When it is your turn to communicate, it helps to remember that your audience has some knowledge too. Here are four rules of thumb.

1.

If the audience knows more than you do, you can’t tell them anything new. You better be funny.

2.

If your knowledge is low and the audience doesn’t know much either, you’ll succeed by finding a fresh, distinctive way to share your ideas. This is the time to tell a story, share a vivid example, or use puppets.

3.

If you and your audience both know a lot, you can go deep. Shop talk is fine. Even jargon will work if you’re addressing to savvy veterans.

4.

The most common communication failures happen when the speaker’s knowledge is high and the knowledge level of the audience is low. Here, the Curse of Knowledge kicks in–the expert makes wildly inaccurate assumptions about what the audience understands. He makes leaps they can’t follow and leaves out vital context. Huh?

Three things can help in these cases. First, have a clear impression of your audience. Go meet them and learn about what they know and how they think. Second, nurture empathy. Find ways to get in touch with what it’s like to be a novice. Finally, test. Don’t kid yourself. Go do some validation.

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