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Effective Communication
This is the first in a series of three articles on the art and skill of communication. In this series we will examine some of the key elements of communication to include listening, presenting and understanding.
In our industry we fall prey to a perceived polarity between “Technical” and “Sales” and between “Development “ and “Marketing” and thus the scepticism and cynicism that is engendered between these groups. This polarity is the difference between “Content” and “Message”
Only recently SSP met with a company that had an enterprise class asset management system but had reached a plateau in growth. Their only mechanism for sales was via their web site. SSP recommended that they change this sole method of “passive” marketing to that of a “proactive” and highly focused one that used third parties.
Although they accepted that SSP’s recommendations made sense they were still not convinced, and believed the following:
- If more people reached their web site then more people would buy.
- It was the decision makers that went to their web site
Upon challenging these assertions it was clearly evident that this company was symptomatic of many in our industry in that they failed to appreciate the following:
- A static form of communication is NOT interactive
- There are gross assumptions made that what is published about their products corresponds to a reader’s understanding of it.
- There was not a single statement of benefit on their web site to entice a prospective buyer.
- The language and format was only in “English” yet they confessed that most of their customers were American
- Decision makers are influenced by many means of communication
So what is communication?
Unfortunately communication is very rarely formally studied in our education system yet all of us have to communicate both verbally and in written format. Therefore an understanding of the mechanics of communication could be useful. These are:
1. Transmitter
There must be a medium for communication. In verbal communication this is the voice. For visual communication the writing tool or brush displayed on a screen or on paper.
2. Content
While some may argue that silence communicates, there must nevertheless be some content or a message in the communication. In verbal communication this is words and sounds. In visual communication, colour, line, shape, pattern ,texture and tone. In other non-verbal communication this would be body language.
3. Receiver
Once the medium for the message has been established, and once the message has some content then there must be a receiver for the message. Our senses are the receptors that we use, predominantly our eyes and ears.
4. The Receptor
Now this is the area where communication starts to get interesting and also where most of the problems arise. Let us see why:
In the area of written and verbal communication it is our ability to understand the language of the communication that is crucial. However, even then the intent of the communication can go awry and be ambiguous. Our brains are complex filters that allow some, all or parts of messages to be received. This is also compounded by the fact that as ideas are received and processed by our brains,we put our INTERPRETATION on both the means of communication as well as the content.
What affects our ability to understand communications is:
Attention: Is there a readiness to receive without interpretation (active listening in voice, comprehension in written)
Empathy: Is the communication of interest and relevance.
Simplicity: Are the ideas conveyed in the message easy to understand
Interference: Are there distractions to the message being received in whole or in part such as competing stimuli or other messages being received but conflicting concurrently. (Often referred to as noise)
Distortion :Is the message being distorted. Was it received incomplete? Were conflicting messages being sent concurrently (vias)
5. Acknowledgement
If you look at those areas where effective communication is essential such as in the military or civil aviation a clear pattern emerges. After each communication there is an acknowledgement or playback of the message. The words “Roger” 10 4 and” out” spring to mind. However, acknowledgement or playback of a message , in itself does not necessarily imply understanding. That is only ever achieved if there is a mechanism in place to validate that the ideas being communicated are understood without incorrect interpretation.
6. Understanding
Understanding of the correct message, the correct intent of the message or of the idea requires an interplay between the transmitter and the receiver. This can be extremely subtle or overt depending on the content. In our industry we are prone to make assumptions that understanding is rife whereas the reality is the opposite.
To relate to our original Enterprise Asset Management Vendor, their perception of communication is single threaded and static. In simple terms they believe they have a superior product that has superior functions. They have DESCRIBED these capabilities via their web site. They cannot control or influence whether the receiver has understood the features let alone the benefits especially if these are merely implied and not expicitly stated.
They along with countless others in our industry have focused on CONTENT without understanding the receiver’s interests in a three dimensional world. A web site is only ONE medium that has its strengths and weaknesses as a communication medium. Their competitors, to a lesser or greater extent have more diverse forms of communication interaction that is based around the needs of their potential customers.
Or put more simply they have a DIALOGUE with them… now as to whether they are listening...…that will be the topic of next month’s newsletter.
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