When you communicate, do your customers, co-workers, and partners get the message? In this post, we talk about the difference between understandability and communication.
We’ve all had the annoyance of talking to someone with poor phone reception. Suddenly the conversational focus shifts from exchanging information to a volley of “Sorry, I missed that …” “Can you repeat …” “Can you hear me? You’re breaking up.”
It’s frustrating. And yet, we could unknowingly be giving the same experience to our customers and colleagues. How? By not grasping the subtle difference between communication and understandability.
The difference between understandability and communication
Communication is defined as “the imparting or exchanging of information or news” and “the means of sending or receiving information, such as phone lines or computers”. This definition doesn’t always signify that communication is understood; the phrase “communication breakdown” implies that this process doesn’t always work.
Understandability is simply how easy it is for our audience to understand our message. You could consider it a specialization within the broader field of communication.
Let’s explore this further. If you look up business communication tips, you’ll find a lot of information about what we might call outgoing communication: how we present ourselves, how we deliver our information, our gestures and tone of voice, etc.
But there’s less information about how ourlisteners receive our message – i.e. its understandability. We like to think of understandability as customer-centered communication; it shifts the focus away from our ideas and needs and towards our audience’s interpretation of what we’re trying to share.
If you look for understandability tips, you’ll find articles aimed at the finance and accounting sectors. That’s because understandability in that context relates to ensuring people understand complex or specialized financial details. You’ll also find the term in UX and web design, where it refers to how quickly and easily users can understand an interface.
In short, communication is outward: it’s us presenting our ideas. Understandability is inward: it’s how our attempts to communicate work for our audience. This means understandability needs and practices are different for different topics, audiences, etc.
We can carry these principles forward into business because all businesses depend on clear communication with their employees, partners, and customers. So how can we make sure our audiences really understand our message?
Tips to Improve Understandability …
… With your customers, partners, and suppliers: Check your baseline
A major barrier to effective communication is to assume everyone knows what you know. Unless we actively think about the differences between our baseline knowledge and that of our audience, we naturally forge ahead based on our own level of expertise.
The problem is that suppliers, partners, and customers may not have the same level of experience or the same background as we do. By making assumptions about what everyone knows, wants, or believes, we risk:
- Alienating those who have a different belief or want.
- Confusing those who don’t have the same level of knowledge.
- Creating a solution based on a need or want that isn’t there.
The first step to checking your baseline is to understand how much your perspective differs from that of your client, partner, or supplier. Try to map their needs, beliefs, and subject knowledge – and know that the outcome will probably be unique to each group. By focusing on what your audience knows, you’ve removed one barrier to understandability.
… With your colleagues: Practice active listening
When you work with a group of people regularly, you get a pretty good idea of their baseline around your core concepts. But are you still tuned into their communication? Or has familiarity made you take a few mental shortcuts? In other words, do you really listen when they express themselves? Or do you just make assumptions based on your expectations?
The truth is that our brains are designed to take shortcuts. And failing to examine this tendency is its own shortcut to communication difficulties.
The solution is something we talk about all the time: active listening. Check out our article
Active Listening: A Practical Introduction for some helpful tips.
… Within your organization: Have a shared language
This is another setting where assumptions will come back to haunt you. Having two (or more) definitions for the same concept can cause huge difficulties. This is especially true when you’re dealing with a cross-functional team or any project with multiple stakeholders from different areas.
The solution is a shared language. We’re not referring to sharing the same spoken language. A shared language means coming together and deciding on definitions and terms that every person in the company (or project) will use.
If you’re interested in learning more about developing a shared language, read our article Why Your Business Needs a Shared, Customer-First Language.
Does this take extra work? Yes, but not as much as you might think. As we examine our own understandability in the checklist below, you’ll see how simple it can be.
An understandability checklist
Checking your understandability starts with your audience. Your first step is to identify your audience and compare your baseline with theirs as we described above. Then ask yourself these questions:
- Do I overuse industry terms that might not be familiar to my audience?
- If I use acronyms or jargon, do I also give a brief definition?
- Am I sure we have a shared language?
- What might I need to explain further?
If you’re unsure of your understandability, ask someone who’s not familiar with the subject you’re discussing to help you spot unclear areas. Once you get in the habit of checking your language choices, you’ll start doing it automatically. And that will make your communication more understandable.
If you’re having trouble communicating across departments, identifying customer needs, or discovering friction points in your customer journey, CX by Design can help. Contact us for a free 30-minute consultation today and take the first step toward a more streamlined business.
