Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision

Lack of communication is one of the biggest complaints we have both personally and professionally.  Individuals, small enterprises and large businesses all face challenges with communication.  Part of this is because communication is hard work and is so much more than simply speaking or writing something for others to hear or read.

When we want to communicate clearly and precisely, it is important that we understand the Cycle of Communication.  You can see this cycle in the graphic below.

Communication begins when we have the need to share something, a feeling that we have something that others need to know.  We then work to translate that desire to share or “feeling” into words so we bring it to our brain to process.  Our brain puts words to those feelings and then our mouth speaks the words.  Most of us think that the words then go to another person’s ears, but rather those words go into a milieu of circumstances that we have little or no control over.  Actually once communication has left our mouth we have limited control over it.  Our communication leaves the pool of circumstances and then goes to another person’s ears which send them to the brain who translates them into a “feeling”.  No wonder communication is so difficult.  There are so many places for the communication to get twisted or lose meaning.

If we are to communicate with clarity and precision it is important to follow-up our communication with conversation and checking for understanding.  The question for us needs to be is the message I meant to send the one they received and processed.  It’s not about putting a spin on our communication but really being sure the message was correctly received.

Consult 4 Kids has a long history of advocating for youth and the adults who are their positive role models and mentors.  To learn more about our work, please visit our website at www.consultforkids.com, email us at support@consultfourkids.com or call us at (661) 617-7055.