Teaching is the art of making the complex simple.
getty“The definition of genius,” said Albert Einstein, “is taking the complex and making it simple.” It’s excellent advice, though I’m not sure the master himself was always able to follow it.
Anyone can make the simple complicated. It’s not hard. It happens all the time. We’ve all had the experience of sitting down with an expert in a field like finance or computers and hearing them launch into an explanation that immediately leaves us in the dust.
Teaching—by contrast—is the art of making the complex simple. It’s a crucial art for physicians to learn because so much of our job involves imparting knowledge.
We teach junior physicians, we teach team members, we teach patients, and we teach the community. Medicine is a knowledge-based industry, and doctors are significant knowledge holders. We acquire a lot of education over the years and are often called upon to share that knowledge.
Most of us are willing teachers. When trying to transmit information to a patient or a teammate, though, it's important not to fall into the trap of “knowledge dumping” or reveling in complexity.
Why do we complicate instead of simplify? Sometimes, it’s because we fall into the trap of showing off how smart we are or trying to convince people we’re knowledgeable enough that they should follow our guidance. Or it may be the result of the “curse of knowledge”—we mistakenly assume others share the same knowledge base we have.
Whatever the reason, “complexifying” is not helpful to anyone. To effectively share knowledge, one must make the complex simple.
If you find yourself quoting multiple journal articles and writing arcane algorithms on the chalkboard, you may not be providing effective instruction. To play the role of teacher, either formally or informally, means to break things down so that your entire audience can understand them. You’re supposed to make the complex simple.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to condense 40 years’ worth of professional expertise into a dozen PowerPoint slides. It does mean that if you want to convince someone of a specific course of action or explain why you came to a particular treatment decision, you should be able to walk the learner through it. You should be able to show how you arrived at your conclusion in a clear, step-by-step way.
Speaking in a way that is over your listeners’ heads might have a few short-term, superficial payoffs, such as stoking the ego or preventing others from challenging your conclusions, but it’s harmful in the long run.
We want to include patients and team members in discussions so that the best decisions can be made. If you’re taking people out of the decision-making loop because they’re not following you, then you’re missing out on valuable input from team members, patients, and students. You’re also making them feel shut out.
Teaching is about serving the learner, not the teacher. And that means making the complex simple, so that the learner walks away enriched with new knowledge or is empowered to make decisions about their healthcare.
