Blog Posts About: context

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We've all heard someone say, in the context of understanding something new: "You're not seeing the forest through the trees." This usually means that someone is so focused on the details that they're missing the big picture. This dynamic frames a very common and difficult element of communication. We all struggle with the Curse of Knowledge and what mix of forest and trees will work for our audience.

When we have deep knowledge of a subject, it's easy to become focused on the trees; the fascinating details. We learned about the big picture, the forest, long ago and it now seems almost too basic. Surely everyone else see it, too.

When it's time to share our knowledge, it can seem logical to skip the forest and focus on the trees. With limited time, it may seem wasteful to cover the basics. After all, our expertise is in the trees. This can quickly become a problem. If we neglect the forest, we risk leaving people behind, or with an incomplete picture.

A Choice

If your goal is helping people understand something new, the forest matters. Yes, you may be covering ideas that others already know, but that's not a big risk. You're simply validating their knowledge.

The bigger risk is having beginners tune-out because they never see the beauty of the idea or feel confident in their understanding. This loss of confidence is difficult to rebuild and you may not realize it's happening.

What You Can Do

Consider designing this idea into a presentation and starting off with a disclaimer like this:

"We're going to start with the big picture. I know some of you are familiar, but I want to be sure we're all on the same page."

This becomes an invitation for beginners to become engaged and for experienced people to feel validated. Your audience will thank you for it!

Since I was young, I've wondered about pain relievers and how they work. Thankfully Richard Byrne over at FreeTechForTeachers pointed me to this awesome animated explanation that's part of the TED-Ed series of videos. 

A few things to notice about this video, from the explainer perspective:

The First Half of the Video is Mostly Context

It starts with an easy first step - everyone knows the discomfort of pain - it makes you want to do something to relieve it. No viewer would disagree or lose confidence with the first couple of points. Next it answers questions like - why should I care about pain?  What role does pain play in our lives? Then it does a good (and quite technical) job of explaining what happens inside your body that enables you to feel pain. 

Let's look at the big picture for a moment. The video is called "How Do Pain Relievers Work?" Two full of minutes of video pass before pain relief is even mentioned. That's close to half the video focused on building context and agreement. This creates a foundation for the more specific, pertinent points about pain relievers.  Without taking the time for context, the other points may not be as understandable.

NOTE: If you're interested in learning in-depth about the skill of explanation and how to make Common Craft Style videos, check out our online courses at the Explainer Academy.

The Explanation Lesson:

The next time you're working to explain an complex idea, it may seem logical to head straight for the ideas you need to explain. In this example, it's pain relievers. Instead, I encourage you to take a step back and think about building a foundation for the ideas. Make the first couple of points easy to understand and answer questions like "Why should I care?" or "Why does this matter?"  Talk about the forest first, then the trees. By building context, you'll give the audience a way to make sense of the points that are the real focus of your explanation. 

The video above was based on a lesson by George Zaidan. The animation was produced by Augenblick Studios.