Hi!

At our June Comm Convo, Fluent in Finance, Science, and Strategy, we looked at what it takes to build enough command of science, finance, and business strategy to give counsel that holds up with internal business partners (if you're in-house) or with our clients (if you're at an agency or an outside advisor).

Fluency is decidedly what earns us the standing to ask sharper questions, push back on messaging that requires broader alignment first, and get close to decisions before being asked to draft the press release. Our panelists were candid about how that fluency gets built, through ordinary relationships and repeated exposure to how leaders think long before any single defining moment, and about the mistakes that taught them the most.

Our top 10 takeaways:

1. Build fluency as an ongoing discipline. Keep getting smarter on the science, finance, and strategy so your questions become sharper, your counsel improves, and your pushback carries more weight.

2. Ask the question that slows the room down. A plain “I’m not following this yet” can surface assumptions experts have stopped noticing. Curiosity, used well, is a credibility builder.

3. Show how you think. Trust builds when colleagues see you listen closely, absorb the material, make useful connections, and come back with better questions.

4. Learn how different colleagues grant trust. Some people need rapport first. Others need to see you deliver. Senior communicators learn to read the difference and adjust.

5. Invest in relationships before there is a specific ask. The relationships that matter in a compressed moment are usually built through ordinary check-ins, informal questions, and repeated exposure to how leaders think.

>>>Real-world example: Regular C-suite conversations helped a communications lead align media, investor, legal, and leadership perspectives when a clinical issue forced a sudden trial pause.

6. Get close to decisions while they are still forming. Communications counsel is stronger when it is shaped alongside the data, risk, timing, audience, and business context before a draft is on the page.

7. Bring counsel and finance into the outcome you’re trying to reach. A conservative answer often reflects the context they have. Share the goal, then work through risk, tradeoffs, and what the business needs the communication to do.

>>>Frame worth borrowing: A budget is corporate strategy expressed in numbers.

8. Treat communication needs broadly. Abstracts, manuscripts, conference prep, regulatory documents, investor materials, and patient-facing moments all require clarity, audience judgment, and sequencing.

>>>Example in practice: Volunteering around AI-enabled document development expanded one communicator’s role into regulatory, scientific, and company-wide AI adoption efforts.

9. Use institutional memory as a stress test. Prior language, tough Q&A, investor reactions, reporter follow-ups, and leadership remarks can reveal where a message is likely to hold, drift, or invite scrutiny. The value is in spotting the pattern before the next high-pressure moment.

10. Follow up before you interpret the signal. A market reaction, analyst response, or muted audience response may have more behind it than the communication itself. Direct feedback can show what was priced in, what needed more context, or what else shaped the moment.

>>>Real-world example: After strong news landed softer than expected, direct feedback showed the issue was partly prior expectations and partly the need for clearer context around strategy.

Thank you again to our panelists — Naina Bhasin, Ph.D. (Lifordi Immunotherapeutics), Julie DiCarlo (Rapport Therapeutics), Chris Patil, Ph.D. (BioAge Labs) — and moderator Peggy Vorwald, Ph.D. (Caribou Biosciences) for driving this discussion.

T2B Pro and Student members can catch the replay here.

Lynnea

P.S. - Don’t miss next week's July Comm Convo, Why Only Some Platforms Are Trusted When Everyone Has One. Sign up here!

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