add computed awareness. But the squishy nature of each member within a sequence feels like it will remain a futile enigma, forever transforming based on if, who, what, when, where, why, and how something is being observed.

The processing power required to source the connection(s) of every moment would paralyze your thoughts. The mind is effective, thanks to sequenced memories and staying light enough to deduce answers with limited real-time input. This saves time, but it’s interesting how this type of internal sequencing actually quiets the depth of each sequence.

Enjoy the moment and be a serendipitist but keep tabs on where each member fits into a sequence.How sequences are pieced together keeps strategies in harmony. This brews appreciation from the past and adds a lightness for the moment. Delivering less information gives people only what they need when they need it. Added depth can then arrive down string to make a timelier impact.

Brewed From Within - Layers of Understanding

Layers of Understanding

As a sequenced narrative stretches, depth that rhymes will meet people where they’re at and more effectively guide the curious through new layers of understanding.

Brewed From Within
#18 📖 Entrepreneurship

By Ben McDougal, ago