“Your syntax was convoluted.”
Greg Bahnsen, PhD. 1980
In September 1980, I was looking forward to my junior year of high school. That past summer I got my braces off, put on about 10 lbs. of muscle due to weight training, earned my driver’s license, and was elected as one of the captains of our varsity football team.
Although I hated academics, my course load that year wasn’t that bad. The varsity football coach, Mr. Cupp, was teaching my history class so that was an automatic “A” for me. We also had a really cool teacher, Mr. Smyth, who taught our ethics class, which would have sucked if not for him. I also was enrolled in Typing which was great since I was the only guy in it. Yes, this was shaping up to be my best year ever!
Until it wasn’t. By November, the school fired Mr. Smyth and replaced him with a taskmaster named Greg Bahnson. Dr. Bahnson had a PhD in ethics from USC. He was brought in to up the ante in academic rigor and he delivered. I had him for two classes and barely passed.
Reality of our now terrible situation hit us when Dr. Bahnsen finished delivering a scathing analysis of the first essays we wrote for him, ending with the critique that our “syntaxes were convoluted.”
I had no idea what a syntax was nor what it meant to be convoluted. Dr. Bahnsen had lots of knowledge but just couldn’t express it in a way that this 17-year-old could understand. The message was lost in translation.
I recently watched an episode of Shark Tank where these two crazy smart scientists invented a new technology they pitched to the investors. The valuation of the company was at $40 million which extraordinarily high for the show. The inventors tried unsuccessfully to communicate in their language (science) to the Sharks (who speak money) about why this product would change the world and would be worth the valuation. They did not get an investment. Even after multiple prompts from the Sharks, they couldn’t explain the product in any other language than science.
All of us have a mother tongue. Mine is English. We also have a conversational preference. Some speak science. Others data. I speak story, simple story. If we want to convince others of something, we need to use their language. Since much of our success in business depends on others “buying in,” it’s important to follow some important steps to getting our point across.
- Figure out what you want to communicate. This is key. What are you pitching? Is it a new idea, product, service, or concept? Is it tangible or theoretical? Is it brand new or a variation of the old?
- Figure out who you need to communicate the idea to. Who is the decision-maker? Who are they influenced by?
- Figure out what you want from that audience. Support? Buy-in? Money? Resources?
- Figure out the language of that audience. Do they speak science or emotion? Money or relationship? Pragmatism or enthusiasm?
Develop your pitch to encompass all the above information using the medium they prefer.
In a perfect world, everyone would speak and understand as we do. They don’t. Dr. Bahnsen probably realized this as our graduating class commenced in 1982, significantly smaller than it was at the beginning of our Junior year, with none of us, as far as I could tell, any better at resolving ethical dilemmas than we were before he taught us. The entrepreneurs on that episode of Shark Tank are probably working extra hard now to really quantify their idea in greater scientific detail to convince other investors. It’s not going to work. Unless they find some really rich, PhD-carrying investors.
Our ability to speak the language of others is the only way we can influence. This week, take some time to re-think who you need to influence and look at better ways to communicate. It’s the only way you’ll get your important points across, even if you do manage to unconvolute your syntax…