“If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself”
I used to hate cricket. That was until a patient flatmate said, “You only hate it because you don’t understand it, sit here and I will explain it to you”. Needless to say, after learning the rules I am now a total cricket fan.
This exact ‘I hate cricket’ concept plays out regularly for me in the infrastructure space and that opposition to major projects can often be overcome through providing a detailed understanding of the changes and benefits. With so many ways to communicate nowadays, developers, Government and contractors are getting better at educating people and basically explaining the rules.
Right now, in Australia, we are on the verge of some amazing and exciting changes. Driverless cars, renewable energy, and the Hyperloop are just some of the changes we can expect to see in the not so distance future. But it is futuristic concepts such as these that need carefully planned communication, as I am sure some people just don’t understand the concept or the rules.
Driverless cars for example pose so many questions for people;
Can you insure them?
Who is at fault if you crash?
Can you get a fine in a driverless car?
What about drink driving?
Not to mention road rules, regulation, safety, the overwhelming list goes on. It is such a big topic with so many rules and new concepts, that people bury their heads in the sand with a ‘that’ll never happen’ attitude instead of taking time to gain the knowledge required to make change.
Albert Einstein most famously said “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” This is perhaps the biggest communication lesson, we often talk about capturing the hearts and minds of people in our roles as communicators here at Struber, but we need to make it basic and step by step.
We all know when we start the conversation with a six year old, that they are going to keep asking ‘but why’, so we need to keep the why front and centre in all that we do.
I am ready to embrace challenging new and futuristic projects that push the status quo and look forward to educating people about life defining projects here in Australia by simply explaining, “Yes you will be propelled down a vacuum like tube, travelling at the speed of an aeroplane but don’t worry just let me explain the rules to you.”
