Yes, They Really Don’t Know
“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”
― Benjamin Franklin
Do you find yourself amazed and even speechless when someone you know doesn’t know what you believe to be ‘common sense?’ You think something is so basic that the entire planet surely knows that ! Well, guess again.
As defined in the Britannica dictionary, common sense is the ability to think and behave in a reasonable way and to make good decisions. That and other good definition sources say nothing about intelligence level or subject matter expertise or anything about a gathering or quantity of facts.
Why does this matter and how the heck does that have anything to do with creating tips from what you know?
It’s a frequent occurrence for Subject Matter Experts to undervalue the small bits of information they know. “It’s too basic,” they say. “Everyone already knows that,” they believe. “It’s really common sense,” which is not.
The undeniable truth is that starting at a basic level is a Good Thing regardless of how much the consumer of your knowledge already knows about your topic.
They will view your basics as one of three things:
Brand new information they never knew before.
A reminder of something they knew and forgot.
Confirmation from an expert that what they already knew was spot on
You know stuff they don’t know, and they know stuff you don’t know. Thinking for someone else and making the assumption that has no basis in fact is counterproductive at the very least. Unless you’ve had some evidence to back up your belief that a person or group already knows EVERYTHING you know, you are denying them the opportunity to expand their knowledge, and denying yourself business. Once you stop to think about it, it really is impossible for two people to know all of what each other knows.
There’s a story I like to share whenever I’m talking about the value of tips and to reinforce the point I’m making. One of my closest long-time friends and I go to the big county fair that happens every June. Lots of people, lots of rides, lots to buy, and lots of food. You might have a similar experience to mine in that I have hungry clothes. It’s standard operating procedure for food to land on my clothes rather than all of it reach my mouth, no matter how careful I am. While enjoying something that had ice cream, whipped cream, and LOTS of dark chocolate syrup, the deed was done – all over a stark white shirt I was wearing for the first time.
My friend quickly uttered “don’t worry, white vinegar will take that out.”
I looked at her like she had 12 heads.
“You do know white vinegar is a cleaning agent, don’t you?”
“Uh, no, I don’t, I replied.”
“What do you mean you don’t know that? You’re smart, how can you not know that?”
“That’s a real easy one to answer,” I said.
“If you listed the top 1,000 descriptors of my mother, NOWHERE would be anything even remotely related to cleaning skills. How could she teach me something she didn’t know? Being smart has nothing to do with this.”
NOW I know that white vinegar is a cleaning agent. The stark white shirt lived on spotlessly to do additional county fair visits, and my good friend and I are forever filling in the knowledge gaps with each other in both our personal and professional lives.
Recently, a different long-time friend and colleague shared in a workshop I was hosting how that white vinegar story was helpful to her on the heels of an experience she had leading a group Coaching session.
She was surrounded by a small group of seasoned native-English speaking professionals. Surely, this group had “been around the block” enough times that it never occurred to my friend that anyone in the group would be unfamiliar with the term “Mastermind.” She was quickly enlightened about her incorrect assumption when three hands raised, with the same question: “What’s a Mastermind?”
You might run into a situation where someone is uncomfortable asking for clarification about something you slid right over, while holding the belief that it was smooth sailing with one or more people. By raising your awareness overall, consider being proactive in adding a 2-3 word definition into more of what you share with your audience of one or 101. That becomes clearer in your information while also setting a level of trust that encourages people to speak up when they want an explanation or definition from you.
One way to get feedback about the Clarity of what you are saying is to do a test run with a contemporary of yours whose expertise is in a completely different area than yours. You can also offer to return the favor by doing the same for them.
Ready to go? Start with the basics when you’re writing tips that reflect your expertise. Yes, they are valuable, yes, your recipients will be grateful, and yes, starting at the basics leaves lots of space for you to go deeper and wider into your knowledge with future information products that people will keep coming back to you for as you educate them small bits at a time.
© 2024, Paulette Ensign – All Rights Reserved
