The 'Teach-Back' Trick That Reveals When Someone Actually Understood You

You can explain something perfectly and still fail to communicate it. That's because clarity isn't about how well you speak, it's about how well the other person listens, and most professionals never stop to check the difference.

In the workplace, what you say is only half of the communication process. The other half, what they understand from what you say, completes the picture.

More often than not, you tend to assume that once you’ve clearly explained things, you’ve been clearly understood. But according to negotiation expert Kwame Christian, “Clarity isn’t determined by how well you explained something. It’s determined entirely by what the other person actually understood.” And most of the time, this is left unchecked.

Simply asking “Does that make sense?” may not get the answers you need, especially in situations when the listener is a subordinate who fears showing misunderstanding or confusion would place them in a bad light. So instead of honestly admitting things weren’t clear, they tend to just nod and say yes. This sends the wrong message to the explainer, who thinks everything was clearly understood.

A better approach, Christian proposes, is the "teach-back" technique, a method commonly used in the healthcare field to check if patients understood the instructions given to them. This means asking them to repeat the instructions themselves, so the healthcare provider can gauge how much the patient understood what was explained to them and make corrections when necessary.

So, taking this to the workplace, instead of asking, “Does that make sense?” a better question would be something that would require the listener to put the idea you explained into practice. This forces them to demonstrate their understanding of what you said.

This technique is reinforced by career columnist John Brandon, who also suggests delivering the information in small, digestible doses, as opposed to the “firehose” approach, where everything is delivered in one long speech.

Brandon recommends pausing in between the small doses to check for understanding, by asking questions such as which idea the listener liked best or which one they disagree with. Getting feedback this way also helps determine how the person is processing the information, instead of just nodding along.

But feedback is more than just verbal. Christian says that apart from what the listener says, pay attention to what they don’t say. These are the non-verbal cues, such as the listener’s tone, hesitation, or body language when responding. These often speak louder than the actual words.

However, Christian warns that this only works if you know the person well enough to pick up on the communication cues that may seem unusual for them. This is also why it’s important to foster regular interaction with the person, in order to have a baseline on their communication habits. This makes it easier to detect when they’re doing something out of the ordinary.

Communication is a two-way street. It’s never successful if the message is only clear to the deliverer of the information and not the receiver. By applying the “teach-back” method, you’re not only ensuring the listener heard the message, but understood it.