Editor's Column
Communication--International and Otherwise
by Kit brown
Ah, Communication! At times the bane of our existence, and yet, vital to creating community, getting our needs met, and interacting with other people. It is the number one complaint in almost every project evaluation, even when the project was a success.
Experiences this week with communication have left me by turns exhausted, frustrated, annoyed, as well as elated, gratified, and relieved. Don't get me wrong--I love what I do, and helping others communicate more effectively is a gratifying experience. But, it can be exhausting to deal with curmudgeonly types who are never satisfied with the amount of data you provide them, or the lengths that you go to explain something to them. They prefer to remain grumpy and dissatisfied, and at some point, I tend to get impatient, and have to bite my tongue really hard to keep from making snarky comments about being anal retentive and pedantic, among other things.
My dad tells me that it's revenge for all the times I asked him WHY? when I was little.
And yet, we need these types of people--the ones who aren't afraid to question everything and who demand hard data to support your statements. My job as a communicator is to identify what the real issue is and respond to that (and it might not be the question that they are asking).
Understanding the audience's real information need, is one of the most challenging aspects of effective communication, and when you add in cultural expectations and different worldviews and frames of reference, it's amazing that we can communicate at all.
So, deep, cleansing breaths...I will walk awhile in their perspective and then, hopefully, will be able to give them the answers they need, filtering out the "how" they are saying it, and focusing on the "what" they are saying.