Dumb down your message

Many accountants (not all) are guilty of tech-speak. We get caught up in the latest acronyms and technical jargon and we do not realize that most of the outside world (including many of our junior and even senior colleagues) have no idea what we are talking about half the time. Sometimes people don't call you on it for many reasons, including the insecurity of believing they SHOULD know what you are talking about....but they don't. The result is costly miscommunication.

(By the way the latest acronym I have heard is "squash" or "SQCS" which is short for Statement on Quality Control Standards which are designed to provide guidance on a organization's internal quality control standards and are issued by the Quality Control Standards Committee, the senior technical committee of the AICPA. Are you kidding me? Squash!?)

We should be more encouraged to consistently dumb down and simplify our messages. If you have ANY doubt that the other person might not know what you are talking about it, you are probably onto something.

What is interesting is many times it is the MOST senior/experienced people that I'll see call others out ... "I have no idea what you just said, could you tell me that again in simpler terms." That takes confidence and lack of insecurity. That takes a desire for effective communication, not effective "I can prove how smart I am in with how much jargon I know" miscommunication.