Clear Communication is Constructive.
No matter how old – or forgetful – we are, there are things we remember clearly from our younger years.
One of my favourite memories is of helping harvest a potato crop, having a tea break with a couple of mates, discussing the world. We were about 15 years old at the time and agreed that the world would be a much better place “if we could just communicate more clearly”.
Even in our teens – when we thought that we knew so much – we understood that communicating clearly is no simple thing. There are SO MANY things to disagree about: – with 40 different words for snow, multiple life choices to consider and over 7,000 – yes that’s seven thousand – models of new cars to choose from.
And that’s before mentioning sport, politics or religion.
We were the same age and gender, from the same small town, with similar interests, speaking the same language – and we still disagreed on lots of things.
We definitely agreed there’s massive room for misunderstandings to arise in the real world, and this was decades before smart phones, when we literally had 3 TV channels and social media was a crumpled note passed hand to hand in the classroom.
Nor did we have more than a tiny percentage of the myriad other distractions that now clamour for our attention, our loyalty, our time and money.
The risk of being misunderstood, misheard or mistaken is so vast it’s a wonder we agree on anything.
On top of all of the above, social, political and environmental threats are escalating at the same time that patience and compassion seem to be in ever decreasing supply.
So please, take care, be aware and be fair when communicating: – Make the effort to be clear when we text. Follow up emails with a call to be sure the message has been recieved – and understood. When interacting face to face, be mindful of our body language and tone of voice, and make the effort to listen to the other persons’ point of view.
Taking care to communicate clearly can save a mess of stress by ensuring we’re on the same page.
After all, we’re in the same story.
This series of Tuesday Thoughts is inspired by the iKi Crew song Every Single Day.
Check it out on your favourite music service or click here https://linktr.ee/kimbo7
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Kimbo
