Should we be better at this?
/By minute 31, I'd had enough.
What should have been a fairly quick and routine meeting had become an ordeal that was pushing the better part of an hour, and was still no closer to being solved.
"If I can step back for a minute, what I think you're saying is..."
"No, that's not it at all. See..."
Commence head-banging on the desk. And some discrete internet browsing.
The problem was, not surprisingly, one of communications. Perhaps surprisingly, though, the two participants at odds were marcom veterans. People who, by all rights, should be better at this than most.
And yet, here we were, literally talking in circles. Big, sweaty, contentious circles.
Eventually, by minute 54, a consensus was reached and both sides went home happy, if a little exhausted.
I could have done without the entire ordeal, but it did drive home an interesting point:
Communications people are no better at communication than anyone else.
It's easy to think so. We are people who write and edit and speak. Put messages into media. Thoughts into action. If anyone can do it effectively, it would be us, right?
Wrong. I mean, not really — we *are* good at that sort of thing. But despite those talents, we can still fall victim to the same biases, the same semantic slants, the same compositional quandaries that non-communication folk fall into. Sometimes even worse, given our strong preferences for certain idioms and means of expression.
The result? The familiar scene of two people talking into a vortex. Neither side hearing the other, and each repeating the same ineffective (albeit pretty) talking points.
What's one to make of this?
- For the love of God, don't talk. Just listen. Marcom folks love to communicate more than anything else, but don't forget that communications isn't about spouting off delightful combinations of words. It's also about hearing the other person, and making sure that delightful combination of words actually gets to the heart of what they're saying.
And, perhaps most importantly: - Please, please don't assume we're better* at this than everyone else. We have enough image problems as it is, ok?
*Your trusty narrator is, of course, a glowing exception to the rule.