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" target="_blank">Share this PageCommunication"As a communications student, I participated in a simple, yet effective, communications experiment. The professor asked each of us to take a piece of paper out of our notebooks. He then told us to close our eyes and follow these simple instructions:
He asked us to open our eyes. Not surprisingly, there were 20 different versions of torn and folded paper. Needless to say, we got the point." (Sandi Kimmel, a program manager in member communications for Prodigy Services) I used to operate under the notion that people are basically the same and that there was always a "best way" to communicate information to be understandable to most people. I thought if I could just formulate an instruction in the perfect form, if I could find the right words and pictures, and make sure that the context was appropriate, I could come up with the best solution. But that implies an arrogance, as well as an ignorance, of communications. This implies that understanding is a specific point. Understanding is a path, not a point. It's a path of connections between thought and thought; patterns over patterns. The essence of leaps of understanding elates to connections. Understanding is not about simplification and minimalization; it's about organization and clarification. It is about seeing relationships. (Richard Saul Wurman, Follow the Yellow Brick Road) If I went back to college again, I'd concentrate on two areas: learning to write and to speak before an audience. Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively. (Gerald Ford) Scrabble - key isn't vocabulary - it's tile management. Communication - key is word management While it might be more challenging to communicate abstract ideas with concrete words, it is not impossible. In fact, you can almost always move your messages closer to the concrete. (Richard Saul Wurman, Follow the Yellow Brick Road) Among the synonyms for communicate are advise, air, brief, bring up, broach, buzz, call, coach, condition, confer, consult, contact, convey, cultivate, declare, describe, develop, discipline, disclose, discuss, display, divulge, drill, edify, educate, enlighten, exercise, exhibit, explain, expose, express, give, groom, group, huddle, imbue, impart, implant, improve, inculcate, indoctrinate, inform, infuse, inseminate, inspire, instill, instruct, introduce, narrate, notify, open, orate, parley, perfect, phone, portray, powwow, practice, prepare, put, read, ready, recite, recount, relate, report, retell, reveal, ring, school, share, state, tap, tattle, teach, telephone, tell, touch, train, transmit, tutor, uncover, unveil, vent, ventilate, verbalize. When our words appear to contradict the feelings that are expressed in our faces, voices, and bodily movements, the perceived inconsistency tends to be resolved by trusting the non-verbal messages more than the verbal. (Martin Remland) If a man takes off his sunglasses, I can hear him better. (Hugh Prather, Notes to Myself) "There are about 800,000 words in the English language, some 800 of which are used in daily conversations. Because the 800 words have 14,000 meanings in total, we have trouble interpreting messages as they are intended," stated William V. Ruch in Corporate Communications: A Comparison of Japanese and American Practices. This means that by simple division there would be an average of about 17 meanings per word. It's a wonder that we can communicate at all with odds like that. Every time we choose a word, we run the risk that the person to whom we are speaking will apply a different meaning than we intended. On a word-by- word basis, we have only a 1 in 17 chance of having our word understood in the intended meaning--that's if people stick to the accepted definitions. (Richard Saul Wurman, Follow the Yellow Brick Road) " target="_blank">Share this Page |
