Communication: What is it? Are You Good at it?

I'm working on a new book for, Lee Thayer, who often writes on Leadership. You've heard me speak of him now and again. He's a bit of a curmudgeon - and has a right to be at 82 years young. But, beyond his ability to "rattle CEOs cages" as he likes to put it, he has so much experience in business and in teaching (he's a former professor with a world-class background... i.e. - he's been to more countries than I can think of), I pay close attention to his work, when I am privileged to receive it.

This new book is one you will hear me speak of again and again. Why? Because it's based in the very fundamentals of what we humans do in our daily lives, and what we should do better, in our businesses. No, it's not about marketing, except that marketing is about a message, and you cannot create nor share a good, solid, actionable message, without good communication. Can you? So, it can be about marketing.

Dr. Thayer and WME are working on an exciting new project, separate from publication of his Communication book (note: the book is on Communication, NOT on Communications - subtle but important difference), which I will share at another time. Suffice it to say that communication is the foundation of our world. Without it, we would not be.

Communication is more than the language we speak. It's more than the sales copy on fancy brochures. It's far more than the words in blogs and books. It's somewhat beyond all that...

As Thayer says in the "Forewarnings" of his new book, "You need to be forewarned that this book is not about communication as you probably understand it. It is about communication as it ought to be understood." He goes on, further on, to say, "If you understand something wrongly, you will frequently be perplexed, frustrated, and even angered... Our communication problems are not engendered by the world outside of us. They are engendered mainly because we have a conception of communication that just doesn't fit the facts."

Why am I sharing this today? Two reasons. One: because Thayer is right. The tools we use to converse and discuss issues, problems, interests, whathaveyou, with each other were given to us as children and... they lack something. Too often, we are misunderstood. Our attempts to "communicate" fail to do so. Each of us hears something different, each of us speaks in tongues, and the message gets lost in the translation.

Second: I'm off to spend the weekend at the hospital with my Mom and Dad, and I am bringing Thayer's  manuscript with me to pass the time. I know I will learn a great deal. Enough to share, one hopes.

My thoughts are with those challenged by nature this weekend. Even as I sit by my Father's side, at his hospital bed, and try occasionally to reassure my Mother that all will be well, I will be wondering how those in the path of nature's fury are doing. In holding and reading Thayer's manuscript, I will try to learn how to assimilate the truth of life: in speaking, we humanize ourselves. In listening, we bring our worlds together. In learning, we create understanding.

In connecting - face-to-face, hug-to-hug, cheek-to-cheek, we build bonds that stretch beyond each of us, and weave that tapestry of life called togetherness. Because, IMHO, we're all in this together. Now, if we can only transcribe that emotional bond and share it with generations to come. If only...

Comments

[Doug C.]

Interesting. I recently wrote a couple articles concerning this very thing ('The Death of Conversation' and 'Twitter Me This, Twitter Me That...'). Conversing, it seems, is a lost art form, much like basket weaving and furniture making.

We as a society have allowed ourselves to become mentally addled by technology, depending on it's devices to communicate for us. We need to return to that simpler time when people spoke with words that had meaning and substance. Pull the headphones off, take that dang cell phone off your face, and listen, speak, be a person living and breathing and communicating with the world around you.

And, while I'm on the subject, it is also essential to learn, read, and digest knowledge so that when we do speak it is with a modicum of feeling and forethought beyond, "How's the weather?"

Yvonne, I will pray for all three of you that God will allow healing and health for as long as possible.