misunderstood

for the third time this year i've today had to face the same feedback, from the same people, about the same written document: a plan for a research area over the next 18 months. every single time i've met with these people they've told me that they can't see what it is that the group described in the document is actually doing. so then we given examples. and then they say: "but there's no big picture". so we talk about the big picture. and then that person says "yes but we can't see what that means". so we give an example. and then they say "but where's the vision" so we give an example. and they say "but it's not sexy" so we give a sexy example, and they say "but that's not in the document...." AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....honestly apart from the time i was with husband number 2 i never really felt that i was bad at communicating but i am starting to think that it would be easier to communicate with lichen or poppy seeds than with these folk who are supposed to be giving me "useful feedback". next time i write something for these folk it is going to conttain lots of pictures, and very big arrows pointing to boxes with headings like "This is sexy because"... and "This is our vision" and "read on for exciting but terribly specific examples of the vision in action"....And maybe i'll do a puppet show to go with it.