I’ve been working with three clients on creating presentations, one for a workshop and two for conferences. In each case, they presumed that their audiences would have the same understanding, the same reference points, the same backstory of certain key words and ideas as they, the speaker, would have. I always challenge that. Just because we speak the same language does not mean that we speak the same language, if you know what I mean.

Each of my clients is an expert in her field, with decades of study, learning, writing, teaching, and speaking in her area of expertise. So, when a key word or phrase or concept is put forward, she, the speaker, has decades of precise and practical meaning associated with each thing. The presumption is that everyone does. Everyone does not.

We’ve got to take great care to define and illustrate key words and ideas in our presentations, and not just in terms that only we will understand, but that our audience will understand. In many cases, we need a decoder ring, in order to be able to communicate important key words and ideas in a manner that the audience can understand and relate to, easily.

Here’s a pretty hysterical video which pits an Italian man against someone from Malta. Though Italian and Maltese are similar, the characters in the film are speaking English, albeit with accents. They are speaking the same language, but they do not understand each other. Accents aside, is this not too often the case in our own lives?

If you’ve got a presentation coming up, be sure your audience will understand you. If you’re not sure, get in touch with me and I’ll help you out. It’s very important.

Enjoy the video, which is R-rated and not politically correct. Thanks to my friend Amara from Perth for turning me on to this one.