Last night as I surfed the Web and the TV at the same time, my remote decided to stop on an animated show called "The Family Guy."
I'm not much for cartoons (or most TV shows, to be honest) but since there wasn't much else on I left it there for a few minutes.
In one segment, the family was in their car and their son was talking about the game his school team just finished.
He was talking "street" and sounding cool but, unfortunately his father had no idea what he was saying.
Even worse, his dad (being a cartoon dad) assumed the kid was possessed by demons.
So, the next couple minutes were spent with his dad trying to cast out the kid's demons while mom and sis explained to the old man what was really going on.
The kid was just trying to communicate with his dad.
But, he was speaking in a language his dad clearly didn't understand.
Which caused a problem.
And this doesn't just happen to cartoon kids, does it?
Whether we're talking with customers, employees, vendors, partners, we can all find ourselves (if we're not careful) being misunderstood. If we focus too much on ourselves and not enough on the other person, it's easier to lapse into the habit of speaking our language, not theirs.
This communication complication is even more likely to happen in non-personal communication. Whenever we create a "one to many" communication, like a brochure, a sign, a TV or radio ad or a website, we need to be even more careful what words and phrases we use.
The old adage of "Keep It Simple" was never more useful than it is here.
So, to get better results from ALL your communications, be aware of the words and phrases you use. Put yourself in the shoes of your audience. How can you say it so they'll understand it better?
And above all, keep your message as SIMPLE as possible.
Comment Preview