The expertise trap: why organisations struggle to communicate simply

Experts can struggle to explain what they know. For organisations, making complex ideas clear is increasingly essential to building trust and reaching the people who matter.

By Zoë Scorer

There's a pattern we see again and again with our clients; those who know their field best are often the ones who find it hardest to explain it clearly.

The curse of knowing too much

There's a name for this in psychology: the curse of knowledge, a term coined by economist Robin Hogarth in 1975. Experts can be particularly poor at explaining their own subject than non-experts are. Research into scientific communication has found that jargon does more than slow readers down. The effort of decoding unfamiliar terms can increase resistance to the ideas being communicated, as readers may interpret extra effort as a sign that the underlying claim is questionable.

We see the same pattern across the sectors we work in. A green energy company buries the "so what" of a new technology beneath methodology. A property developer talks fluently about massing and embodied carbon, but doesn’t tell the person who wants to know what the building will actually mean for their community. A charity focuses on "beneficiaries" and "theory of change" when a donor simply wants to know who was helped and how. A school describes its curriculum in terms that mean little to a parent trying to decide whether it is right for their child. The expert that gives an organisation credibility can also be what makes it difficult for others to understand.

Why this matters more now

This has always been a challenge. What's changed is the cost of getting it wrong. Attention is harder to hold, and people have less patience for working out what an organisation actually does. If they can't grasp the value of an offer in the time it takes to scroll past it, a competitor with a simpler explanation can win the moment, even if its underlying offer is weaker.

Clarity is now a genuine competitive advantage. That's especially true here in Cambridge, where the concentration of world-class expertise means being good at what you do isn't enough on its own; you also need to be understood.

The latest Ipsos Public Attitudes to Science survey illustrates the challenge. The proportion of people in the UK public who feel informed about science fell from 51% in 2019 to 43% in 2025, despite people having more access to information.

Why it's hard to fix from the inside

Organisations want to build relationships with their audiences and turn complex messages into clear, relatable stories that build credibility and connection. But few manage it on their own. Part of the problem is proximity. Terms that feel straightforward to a team of experts in their subject sound opaque to everyone else. This is because simplicity can also feel risky. Technical jargon creeps back in, and clarity gets traded for a level of detail that is hard for their audiences to digest.

There’s another problem: translation doesn't really belong to anyone. Technical accuracy has an obvious owner, whether that's the science lead or the project manager. Turning that accuracy into something a non-specialist audience can understand requires a different skill, and one that most organisations haven’t developed in-house.

Making every message matter

The quieter weeks before September's pace returns offer a chance for organisations to step back and ask a harder question: does our core message land with someone outside our field, on the first read? For most organisations, the honest answer is often no. That’s rarely for lack of trying. It's what happens when deep expertise hasn't been deliberately translated for the people who need to understand it and act on it.

If you recognise your organisation in any of this, use the next few weeks to look at your communications from the outside. What does it sound like to someone who doesn't already know what you know? That perspective can be surprisingly revealing.

Zoë Scorer is managing director of Conscious Communications, a Cambridge-based communications consultancy specialising in helping organisations turn complex ideas into clear, engaging communications. Conscious Communications is a corporate affiliate member of the CIPR.

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