The German term nachvollziehbar plays an important role in business conversations – yet its meaning is difficult to translate. It took me almost ten years to find an English term that truly captures the concept.
But let’s rewind.
Looking at Germany from the outside
Collecting ideas and material for my book Doing Business in Germany in 2018, I thought it would be interesting to also include some “outsiders’” perspectives. To find out what others perceive as typical (or exceptional) about Germany, I asked people in my network – mostly international business professionals or Germans who travel frequently or have worked abroad – questions such as: “How can you make a German happy?” or “What do you struggle with when it comes to what Germans consider normal?”
The answers were largely in line with what I had expected, often pointing to cultural dimensions that have been described extensively elsewhere. Still, some aspects of the (mainstream) German “code of conduct” appeared to me in a new – or at least clearer – light.
A word that refuses to be translated
Well‑traveled consultant Alexander Wurz drew my attention to the German term nachvollziehbar (adjective), particularly in the context of presentations. He rightly pointed out that the underlying concept of Nachvollziehbarkeit (noun) plays a central role in German business conversations – and that both are notoriously difficult to translate into English.
Translating certain concepts from one culture into another is always challenging. Some words carry assumptions and expectations that do not travel easily across languages. Nachvollziehbar is one of them.
Nachvollziehen (verb; action) means considerably more than simply “understanding.”
A German audience will expect to be able to nachvollziehen your line of thought – to see clearly where you are coming from and how you arrived at your conclusions. What data are you referring to? Which assumptions did you make? What alternatives did you consider? Which sources did you rely on? What might be the consequences of implementing your proposal?
In other words, your reasoning must be transparent and logically structured so that listeners can connect your argument to their own knowledge, experience, and practical realities. Be prepared to explain how you reached your conclusion – and avoid reacting with a “Why are you bothered? Just be happy it works!” kind of attitude.
How AI finally gave me the right answer
Interestingly, in 2026, I came across a term that captures this expectation surprisingly well – in a completely different context: artificial intelligence. In AI discussions, the concept of traceable reasoning describes the ability of a system to make its decision-making process transparent by clearly showing the steps, data, and logic that led to a particular output. Instead of presenting a result as a “black box” answer, the system allows users to follow how the conclusion was reached.
That is remarkably close to what Germans expect in a business conversation. Not perfectly precise – but close enough.
Which reminds us that the demand that arguments be nachvollziehbar reflects a broader cultural preference for structure, clarity, and precision – characteristics that also shape German engineering culture and many professional interactions far beyond presentations.