Ask HN: How to become better at providing clarity in meetings

2 points by hershyb_ 2 years ago | 2 comments

I've seen multiple times where I'll be talking in a meeting and there's just dead silence right after, like people don't understand what I'm saying or I'm confusing others. However, I see a lot of other people have a great ability to explain and provide clarity to a situation and what the next steps should be. I'm wondering if this is something that can be learned/if you've tried any systems to improve this quality

WheelsAtLarge 2 years ago |

I like the idea of keeping it simple. You need to minimize jargon and concepts that take a PhD to understand. Also, keep in mind that people don't know what's in your mind so you need to over explain so that people can get enough background to understand what you are trying to convey. Get the book, "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die." It's a marketing book but it will give you some tips on how to speak to a small audience.

ggeorgovassilis 2 years ago |

> what the next steps should be

One of the engineers in my team is an exceptional analyst, very good at debugging and explaining data issues and authoring reports that detail the situation ("what is going on?"). However, it's nearly impossible to get an evaluation ("what should be happening?") or a recommendation ("what should we do?") out of them.