Tell me in 3 sentences

Do you know the pleasant feeling when someone can tell you with surprising clarity what they are dealing with?

Each doctoral thesis can be summarized in three sentences. However, few doctoral graduates are able to do this. Of course, many important details are neglected here. But that is not the point of such a summary. What was your research about and what are the main findings? These are the questions that are actually asked when we ask what someone has dealt with in their doctoral thesis. It’s amazing how rarely you get concise answers.

Does my counterpart still have a goal in mind or is he lost in details? Does the person you are talking to really understand what their projects are about? If people can’t summarize their current project in three sentences, I have the feeling that my counterpart is losing direction.

My theory is that we are often simply traveling at different altitudes. Imagine you are flying a helicopter from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne. If someone asks you where you are flying to, your answer will of course depend heavily on your altitude. If you are 3500 meters above the ground and can already see the most beautiful city in the world in the distance, you will clearly know where the whole journey is going. However, if you are flying 3 meters above the ground, your answer is more likely to be that you are flying over the Main, for example.

Our thoughts are usually flying very close to the ground because we are busy with the details of our projects. However, we are often asked more at an altitude of 3500 meters. The trick is to be able to adjust the flight altitude flexibly. I like to call this “flight altitude ping-pong”. Ping-pong, because a discussion often leads to a back-and-forth between different flight altitudes. The task is to get involved as a pilot.

If you are now thinking that some topics cannot be summarized in 3 sentences, then you are right … if you think of a topic in full detail. The question about what you are currently working on is actually “Where are you going?”, not “Which road are you currently on?”.

Let’s pull up the helicopter and try to bring clarity to our issues. Clarityby sharply outlining what motivates our detailed work. For detailed discussions, we can still go into the descent.

How clear are you about the goals and results of your projects? Do you know where the journey is going, or are you busy with the road surface at the first junction?