“If you can’t explain it simply you don’t understand it well enough” is a quote popularly mis-attributed to Albert Einstein.
Unfortunately, this assertion is incorrect but not for the reasons you might expect.
Instead of people failing to understand a subject in enough detail, the barrier to good communication is frequently the (huge) depth of understanding itself or a desire to sound clever.
From fintech to food, engineering to energy drinks, investment to entertainment I’ve worked with leaders who knew every nut, bolt, code, ingredient, data point, nook and cranny of their business but communicated in uninspiring cliches or unapproachable jargon.
As well as helping them to explain better by outlining the context, communicating concisely and using chunking, above all else I help them by simplifying to be understood.
This was also a method used by President Kennedy’s fabled speechwriter Ted Sorenson (who wrote some of the best, most memorable and inspirational lines in political history) as part of Kennedy’s ‘Moonshot’ speech.
This speech is famous for the standout line* “we choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
‘Moonshot’ should also be celebrated for an earlier passage which brought to life the history of humanity and the positive power of science before Kennedy moved on to argue why space travel must be part of the future.
To do this he condensed 50,000 years of human history into half a century. The result highlighted the impact science has had on the acceleration of human development.
“We know very little about the first 40 years, except at the end of them advanced man had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about 10 years ago…man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only five years ago man learned to write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago. The printing press came this year, and then less than two months ago…the steam engine provided a new source of power…
“…Last month electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America’s new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.”
How easy to follow, simple yet inspiring is that?
To do this Sorenson received submissions from experts across the US government and its agencies before working with Kennedy to finalise the speech.
It is a great example of how simplification works.
In collating examples and arguments from experts involved in one of the greatest endeavours of history, Sorensen was able to first understand the subject fully before then helping Kennedy create a connection to his audience that led to the action he wanted.
The result is a speech that was as clear in its argument as it was powerful in its rhetoric.
Support for the US efforts to put a man on the moon was all but guaranteed.
*originally suggested by a NASA writer before being amended by Sorenson.