Communication

Communication (What)

Communication is the sending or receiving of messages.

There are two roles.

  1. Sender Role: This role is played by the actor (person, group or entity) who is sending the message.

  2. Receiver Role: This role is played by the actor(s) who is receiving the message.

A message is information that the sender wishes to transmit to the receiver.

Examples of Communication

  1. A person talks to their spouse.

  2. A company runs an ad on television.

  3. A person listens to a request from their supervisor.

  4. A person gets information from the internet.

  5. Two friends argue over a conflict they are having.

  6. A person posts on social media.

Why Actors Communicate

There are many reasons: make requests, persuade, inform, express self, enquire, negotiate, entertain, share news, solve problems, tell stories, document, express feelings, learn, make sales, request help, advertise, share, and so on.

Rationale

Here are some reasons why being skilled at communication is worthwhile.

  1. Maximize your payoffs when you are sending and receiving.

    • A payoff refers to your rewards minus your drawbacks in a holistic sense.

  2. Feels great to be understood and valued. Also, feels great when you can bring about these same feelings in others. Feels great to get information that is super-useful.

  3. Maximize the odds that your messages are received and have the impact that you want.

  4. Excel at picking up messages from others in ways that maximize your well-being.

  5. Build trust, rapport, and relationships in personal and professional life.

Here are some concerns.

  1. Crafting high quality messages is hard to do. However, this can be learned.

  2. Listening for understanding is uncommon and hard to do. However, this can be learned.

  3. Reading such that you grok the information (figure it out) is hard. Also, can be learned.

  4. There is a great deal of inaccurate messaging in the real world. It is essential to learn to filter most of this out.

Effective Communication (How To)

Take the following actions.

  1. Sender Role: craft messages that are clear, accurate, complete, audience-centric, concise, logical, and so on.

  2. Receiver Role:

    1. Relevance: Establish if the message is relevant to you and respond accordingly.
    2. Clarity: Figure out what the sender means; eliminate ambiguity or confusion on your part. Practice active listening.
    3. Accuracy: Gauge the accuracy (truthfulness) of the message.
    4. Purpose: Figure out the sender’s purpose and how you should best respond.
    5. Response: Respond and provide feedback appropriately.

  3. Both Roles: Maximize trust, relationship-building, human connections by active listening, empathy, effective feedback, appropriate responses, and so on.

Summary

Communication is the process of sending and receiving messages.

Being skilled at communication offers several benefits. It equips you to get your messages out and acted upon. It equips you to build trust, relationships, and rapport. It equips you to maximize your well-being by taking in those messages that benefit you.

To communicate effectively, take three sets of actions:

  1. Sender Role: Craft messages that are clear, accurate, audience-centric, concise, complete, logical, and so on.

  2. Receiver Role: Filter for relevance and then figure out the sender’s message, whether it is accurate, and what is your best response.

  3. Both Roles: Maximize human connections by active listening, empathy, effective feedback, and so forth.