A friend of mine is a teacher who, in my opinion, doesn't teach very well at all. I feel bad for his students.

For example, I play board games and card games with my friend and I consistently notice that when it's time for him to teach me a new game, I have no idea what he's talking about.

It's not that he's not smart. In fact, he's extraordinarily smart. And I hope I'M not the problem, for heaven's sake.

I'm pretty sure it's that he provides no context--no starting point, like, "the goal is to finish first," or, "the idea is to move your pieces in a way that blocks me from moving mine," or even, "there are four things to know about this game."

Nope. My friend starts off with something like, "four bedraggles equals a missed turn."

Context is so darned important.

It's the thing that tells somebody how to interpret what's coming.

Imagine if the title of this particular blog entry was, "context is king!". I ask you, would that have been a better title? I believe it's true that context is king--but that's more about me and my beliefs than it is about you. Who cares about me?

The title actually chosen for this entry was meant to direct your attention to something that maybe you wonder about sometimes. Maybe you wonder about it because you communicate for a living, or because you know somebody who often seems unclear.

Whether it's how to edit a spreadsheet, why your product is special, how you would like your employee to tweak his or her approach, or how to operate the microwave: I believe the key to explaining things is to start with the other person's point of view.

So I say things that line up as precisely as I can with the perspective, or attitude, or challenge of the other person.

Think of how little kids learn to report something. They say stuff like, "You know how Beulah always ..."

"Yes," you say.

"And you know how she ..."

"Yes," you say, rolling right along.

"Well, she did it again, only this time..."

I think grown-ups, on the other hand, often mistakenly assume shared context.

And it's "tough noogies" for us.