> Sure, but why is it solely the responsibility of the domain expert to adjust their communication style to the executive, instead of the executive - who after all hired the domain expert, at least indirectly, and who stands to gain more from the company performing well - learning to communicate with domain experts?
While in principle (as a non-executive who gets endlessly frustrated with these sorts of constraints) I wholeheartedly agree with your point, it's probably more reasonable to expect domain experts to learn one general "communicating with executives" style than to expect executives to learn countless "communicating with domain experts" styles.
Is it though? I think what will happen is that people who have big career ambitions will learn this style in order to please their superiors. But plenty of "regular" people, who don't feel a need for the career treadmill, will refuse to play along because after all - what's in it for them?
In ignoring those people (who may be technically brilliant or huge experts in their domain), the executives miss out more than the domain experts do, since the latter don't necessarily have a stake in the company's success.
While in principle (as a non-executive who gets endlessly frustrated with these sorts of constraints) I wholeheartedly agree with your point, it's probably more reasonable to expect domain experts to learn one general "communicating with executives" style than to expect executives to learn countless "communicating with domain experts" styles.