The Curse of Knowledge: Why Experts Struggle to Explain Their Work

In a world phenomenally rich in data, the ability for leaders to present and explain insights derived from that data, to non-technical audiences—and to influence them to take action via ‘data storytelling’—is becoming a truly critical skill.
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Join Miro Kazakoff on MIT Sloan’s executive program ‘Persuading with Data’, to learn how to persuade others with data through data storytelling.

Dates: Sept 9–10; and Nov 18–19, 2021  |   Format: Live online 2 days x 8 hours

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Contrary to what we might expect, this is a skill that is often more difficult for experts, as they struggle to place themselves in the shoes of those that don’t know what they know.

Miro Kazakoff, Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan, leads a new executive program, Persuading with Data, that is designed to address this emerging need.

Kazakoff terms the problem that experts have, “The Curse of Knowledge”—a state of mind whereby, “we struggle to remember what it was like before we knew what we know now.”

How we process information

The problem Kazakoff describes can lead to significant gaps in understanding between the communicator and the audience. In seeking to solve the problem, executives must understand how it stems from the way human brains process information—and more specifically the encoding, presenting, and decoding of information.

Stage 1: Encoding
First the communicator chooses what information to use to make a point and decides how to encode it—i.e. how to represent it visually or in words.

Stage 2: Presenting
Having made this choice, the communicator presents the encoded information, aiming at communicating a single intended meaning.

Stage 3: Decoding
Finally, the audience converts the visual and aural input back into information, as they understand it.

“One brain encodes, many brains decode,” Kazakoff notes. Context is everything. The way the data is encoded depends on the communicator’s prior knowledge, expertise, culture, and a host of other lived experiences.

The way each audience member decodes the data presented will depend on their prior experience, familiarity with the form of encoding, familiar patterns, culture, channels—familiarity with the communicator, and issues of accessibility such as whether they are colour blind.

“Different people, different audiences, different backgrounds can have a dramatically different way of decoding information. Every mind decodes differently,” surmises Kazakoff.

Domain Expertise Needs Communication Expertise

As experts or professionals, once we know something, or recognize a pattern, it is virtually impossible for us to ‘un-know’ that information. Consequently, we all process information—especially within our own domain of expertise—at a very high level, much higher than we realize. Subsequently—and due to the Curse of Knowledge—we tend to encode and then present that information at a level that is too high for the audience we are trying to persuade or inform.

The challenge expert communicators have is to be able to see the information from the non-expert’s perspective, and not to assume a level of prior knowledge that many in the audience will not have.

One go-to tactic for presentation

Every executive, professional, or student works routinely with slide presentations. They are part of all our working lives. In those presentations, as Kazakoff cautions, we are nearly always using too many slides—and typically we are labelling the slides, but failing to give each slide a clear headline.

One simple tactic that every one of us can apply in order to be a more effective communicator at work, is to headline each slide in our presentations. Each headline should be a clear statement of the point you are trying to get across. What is the most important idea contained on this slide? What is it that you want your audience to take from it?

Coming up with a clear headline forces the communicator to really define what they are trying to say, and thus makes the slide far easier for the audience to decode.

The test of whether you have a true headline or merely a slide title is: does it contain a verb?

If your headlines contain verbs, your slides will create a narrative that leads your audience through the presentation. Done well, your headlines alone will almost be enough to communicate the key argument you are attempting to make.

This tactic is suggested to improve slide presentations but the principle can apply to other forms of presentation too, and functions as an antidote to The Curse of Knowledge, that many of us struggle with.

This article is based on the MIT Sloan Executive Education webinar ‘The Curse of Knowledge: Why Experts Struggle to Explain Their Work’ with Miro Kazakoff.

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Join Miro Kazakoff on MIT Sloan’s executive program ‘Persuading with Data’, to learn how to persuade others with data through data storytelling.

Dates: Sept 9–10; and Nov 18–19, 2021  |    Format: Live online 2 days x 8 hours

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