5.2 Simplifying

The second reason why dyslexics make powerful communicators is we are great at simplifying the Dyslexic Thinking skills of reasoning and communicating. Dyslexic minds are great at stripping away unnecessary detail to create clear, compelling messages. This means they excel in careers where explaining, educating or influencing are key, like teaching, marketing, journalism, campaigning or PR.

Communicating your products and services simply has helped to build the most loved brands, from Apple to IKEA and, of course, Virgin. Richard Branson has famously said: “If it can't fit onto the back of an envelope, it's probably a bad idea.” Meaning if you can't sum up what a company offers in one line, it's too complicated for your customers to understand and buy into.

He built this philosophy on a strategy developed by the US Navy in 1960 called ‘Keep It Simple Stupid’, or KISS for short. Communicating simply has been a military imperative for years, with their concept of commander's intent. While battle plans can be up to 150 PowerPoint slides long, the commander's intent sums it up in one sentence. It explains a mission's purpose or outcome as simply as possible to ensure there's no confusion in the heat of battle. Keeping it simple comes naturally to dyslexic thinkers.

Here's Roy Schwartz to explain the most valuable strength his dyslexic thinking gives him.

I would say it is simplifying complex ideas. I didn't realise it was a strength of mine until I entered the business world. And then all of a sudden I realised, oh, I can take complex information, simplify it down, and be able to share it with other people. And so that became my superpower. But it took me years to figure it out. It wasn't until I was in the business world that I was like ‘oh, this is what I do really well.

Along with his Axios co-founders Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, he developed a new way of simplifying news and information. And together, they went on to write the definitive guide to communicating simply and clearly called Smart Brevity. Here's Roy again to explain.

And so that was the insight that launched Axios. The idea of, how do we give people news and information in what ended up being called Smart Brevity, this new format, and how do we do it in the most concise way possible? And 250 words happens to be the number of words that fit on one screen of your phone.

And so we realised, oh, people want one screen of information. Maybe if they want to go deeper, two screens of information. So we basically put everything into ‘what's new and why does it matter?’ And very quickly we realised this is bigger than news. This is actually how people should communicate in this modern era. And that's why we wrote the book.

Getting to the heart of a story and simplifying it so everyone can understand it, and explaining why it matters, is a dyslexic skill, one that's highly valued in the real world. But as Roy explains, it's not a skill that's nurtured in school.

For whatever reason, it's a bug in humanity. We sit down, we start writing, and everything we do is long. And we're trained that way from school. How many times we got assignments that said ‘we want three pages of this or five pages of this.’ And so we all played with the margins and played with the ways to make that, you know, font larger and have as few words as possible. It should have been the other way around. They should have said take this complex theory, this complex observation, and try and make it as concise as possible. Try and have Smart Brevity.

And that's why that book, you know, we've written it in that way. But I think if people could do that, that's a real skill. Anyone can fill up five pages of nonsense. Can you actually get it down to a single paragraph, a few sentences? That's the real skill.

Like Roy, many other journalists are dyslexic and use their Dyslexic Thinking to simplify information and create compelling stories. Tori Cadogan, education editor at Tatler, says: “My Dyslexic Thinking has helped me to strip away unnecessary details, to create clear and concise messages.” Likewise, Stephanie Ruhle, star of MSNBC's 11th Hour, explains how she uses her Dyslexic Thinking skills to simplify complex business news.

I think where my Dyslexic Thinking really came into play was during COVID, because I'm the business analyst for NBC News. And just trying to help people—whether it was on traditional broadcast, we were doing all sort of digital broadcast—just helping people understand, right? Like, how are you going to file your taxes this year? Are you going to get a stimulus check? Here's how this works.

And so oftentimes business news is very hard for people to understand, because business news is like a different language. And it's like it turns most of us into dyslexics, because we don't speak that language. But for me, I have to really break it down so I can understand it. And so I break it down for myself, and once I do that then I can break it down for my audience.

