Discussion on:

Could you explain technology to a non-IT person?

Thank you, Ms. Bowers, for bringing up a great topic.

I have always believed that life is better when it's in layman's terms. I learned that in college, in a macroeconomics class. My professor (who probably never wanted to be a teacher anyway) would lecture straight from the textbook, and, in between bites of soft pretzel and nips of Diet Coke, prattle on about the conceptual and empirical linkages between mass-market foodstuffs and taxable intoxicants.

I was in danger of failing the class. Plus, he made me feel stupid.

It's only when he began to teach theory using everyday examples, like pizza and beer, that I began to grasp the concepts. (Not that I am a fan of either.)

The very thing that inspired (or didn't inspire) the aforementioned economics professor's pedagogy is alive and well in some of the folks who staff the average corporate IT department.

As you pointed out, knowing how to explain jargony subjects without jargon encourages IT/business alignment, which is becoming increasingly important with the growing reliance on fewer workers for the same amount of work, social networking and Web 2.0.

Think about the last time you called the help desk. Did you need two hands to count the number of acronyms that were used? Did you walk away feeling empowered? Will you be so quick to call back when your Excel formulas rebel?

I doubt it. And that's the point: Alienating the rest of your company is not alignment. Indeed, understanding how technical tools and practices relate to the business as a whole, now that's an idea.

And regarding that macroeconomics class -- I passed with a perfect grade.

Thanks again.

Jen Darr
blog.pchelps.com

I agree that this is an excellent topic. I would also suggest that it starts even before the interview when looking for a job.

Our resume and letters should be created with this concept in mind, as well. We don't know who will read our resume during the search process.

For example, if I follow a proactive job search model and interview contacts about their businesses, I could be talking and presenting my resume to people who know little to nothing about IT. What they do know a lot about is a business that may sooner or later need someone for a technology position.

When I leave my resume, it needs to contain the same lay language in which I speak. I should not have to explain my resume. It needs to stand on its own.

Happy Holidays!

If HR wants to post a job description with an alphabet soup of acronymns and buzzwords, they should expect to get resumes that do the same.

I often try to explain IT to younger children. Once while trying to explain the way information is stored in folders to a small group of students, I used the example of their hometown, neighborhood, house and room. As the children began to nod their heads in understanding, I turned around to find an adult nodding his head saying "I get it now!" You must find their level of understanding and go from there.

When I taught at a tech school (adults) I found that telling them ahead of time what I would be doing really helped.
A DOS class was told that the first half of the course would be giving them pieces of a picture puzzle (the commands), and the second half would be assembling them into something useful (programs).
They always understood what they were in for.
Although I later realized that this was a form of the military - Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them - I felt that I had invented something at the time. Oh well.

I can argue, that as an IT Pro, (or any specialized SME) it IS your job to be able to teach your colleagues how to do your job.

When composing training material, I use 3 basic concepts to get my point across:
1. Tell them what you are going to do.
2. Teach them what to do.
3. Show them how to do it.

1. Gives a heads-up, so that the students are prepared for what is coming.
2. Is the training.
3. Is clarification of the training with lots of pictures.

Les.

doing or want to do to those who have to approve or fund it, or work with it afterwards. If you work in a back room with absolutely no contact with non-IT people and just work on the computers all day, then you don't need to be able to explain, but just about every other iT job requires interaction with non IT people, and you need to be able to explain things to get your message across and to find out what you need to know from them.

This posting reminds me of a piece I wrote that covers the details of the skills a good consultant or business analyst must have to be successful in today's economy... This article covered the details and requirements of each of the skills.

Screening Methods to Find the Right Consultant ? Part 2
http://www.r3now.com/screening-methods-to-find-the-right-consultant-part-2

Important consultant and business analyst skills
? Facilitation skills
? Meeting skills
? Process mapping
? Business case (or whitepaper) development
? Problem solving
? Organizational dynamics

for a business analyst. You will pull those requirements off of any reasonable description of a BA position.

Les.

Up until recently I spent my days working with accountants and book keepers providing technical support. Most of my clients PC skills were very limited and I learned very fast if wanted to be successful I would have to find a way to dumb things down so they would understand.
I found that my clients appreciated that I would bring things down to there level and did not come across as better than thou. Because of this my client interactions were shorter and less painful. which gaveme more time to surf / lurk on TR.

A geek who's able to get out of the box and explain in simple terms, definitely has a plus.
Handling abstract concepts and translating them to the listener's "OSI layer" takes double brain work than just thinking of them.

Taken to the extreme, prophets from all religions were able to talk wisely but in people's words.

Easily anbody can explain. Since no one is expert since birth.

I think I can explain, but it really takes time.

Very interesting thoughts to think about.
I agree that every IT skills you have in the industry will be of even greater value if you can "translate"
it to the lay-man out there. You can be a pro in the back of the office but if you out there in the field, it's a total different story. Thanks for the thoughts, Toni

Each year I have to present to our directors at their conference on a subject concerning the forthcoming budget. Working for a law firm I have always tried to use the 'lay-man' speak as lawyers invariably think they know it all but actually don't!!

One year I played a variation of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' with them, with each level and monetary value being represented by an item on the proposed budget. The questions in between were also ICT related and I even set up a 'phone a friend' to my systems manager, which was used (and he did get it right)!!

Last year I talked about Virtualisation. So I got 10 directos to stand at the end of the room each with a sign stating which one of our servers they represented and how much 'utilisation' the server represented. To get the feel for how little they were doing I got each one to either march with their left, right arm, right leg, left leg or nod their head. So i had 10 of my senior directors up in a room semi marching. To represent what virtualisation meant I then got the new MD and FD forward and passed each movement from the others to them, so eventually both of them were fully marching on the spot and nodding their heads (by this point they were starting to sweat a bit....they are not the healthiest). Whilist pointing out that we now had two servers which were working harder and doign exactly the same jobs I then flicked on to the screen behind them and up came the following (apologies to our American friends as they may not know who this is .... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YoACJo4-XY
(the bit with Mr Blobby and Jim Bowen)
Needless to say they do now appreciate what virtualisation is, even if they havent given any budget to start the project !!!

and well explained.

... and making no progress with the idea that the operating system installed on the VM was made to "think" that it was installed on the physical hardware.

Inspiration struck when the other person happened to mention that she enjoyed Star Trek. "Well then," I suggested, "just think of a virtual machine as a holodeck for an operating system."

No further explanation required ;>)

I have struggled to explain virtual machines to, well, just about anyone who doesn't work with them. This is a brilliant analogy and I look forward to using it extensively. Thanks for sharing.

people is to say the VM is a damn good actor that dresses up in the clothes of another operating system - they usually get the message then.

Steven Hawkings is perhaps the best example of such a person. A true genius who can explain quantum theory in a way that is quite easy to grasp. I would recommend reading "A Brief History of Time" to understand his real genius and talent.

...then this is what you do all day. Most support technicians are better equiped to discuss IT than the "experts". Also they don't have the drawback of being fixated on a single area of IT at the expense of all others.

During an interview last year I was asked to explain networking and server concepts in layman's terms. The entire interview focused on this method of questioning. They asked questions like "what does a firewall do and how will it help my business be more secure", "explain how selling me a server will provide central management".