An elderly patient was referred to a specialist for a medical consultation. The specialist was obviously knowledgeable about his profession, but was sadly lacking when it came to communication. His use of medical jargon made it essentially impossible for the patient to understand what he was trying to say.
Precise medical terms like "residual thrombus burden", "recanalization" and "inferior vena cava" mean specific things to doctors, but mean nothing to the general public. If he'd talked about a hardened blood clot, about re-opening bloodflow through a vein, about a large vein that carries blood back to the heart, the patient might have had a chance.
Communication is not about using impressive, precise, technical words. Communication is not about presenting an idea the way
you think it should be presented. Communication is about helping someone else hear the message, about presenting the idea in a way that
they can understand it. This means using simple language, appropriate to the audience, and asking open-ended questions to make sure they understand it.
Become a specialist at communication, and you will become far more effective at whatever else it is you happen to do.
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