| This one's really tricky, because one thing you have to determine early on is whether or not the person really cares to understand at all. Metaphors can be terribly dangerous because of personal experiences. For example, I've seen people explain object-oriented programming using biology or automobiles. Those sound great until you think about how many people don't relate to those metaphors. Other people don't care. I don't care how my cellphone works - I care that it works, and if you tried to tell me how it works, I'd tune you out. It's not in my scope of give-a-damn, you know? If you feel you're terrible at explaining things to non-technical people, reflect on whether or not those people really need to know those things. If you determine that they are interested, and that you are unable to adequately explain, consider finding situations where you can understand their side of things. A great way to do that might be to learn how to do something that they do. When I meet a new client, I ask them to explain very technical parts of their job to me. Then I am the person on the receiving end of that. I can observe how they explain things, and I can empathize with them when my eyes glaze over. :) Hope that helps a little, or at least gave you some ideas. |