Let’s be honest: most technical presentations are a form of polite torture. We sit in darkened rooms, clutching lukewarm coffee, while someone shows us slides of “integrated systemic solutions” and “optimised paradigms”. It’s like being read a legal disclaimer in a language you only half-understand.
The tragedy is that the product being discussed is often genuinely brilliant. But brilliance is useless if it’s trapped in the abstract.
The Rationality Trap
We have this strange obsession with being “professional,” which we mistakenly equate with being “dry”. We think that if we use big, Latinate words, we sound more authoritative. In reality, we are just increasing the perception gap.
Evolutionarily speaking, the human brain is not designed to process “synergistic sustainability”. It is designed to notice a rustle in the bushes or a change in the weather. We are sensory creatures. If you want an architect to specify your rainscreen cladding, you need to stop talking about “moisture management” and start talking about how a raincoat works—or better yet, why a cheap raincoat makes you sweat.
Perception is Reality
The value of a thing is not what it is, but how it is perceived. A train that is ten minutes late but has a display screen telling you exactly when it will arrive is “faster” in the human mind than a train that is five minutes late but leaves you in the dark.
The same applies to your ideas. An abstract idea is a train with no display screen. It creates anxiety. A concrete example is the screen. It provides certainty.
If you tell me your insulation is “environmentally superior,” I might believe you, but I won’t feel it. If you tell me that using this insulation is the carbon equivalent of taking twenty cars off the M25 for a year, you’ve given me a “mental object” I can actually move around in my head.
The “How-To” of Concreteness
How do we actually do this without sounding like we’re talking to children? It’s about intellectual rigor applied to simplicity.
- The “For Example” Rule: Every time you make a claim, you must immediately follow it with “For example…” If you can’t think of one, your claim is probably fluff.
- The Sensory Audit: Can the audience see, touch, or hear your example? “Structural integrity” is a concept. “A floor that doesn’t creak when a delivery driver walks across it” is a concrete reality.
- The Comparison Hack: Humans are terrible at absolute values but great at relative ones. Don’t tell me the decibel rating; tell me it’s the difference between a library and a pub.
The Future of Specification
The architects of tomorrow aren’t looking for more data; they’re looking for more meaning. We are entering an era of “Information Overload,” where the ultimate luxury is a clear narrative.
If you can take a complex, abstract regulatory requirement—like the latest amendments to the Building Safety Act—and turn it into a concrete set of “Do’s and Don’ts” involving real-world site scenarios, you aren’t just a manufacturer anymore. You are a strategic partner. You have reduced their cognitive load, and in the modern economy, that is the highest form of value.
The Calculated Risk of Being Simple
There is a risk, of course. If you are simple, people might think you aren’t “deep”. This is a fallacy. It takes far more intelligence to explain the Second Law of Thermodynamics using a messy bedroom as an example than it does to recite a textbook.
Precision is a discipline. It requires you to know your subject so well that you can afford to be clear. If you’re hiding behind jargon, you’re likely hiding a gap in your own understanding.
Turning Thought into Action
Your next presentation shouldn’t be a data dump. It should be a gallery of concrete realities.
Take your most “abstract” slide—the one with the most bullet points and the fewest pictures. Delete the text. Find one story, one physical analogy, or one comparative table that proves the point.
The goal isn’t to get them to understand the math; it’s to get them to trust the result. Trust is built on the concrete. Confusion is the parent of the “No”.
Review your technical literature today and highlight every word that couldn’t be filmed by a camera; replace those words with descriptions of actions, objects, or outcomes that can.