The Human Factor in Technical Communication

Elevating Communication, Emotional Intelligence & Storytelling in Tech Teams

A summary of Roxana Blăgescu's talk at the IUNTC meeting from June 26, 2025. 

Roxana - Executive and Leadership Coach with a deep understanding of neuroscience due to her background in Neurolanguage Coaching, entrepreneur and founder of Speak-Up Dynamics - impressively demonstrated at the IUNTC meeting why technical excellence alone is no longer enough today. Her central thesis: as soon as brilliant ideas get stuck in sober "data language", they lose their echo - and thus their impact.

The human factor as a key switch

According to Roxana, technical experts only really reach their audience when they interweave facts and figures with emotions. From a neuroscientific point of view, emotions serve as "memory hooks": they activate areas of the emotional nervous system that anchor information in the long term. If, on the other hand, you present only facts, you force the brain into overload mode - the audience switches off. Successful communication therefore generates resonance instead of mere reaction: the listeners feel seen, think along with you and act out of their own conviction.

Four typical blockages

During the discussion, Roxanna repeatedly identified the same communication barriers in technical presentations :

1. Data anxiety - The challenge of reducing numbers so that experts don't get bored, but beginners still understand them.
2. Technical bias - Precision and completeness are prioritized, while audience involvement remains secondary.
3. Overemphasis on logic - tone of voice, empathy and storytelling are sacrificed in favor of "cold facts".
4. Fear of unprofessionalism - emotions are considered "soft" and therefore a career risk.

These blockages lead to speakers "dumping" information without comment instead of opening a dialog.

During the workshop, Roxana encouraged the audience to provide examples of communication stressors, and she offered coaching tips to deal with these situations. Here are two practical examples from the workshop.

Ninu and the fear of data

An all-too-familiar scenario: in mixed audiences, Ninu, an engineer, vacillates between fear of simplification and fear of being overwhelmed. Her improvised way out - small talk before the start, targeted questions about background and expectations - gave her a picture of the mood and made the presentation relatable. Roxana picked up on this: If you open the "social channel" right at the beginning, you turn monologue into dialog and gain seconds to choose the right depth of data for each audience .

Mika and the "nervousness joke"

Mika's strategy is to crack inappropriate jokes under stress. Roxana's coaching: a micro-pause routine. As soon as the impulse arises, briefly place your lip on your teeth, take a deep breath, correct your posture - only then speak. Breath and body posture dampen the physiological stress response, while the pause provides time for a conscious word choice update. Many participants noted this simple technique as an immediately implementable "protective cover" against spontaneous faux pas.

Emotional intelligence - from reaction to resonance

Roxanna defines Emotional Intelligence (EI) as a two-stage process:

1. Self-awareness - naming your own feelings, because "if you don't see the inner fog, you stumble blindly over it".
2. Perception of others - recognizing the emotions of others and mirroring them verbally. This creates psychological security and builds trust.

EI is not a "soft add-on", but a cognitive tool: only when the other person's threat system shuts down does their prefrontal cortex open up to complex facts.

Storytelling as a structural aid

To anchor facts emotionally, Roxanna recommends a minimalist framework:

Context → Conflict → Solution → Meaning for the audience

As Roxana explains: “storytelling becomes your most strategic tool — not fluff, not fiction, but a bridge between logic and emotion, task and purpose.” This approach combines reason and emotion to create an "easily accessible knowledge bridge".

Gender and cultural factors

During the workshop, women in male-dominated industries noted additional pressure to appear "tough and unemotional". Roxana disagreed: those who consciously manage their emotions do not appear weak, but approachable and competent. The decisive factor is how the emotions are processed - clearly named, precisely modulated.

Why the brain loves stories

Pure data primarily activates the brain’s language center. Stories with emotional turning points, on the other hand, awaken sensory and motor areas so that listeners "experience" what is being said. This multisensory impression ensures higher recall values.

Concrete recommendations based on the workshop examples

• Research the audience: Industry, prior knowledge, expectations. Knowing the characteristics of the audience can transform data anxiety into an advantage.
• Deliberate pauses: Roxana’s advice to use micro-pauses works in many situations.
• Analyze recordings of yourself: This helps you to recognize filler words, body language tics or "data dumps".
• Posture and breathing technique: Upright posture lowers cortisol and therefore stress; deep breathing puts the vagus system into rest mode – another quick fix for stress peaks.
• Find a story hook: an image, an unexpected analogy or a personal moment that makes the data tangible for non-technical people.

Conclusion

Roxana's core message is that technology is only convincing when it touches people. She invites us to pay much more attention to emotions if we have not done so before. When you integrate emotions deliberately, you transform information into inspiration, increase the recall rate and open doors for collaboration. This turns the "human factor" from a nice-to-have into a business-relevant lever for success.

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Roxana Blăgescu is an Executive, Leadership, and Communication Coach with over 20 years of experience in training, cultural integration, and public speaking—and more than 18 years as a successful entrepreneur. She helps professionals, especially in technical and international environments, overcome mindset blocks and express their expertise with confidence, clarity, and emotional intelligence. Her approach blends neuroscience, storytelling, and coaching to transform how experts connect, lead, and communicate. Roxana collaborates with universities, organizations, and global leaders to embed human-centered communication into education and business. She is the founder of SpeakUp Dynamics and a passionate advocate for elevating the human factor in technical and professional communication.