Back in 2011, I was focused on writing the ​Art of Explanation​. It was my first book and I was on the hook for turning years of practical experience into paragraphs and chapters. Sometimes, this kind of pressure is what you need to see ideas and concepts that you'd taken for granted over time.

In the book, I talk about "fact telling", which is often the culprit in poor explanations. We present a set of facts, without context or story, and leave the audience to figure out the meaning of the facts.

The other side of the coin is storytelling. Story is a powerful tool in explanations, but story alone can't often do the job. If your goal is to explain an idea, your story needs substance. It needs to have elements of fact to resonate.

I thought a lot about how to frame this powerful combination, and I found the solution in this line, which has become one of the most well-known quotes from the book.

"Facts give stories substance. Stories give facts meaning."

The next time you're explaining an idea, remember this. Your explanation may need a balance of both.

When I'm asked about the causes of unclear or confusing communication, I always highlight the curse of knowledge. I believe it is one of the most impactful ideas for communicators to understand. Why? Because we all have the curse and it influences our explanations.

The big idea: The more we know about a subject, the harder it is for us to explain it to a beginner. Our knowledge curses us and interferes with our ability to make accurate assumptions about our audience. We find it difficult to imagine what it's like not to know.

For example, think about a lawyer who spent her career reading and writing legal documents and talking with fellow lawyers all day, every day. When someone new to law asks this lawyer about tort reform, they're likely to get an explanation that seems confusing. This lawyer has the curse; they know too much to answer the question in a language understood by a layperson.

We're all guilty of having the curse. We all have something in our life that we know very well - perhaps too well to explain easily. The key is to know that the curse exists and to be prepared.

Video: Understanding the Curse of Knowledge

The video below from the Explainer Academy was recently published on YouTube. It explains the curse of knowledge using a study by Elizabeth Newton. Feel free to share.

What You Can Do to Defeat the Curse

Consider every word. Sometimes a word that is completely natural to you can doom an explanation. For example, let's say you're a financial planner in a meeting with a young couple, and you mention "amortization". It sounds perfectly natural and clear to you. Your peers use the word all the time. But the couple's eyes glaze over. They nod, but don't really understand. You have the curse and it's preventing you from being clear and understandable.

Empathize. When you're preparing to explain something new, take a step back and think about your audience as individuals. Imagine being in their shoes and hearing your words for the first time. Then, go back to your materials with the audience in mind. what might confuse them? Can you present the idea more clearly?

Connect. Is it possible for you to have a quick conversation with someone in the target audience? If so, ask about specific words and examples you'd like to use. Are there alternatives that will sound more familiar?

Set expectations. If we simplify too much, it may sound condescending and that can kill the vibe. When you need to explain an idea for a group, provide a quick preface. Something like, "This subject is complicated and I'm going to explain it. I'll start with basics that many of you already understand. This will help ensure that we keep everyone on the same page."

Your Options

Learn more about explanation skills in my book The Art of Explanation.

Our Explanation Master Course at the Explainer Academy is a media-rich guide to developing your communication skills.

This is going to be fun! I will be joining Grant and Paddy on a live show called The Visual Jam, on July 8th. Register for Free. 

More Info:

Have you ever had a great idea for a product or a service or maybe an improvement to your business, but people just don’t seem to get it? More often than not it is because your idea has an explanation problem.

Well, fear not because Lee LeFever, co-founder of Common Craft and author of The Art of Explanation, is going to join us for a fun, interactive session where he will give us a sneak peek into the process that Common Craft follow to produce their world famous explainer videos - from script to storyboard to final content and animation!

I hope to see you there!

I was recently honored to appear on The Forge, a series of video interviews from the folks at TechSmith, makers of Camtasia and Snagit, among other products. We focus a bit on Common Craft history, lessons from the Art of Explanation and the best explainers out there. (17:33)

If you're reading in email watch the video here. 

NOTE: If you're interested in learning in-depth about the skill of explanation and how to make Common Craft Style videos, check out our online courses at the Explainer Academy.

Interested in having Lee speak at your event?

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It's that time of year. Starting in May, I'll be out sharing lots of ideas, stories and tactics focused on the Art of Explanation. I hope to see you at one of these events this spring.

STC Technical Communications Summit, May 5-8, Atlanta, GA

My session will be on Monday the 6th from 3:30 to 4:30 on The Art of Explanation. 

As I’ve mentioned previously, I have a book coming out in October and it will contain QR codes. The big idea is to give readers of The Art of Explanation an easy way to watch the videos we use as examples in the book.  Scan the code with a smartphone --> watch a video.  It’s easier than typing a long URL.  Of course, we made a video explaining QR codes, if you’d like to learn more.

The QR code in the photo above is from a previous draft and not a trackable version. 

There will be 16 QR codes throughout The Art of Explanation.  Using these codes in a book is an experiment and like any good experiment, we need ways to measure if and how they are used. We want to know, via our analytics program, anonymous data like:

1. How many total visits came from the book this month?
2. What videos from the book are being watched the most?
3. What do visitors from the book do after they watch the video?
4. What devices do people use to watch videos from the book?

Through a number of discussions with our friends Boris Mann and Monique Trottier, we figured out a way to make QR codes trackable in Google Analytics.  Boris wrote about the specifics in a great post called “Best Practices for Tracking QR Codes.”

My goal is to explain why this makes sense. Fair warning - It's a little more technical than you're used to seeing here. Let’s start with the basic ideas:

Google Analytics essentially measures clicks.  When you click a URL and visit commoncraft.com, I see the click in Google Analytics, along with every other visit.  Together, these anonymous clicks provide very useful information about traffic to our website. 

QR codes often use URLs.  When you scan a QR code to visit our website, the QR code tells your device what URL to use. Instead of clicking, you are scanning.  In Google Analytics, I have no default way of knowing if a link was clicked on a computer or scanned via a QR code. I need a way to see only the scans and measure them.  This will help us see the how the QR codes are being used. To do that we need to create special URLs that are trackable and link them to our QR codes. 

Thankfully, there is a way to make them trackable by creating a URL that includes information that Google Analytics can use to show us useful information. 

Instead of the normal URLs:  

http://www.commoncraft.com/video/social-media

The URLs for our QR codes will look like this: 

http://www.commoncraft.com/video/social-media?utm_source=book&utm_medium=qrcode&utm_campaign=social-media

The URL is longer, but it’s OK, because the visitor is scanning a code to use it. If you look closely, you’ll see these parts of the URL:

• Source = book
• Medium = qrcode
• Campaign = social-media (the specific video page)

By using these URLs for the QR codes, we can give Google Analytics information that helps us measure the use of QR codes in the book. All we have to do is use this URL when we create a QR code. It will be really interesting and I plan to report what we see.

Resources:

• Build these trackable URLs with Google’s URL Builder.  
• Create QR codes with the simple ZXing Generator.
• Download a QR Reader App for your device. I recommend i-nigma. 
• You can learn more about related QR services and tracking ideas on Boris’ post.
• You can learn about QR code basics with our explanation. 

Here’s a code to the video if you want to give it a try.