Other dyslexic minds, like that of space scientist and communicator and Made By Dyslexia ambassador Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock, use their dyslexic communication skills to simplify concepts that are out of this world, and go on to engage new audiences and inspire a generation.

As she explains: “As a scientist, I have found that I'm able to take complex ideas and simplify them, storytell and bring science ideas to life in my own unique way. This has been a huge advantage.” Here's Maggie explaining how she discovered that her greatest dyslexic strengths lay not just in exploring new frontiers in space science but in communicating those to as many people as possible, so we can all share in the wonder of the world around us.

DAME MAGGIE ADERIN-POCOCK

It took me many years to work out what my strengths and weaknesses are. And even working as a space scientist, I love doing the job, but there's a lot of paperwork. And so I think I'm a more effective science communicator. So I take the discoveries that are made and I can share them with many people. So know your strengths and weaknesses and work to your strengths. And also, I'd like to say, I always say, reach for the stars no matter what your stars are.

Simplifying complex scientific information is a strength that BBC wildlife presenter, zoologologist and Made By Dyslexia ambassador Megan McCubbin shares. Communicating compelling stories about the natural world is what she thrives at.

It goes a long way, actually, having a dyslexic mind. Because I'm able to look at scientific information, strip away the complexity that I don't need—I don't even see it half the time—and I can pinpoint the bits that are exciting for an audience and the bits that aren't necessarily needed. You know, the methodology in a study, for example.

And I can put it together like a puzzle and I can visually see a story, and I can hear how I might present it or I might write it. And I can kind of get a feel, actually, in a weird sense, for what I want to do with that story. And I think that is all about dyslexia. I think that's very much a dyslexic trait.

Cutting through the noise, communicating clearly, and making complex things simple is a skill used to brilliant effect by dyslexic chef and campaigner Jamie Oliver. For him, communicating goes beyond words. He creates cookbooks where images explain culinary techniques and a simple, clear layout guides you through the steps. Beyond this, he simplifies recipes to make them easy to remember. This has helped him to sell over 50 million books worldwide, making him Britain's bestselling non-fiction writer.

Some of my books are solution books. And I think is it's got dyslexic code all over it. And if you look at the page, it's like fighting for white space, fighting for order. If you saw me edit my books, you'd find it quite fascinating. I edit pages so there's no run-over. So it's just blocks of text. I fight for white space. If I'm writing recipes... you know, if you look at old recipes, it'll be ‘175 grams of this, 320 grams of that.’ You'll never get that with me.

It's quite modular. Like a pack of butter is 250 grams, right? So it'll be half a pack, or a whole pack if it's 100 grams or 200 grams. Like, you won't see odd numbers. So it's not just words that kind of mess with my brain. It's like... numbers piss me off, too. So if I had a choice to give you a recipe that was the best recipe on the planet that was annoying, I would rather give you a really, really easy recipe that was like 85% good, right?

So it sounds really weird, right? But like, if I can go 200 grams of butter, 200 grams of sugar, 200 grams of almond flour, you know, two eggs, you know, two pinches of cinnamon, two two two two. Like, if you look in my books, you'll go ‘oh, here he is on another one.’ And it's not just repeats. It's also one, two, three, four. You'll see that as well.

So what I'll try and do is I'll try and break the recipe. Sometimes you can't do it and you just have to, you know, succumb to reality. But what you'll see in my recipes, and I think this is why people come back, is because I try and write recipes that you can kind of memorise.

But it also keeps it simple. Nobody wants to fiddle around. You just want to sort of get it done really, don't you? Which is why I think everything you do is so successful...

And step-by-steps and images. And the fact that, you know, even in my first book, like, where words couldn't quite describe something, when you're rolling it and wrapping it and tying it, a picture does it all.

Complex recipes made simple and memorable. That's got to be dyslexic communicating at its best. Here are three key takeaways from this section. One, dyslexic minds are great at making complex information easy to understand. Two, they do this by stripping away unnecessary detail, getting to the heart of the story. And three, they don't just communicate simply through words, but using different senses and channels to communicate.