Thinking Before You Speak

Yesterday I focused on the general importance of good communication in both a professional setting and in our personal lives. Today we are going to look at the first area of potential miscommunication: Failing to put thoughts into the proper words.

In a different country or in cross-cultural situations, it's easy to expect miscommunication. When trekking across China language, accents and body language are different. But, guess what? Communication misunderstandings are equally common among people of the same ethnic and social background. Communicating effectively is so difficult because at each step in the process there is a major potential for error.

As previously mentioned, by the time a message gets from sender to receiver there are four sites where transmission errors can take place, and at each site, a multitude of potential sources of error. The sites are 1) transforming thought to speech, 2) the speech being sent to listener, 3) the receiver physically hearing the message and taking in other signals, 4) the listener interpreting the information. A misinterpretation can occur at each of the four sites with a 40-60% loss of meaning in each communication.

Avoiding Communication Errors in Transmission Site One-Transforming Thought to Speech
Mother always said, think before you speak. However avoiding errors in transforming thought to speech is more than that. Yes, it's helpful to collect your thoughts or even jot down a few notes before a critical interaction, but it is also important to review your state of mind. Are you upset, tired, angry about something else? These emotions can alter the words you choose and the manner in which your message is constructed. If you are upset, use deep-breathing exercises or count to ten before even thinking about what you wish to say. If you're engaged in a sales call with a difficult customer, choose words that are clinical and keeping with the situation. Avoid using slang, or words that appear to be trendy or immature.

It is important to understand that the majority of communication is non-verbal. A large percentage, researchers suggest over 90%, of meaning we derive from communication, comes from non-verbal cues. Consequently, thought's being transformed not only to words, but also into body language, tone and volume. This can include what a person is wearing, the manner in which he or she is standing, and the speaker's facial expression. If your face or voice routinely echoes your emotional state, this can be a stumbling block in the creation of speech from thought. In fact it leads to the second site for potential communication errors: the speech being sent to the listener.

Tomorrow: Avoiding Communication Errors in Transmission Site Two-Speech Sent to the Listener


Note:  The thoughts and opinions on Training Wheels are my own, unless otherwise referenced, and are to be food for thought.  If contemplating business changes, these blog posts are not a substitute for consulting your lawyer or accountant. I"ll bet you already figured that out, didn't you?