“Communicate”: To transmit information, thought, or feeling so that it is satisfactorily received or understood.
After being approached to be a GS Design blogger, I was skeptical. Why would anyone “listen to me,” care about what I have to say? Heck, as a rule in my house, I have to repeat myself three times before my 4-year-old acknowledges that some noise has come out of my mouth, and my husband tunes me out in favor of communication in the forms of laptop, TV, or newspaper. And it’s not like I even talk a lot. I’m just referring to basic communication between us: questions, conversations, directives. I’m certain there’s more than air in their craniums, but it seems like what I say goes in one ear and out the other. I’ve come to the conclusion it’s a malady that has struck them both, and it’s called “Selective Hearing.”
So when it comes to communicating electronically – when we’re not even in the same room to physically get each other’s attention – it’s safe to say “Selective Seeing” is occurring on a regular basis. “Hearing” with our ears is equivalent to “scanning” the screen with our eyes, and we’re falling short on the receiving end because we’re not fully tuned in to “read,” so subsequently are missing out on information.
How many times has this happened to you? … You send an electronic communication regarding issues you need addressed or questions you need answered, and the recipient only fulfills a fraction of your requests. So you take the time to send a follow-up e-mail, distilled to the most important items and eventually get the information you’re looking for. Chances are, there was a breakdown in communication in that they were merely scanning the content of your message instead of reading it – it wasn’t “satisfactorily received.”
UpWrite Press is a great resource for tips on improving written business communication, be it e-mails, texting, or IMing, to make the two-way street of communicating electronically a little less bumpy. The following FREE podcasts are available from UpWrite Press:
» Text Messaging as a Business Tool
» Using Instant Messaging in Business
» Tips for Writing Email Messages
Do you read me?
Do you read me?
Do you read me?
I hope this isn’t going in one eye and out the other.
I care what you have to say