The Context Gap

Have you ever explained something to your team that seemed perfectly clear to you, only to realize they didn't understand it at all? Katherine breaks down the "context gap," the space between what a leader knows and what their team has had time to absorb. Drawing on a recent conversation with change management expert Rebecca Ellis and the behavioral science concept known as the curse of knowledge, Katherine explains why the longer you've sat with a decision, the more obvious its logic feels to you, even though your team is often hearing it for the first time. She shares three habits for closing that gap: checking your head start, explaining the "because" behind a decision, and testing your message from the outside. She also walks through a simple three question framework, the context check, that leaders can run before any important communication.

Additional Resources:

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Listen to the episode: Rethinking Redesign: Clarity Through Communication

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Key Takeaways:

• The context gap is the space between what a leader knows and what their team has had time to absorb.
• The longer you've worked on an issue, the more obvious its logic feels to you, even though your team hasn't had that time.
• Check your head start: go back to what you needed to understand on day one, not what you know now.
• Explain the "because," not just the "what," so people can see how you got from problem to decision.
• Run the context check before any important message: what do I know, what do they need, what matters now.