Supercommunicators know the difference between simplicity and clarity. By definition, simplicity means being easy to understand or do, or, in the words of Merriam-Webster, “the state of being simple, uncomplicated or uncompounded.”¹ Clarity, however, is defined as “clearness or lucidity as to perception or understanding.”² Our job as communicators is to make content more meaningful and understandable for our audiences. This can mean making ideas simpler at times, but at other times it may require us to strive for clarification.

HOMAGE TO SIMPLICITY

I asked Vinay Rai, an Indian entrepreneur on the Forbes Global 200 list in 1999, how he introduced several innovations to the Indian marketplace. After earning a master's degree in engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rai returned to his native country to play a pivotal role in driving the adoption of technologies such as the transistor and the cell phone. I assumed the entrepreneur had faced many communication obstacles in his career. For people to embrace new products, they first have to comprehend them, but the understated Rai said he never thought too hard about explaining them. “Just make things as easy as you can for others to understand,” he told me. Not fully satisfied with his response, I asked him, “How did you explain the concept of cell phones to a highly rural audience with no familiarity with that technology?” He replied, “I told them: This is your phone…it just walks around with you.”

Rai didn't talk to farmers about frequencies, cell clusters, and spectrum efficiency when explaining mobile telephony—why overcomplicate the situation? His simple, one-line description was all that was needed to get the job done. In the span of a decade, the number of cell phones in India exploded from 6.5 million to over 900 million. Maybe Rai is onto something?

By giving our audience more detail, using bigger words, and creating grander sentences, some think we'll be more successful in getting them to understand our complicated topic. Effective communication is about reaching your audience and getting them to understand your point. Don't complicate when you can simplify.

Simplification is nothing new. Classic American writer Henry David Thoreau quipped about our lives being “frittered away by detail” in his writings from Walden Pond. He urged us to “simplify, simplify.”³ He wrote these words in the early nineteenth century, a time when the United States was undergoing a transformation that would make permanent changes to our society.

Railroads were expanding and America was rapidly connecting to the world economy when Thoreau wrote Walden. This was an unwelcome disruption to many farmers and small-town residents scared of the evils the whistling iron horse would bring. An Ohio school board member warned, “If God had designed that His intelligent creatures should travel at the frightful speed of 15 miles an hour by steam he would have foretold it through His holy prophets. It is a device of Satan to lead immortal souls down to Hell.”⁴ Farmers were learning that their simple way of life was forever changing. The roots of the simplicity movement are rooted in this first big push to industrialization and globalization. Today many of us share similar sentiments with the nineteenth-century agrarians.

People resist change, especially if it takes them out of their comfort zone. The unknown is scary. In the twenty-first century we have plenty of our own transformations to deal with as nanotechnology, synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and other innovative forces are set to alter our lives. Uninformed citizens will rise up once again afraid of devils and demons. Thoreau's wisdom will hold true. We need to simplify. People need to understand the big changes coming our way. The best way for us to reach them is by delivering meaningful, understandable information. Our job as communicators is to provide them with truth about transformative changes in a way they can understand.

But one factor Thoreau didn't have to contend with two centuries ago was that communication was limited to writing and speaking. The arrival of digital communication is a wonderful disruption, but it does require us to delve deeper into the art of simplicity. The Internet compels us to streamline our ideas and shorten our discussions. Twitter teaches us to reduce communication to 140 characters instead of writing in volumes, compelling us to embrace brevity along with simplicity.

ODE TO CLARITY

Simplicity isn't everyone's friend. I find this true with engineers and scientists who argue that public relations schlocks like to distill their ideas to a point where they're no longer recognizable. That's not good. If we dumb down everything too much, we're left with nothing but superficial banter stripped of meaning. Simplicity can be a double-edged sword.

Effective communications help audiences see complicated topics more clearly. They reveal realities that have been obscured by veils of complexity. Use your presentation, graphic, or text to unravel the mystery. Help your audience see patterns they couldn't visualize on their own. Flag important points covered up by jargon or specialized language. Bring to the surface essential facts that may be lost in a block of extraneous detail.

Integrity matters. You never want to simplify anything to the point where you alter the meaning of your message. This is especially true in cases where audiences need specific information and key facts can't be eliminated. For example, if you were explaining new audit methodologies to a group of auditors, it would be disastrous if you glossed over details that are pertinent to their jobs. Following generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS) isn't a suggestion—it's an imperative for anyone working in that field. Trainers who work with auditors to comprehend new standards and requirements must be focused on making content more comprehensible without omitting crucial steps.

SIMPLICITY VS. CLARITY

Simplicity and clarity are similar in many ways, but different in other ways. The take-away here is that your job is to make content more accessible. Once again, it's essential to “know thy audience.” Is your audience like the Indian farmers? They'll be able to get along without understanding the technology behind cellular communication. Or is your audience more like the auditors? They need to know about new standards in requirements or they won't be able to do their jobs.

When to simplify and when to clarify are judgment calls you the communicator need to make. The more you understand your audience and the better you understand your topic, the more likely you'll be able to know when to simplify and when to clarify.