For teams

From jargon to plain language

Make your expertise understandable without losing authority

With experience, a lot becomes self-evident. You recognise patterns, make connections and use concepts you no longer need to think about. You skip steps in your reasoning because you have taken them hundreds of times.

But your client, colleague or audience has not travelled that same road.

That is the curse of knowledge: once you know something well, it becomes hard to imagine what it is like not to know it. Every experienced professional can run into it.

In this workshop you learn to recognise that gap and bridge it. You make complex information understandable while keeping the precision and nuance that make your expertise valuable.

Practical workshop · Half day · Dutch or English

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What is obvious to you still needs explaining to someone else

You use a technical term that everyone in your field knows. You start with the solution while your client does not yet understand the problem. Or you give every nuance before your audience has been able to follow the main point.

Your explanation is correct. Yet it does not land the way you intended.

The curse of knowledge shows up in all kinds of work situations:

A specialist explains a recommendation to a client.
A manager explains a decision to their team.
A project lead presents to colleagues from other departments.
An experienced employee onboards a new colleague.
A consultant turns an analysis into a proposal.

The more familiar you are with a subject, the easier it is to overestimate what the other person already knows. In this workshop you learn to look again at the steps your listener needs.

Speaking plainly without losing authority

You want to explain accessibly and still do justice to your expertise. Which details can you leave out? Which concepts need explaining? And which nuances are essential so you do not give the wrong impression?

In the workshop we make those choices deliberately.

Your authority shows in your ability to name the main point, support it well and answer questions. Being clear about a limitation or an uncertainty is part of that too.

You learn to convey your knowledge so that your audience can follow — without making yourself smaller.

What you learn

Deciding what your audience needs to understand and remember.
Recognising where you use jargon or assume prior knowledge without noticing.
Organising complex information into a story the other person can follow.
Explaining your knowledge clearly without making yourself smaller.
Speaking plainly while keeping your authority on the content.

Practising with your own explanation

You bring a short presentation, text or explanation from your work. For example a piece of client advice, a project update or a subject you regularly explain to new colleagues.

You give a short excerpt to another participant, who tells you what they understood and where questions came up. That shows which prior knowledge you were assuming without realising it.

Then you rework your explanation. You adjust the words, the order and the examples, and try again. You get feedback on clarity, structure and accuracy.

Who is it for?

For experienced professionals within your organisation who share their knowledge with people from a different background or with less prior knowledge.

Think of experts, consultants, managers, project leads and technical staff. The workshop is also relevant for teams who train colleagues, advise clients or work closely with other departments.

What you take away

You leave with a reworked and rehearsed version of your own explanation. You have a clearer sense of where your knowledge had become self-evident and what your listener needs to keep up.

You receive a practical worksheet for preparing future explanations and presentations: from your audience's question to the context, examples and nuances it needs.

Practical

Duration: A half day.
Location: At your premises or at a location we agree on.
Language: Dutch or English.
Preparation: Bring a short example of your own.
Group size: Tailored to the team.
Price: On proposal, after a first conversation.

The first step

Which knowledge do you want to make easier to understand?

Tell us which subjects your team explains often, and to whom. After a short conversation, you will receive a proposal for a workshop built on examples from your own practice.

Discuss your question →