To Truly Master a Subject, Teach It

“When one teaches, two learn.” — Robert Heinlein 

Years ago, when I had just started working at a PR firm, one of our managing directors popped his head into my office and asked, “Hey, Rob, do you write speeches?”

“Sure,” I lied. OK, “lie” is a harsh way to put it. Let’s say “fudged.” Because I had a lot of experience ghostwriting all kinds of things for senior executives — bylined articles, media statements, talking points, shareholder letters, etc. 

How different could a speech be? As it turns out, not that different — at least for me. It was all about capturing the individual’s ideas, viewpoint and voice in a compelling, audience-focused narrative.

I wrote a few speeches for a client’s senior execs, then their CEO and eventually became the go-to office speechwriter. 

Later, that same managing director asked if I could teach others how to do it. That one baffled me. Because while I seemed to have an aptitude for speechwriting, I didn’t have a clue about how I did it — much less how to teach it to others.

But that small spark of a challenge led me to a whole new career direction — teaching the art of communication in workshops, books and coaching. 

The biggest surprise? The more I teach, the more I learn. Here’s why:

Teaching equips you with a process.

There’s an old saying (apparently mistakenly attributed to Albert Einstein) that if you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough. 

That was my challenge with speechwriting. How do I teach something that feels instinctive to me? So, I was forced to essentially reverse engineer the process to create simple steps for others to follow. 

That process not only helps them, but it also gives me an invaluable fallback for those occasions when I’m blocked and the ideas just aren’t coming.

It expands your knowledge.

Another old saying is that “you don’t know what you don’t know.” That’s why I love taking audience questions. Sometimes I’m stumped and will have to do some research.

Other times, I manage to somehow come up with an answer from somewhere in the recesses of my brain. Either way, the experience gives me a deeper understanding of the topic.

It pressure-tests your ideas.

The classroom is a laboratory where you can validate whether the methods and techniques you teach work in real life. And, of course, you can tweak them based on what you observe.

Teaching helps you target your content.

The classroom is like a focus group. The more you do it, the better you’ll be able to anticipate people’s interests and fine-tune your content to meet their needs.

It broadens your perspective.

Teaching naturally exposes you to people with different life experiences, viewpoints and learning styles, which further challenges you to strengthen your arguments and better explain your ideas.

It generates anecdotal evidence.

When I have people do exercises like mock presentations or storytelling, I inevitably come away with concrete, real-life examples of problems or breakthroughs that I can use to bring the learning to life in future engagements.

Teaching trains you to listen.

How often has this happened to you? Some­one asks a question and you give a long explanation only to find that you’ve answered a question that wasn’t asked!

Our brains tend to rush toward familiar, comfortable terrain. Plus, we make assumptions based on our own experience and perspective. Teaching forces us to put aside our preconceived notions and really tune in to what people are telling us.

And by the way, it’s not a bad idea to clarify a question before answering by simply saying, “As I understand it, you’re asking [blank] — is that correct?”

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So, to anyone who wants to truly master a subject, challenge yourself to teach it. Volunteer to do a lunch-and-learn for your office or a presentation for a community group. Or just sit down and sketch out a detailed “how-to” plan.

You’ll come away with knowledge and insights that will deepen your understanding and improve your practice.