Have you ever stopped to ask for directions in an unfamiliar town? Or perhaps even a different country entirely? Perhaps a sat-nav system has sent you inexplicably down a back alley; perhaps your road map just isn't clear enough. So you stop and asking a local how to get from A to B.

'Oh, that's simple enough, you just take a right past Johnny's farm, and down on the corner where the garage used to be, you take the second left there. Now, carry on for ten minutes or so, past the turning for the woods and take the next right, third left, next right, left again, and your third left will take you there. Couldn't be easier, mate.'

However, communicating a subject you know very well to someone who's as ignorant as you are familiar isn't always very easy. As far as you're aware, you're couching the information in terms as clear as day and as common as gulls outside a seaside fish and chip shop. Yet to anyone else, they might be a foreign language, whether it's a spot of otherwise-unintelligible local knowledge in driving directions, a mass of technical jargon to make a computer system work, or an argument over fielding positions in the Test match. Of course, if someone stops at the side of the road and asks you for directions, you can't really plan out your answer to make it any clearer; however, in business - whether dealing with colleagues, other businesses or the public - being able to make yourself clear in a manner that anyone would understand can make a tremendous difference.

And if you want to make yourself understood, it's often advantageous to do so visually; a picture tells a thousand words, of course, but more than that, a picture can make a principle comprehensible where jargon could only fail. If you're looking to give instructions for a procedure - of whatever nature - then Microsoft Visio can help you to replace the jargon with a clear, understandable and easy-to-follow flow chart.

We've probably all come across flow charts at one time or another, in all sorts of differing situations - and they crop up as often as they do because they're so effective. It may be instructions on how to use a system, guidelines for dealing with a particular situation, an illustration of the organisation's plans or progress, a statement of how a project is to be carried out, and so on through endless possibilities; guiding an individual or group through a process via simple questions and statements is far easier to understand than pages of written explanation. And in a business situation, this can make for substantial improvements in effectiveness and efficiency, and a reduction in mistakes and misapprehensions.

Set against the clear advantages might be the comparative complexity in drawing up a diagram rather than simply writing the information out. Fortunately, Visio takes any such problems away, allowing you to create, align and connect shapes automatically, the software giving you exactly the diagram you need from just a few intuitive clicks. Alternatively, you can download a wide range of free templates to fulfil any need, and slot your own information straight into a ready-to-use chart.

Whatever the needs of your business, being able to put information across in an easily understood diagram can make a real difference - and by combining Visio with other Office applications, you can easily share your chart in a PowerPoint presentation or a Word or Publisher document, or access it from remote locations through SharePoint. It might be worth considering a short training course for yourself or your staff, as the advantages of simple and effective diagram software can be significant; after all, more time understanding and less time explaining means more time put to good use and less time wasted. And doesn't every organisation want to keep wasted time to a minimum?