Interrelate – Communication is Not A One Way Street

Let me start asking you a question! Would you like to make sure that every time you communicate your messages are getting across and being accepted; but also that communication is understood, and the information you’re conveying to others is acted on correctly.

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I’m here today to talk to you about a fascinating fact that I find makes a big difference when working on other people. Because when you don’t do this, you’ll be in a position where the information you are giving to others may not be acted upon correctly. However, when you put this teqneque into practice, and you get it right! What you will find is time and time again others will perform their tasks well, as the communication is received and understood by the recipient.

Now you might be wondering what I mean by communication received by the recipient. What I mean is, whenever you communicate, there’s always two people inside that communication loop. One of them is yourself, because you have a message you’re trying to convey, and there is the other person who’s going to be listening to that message. The person whom you’re hopeful is then going to take on board the information or instructions that you’re providing and act upon it.

However, here’s the thing, how many of us don’t make sure our message is being received and understood, and assume that the other person involved to has understood the message and knows what to do? I’ve seen so many projects over the years run into problems and issues, because, some managers assume the language and information delivery style they use, which they may have used for years to communicate information, is correct. They therefore wrongly believe their way of passing information to others must be good for the other person, and sometimes this has not been the case.

I expect you will agree with me that everyone has their own unique experiences, everyone does things in their unique way, and as such you need to make sure that you consider that uniqueness when communicating with them. That you’re giving them the information they need, in a way that they can consume, understand and act on it.

Now, this interrelating and communication can be something which is very simple to do, by just asking them after you have communicated your requirements, something like “how did you interpret that? What are you going to do first? What’s going to be your next actions? How did you find this? Moreover, then importantly taking extra care to listen to their responses. So that you then know and understand the next thing they are planning to do with that information and therefore is it the thing you need them to do.

So, I am going to leave you with a thought, and that is: Are you going to make sure that you’re clarifying every key point within every conversation, or you just going to assume? Also, then been suppressed when unexpected things happen.