"He's so smart. I can't understand half of he's talking about." I heard that said of a speaker not long ago. I couldn't disagree more. Good communication takes into account your target audience and tries to create a bridge between the message and the audience it's trying to reach. Great communicators do now show off how much they know about a subject to the point of overwhelming or confusing someone else. That's the fodder of insecure, pseudo intellectuals who want to make sure you know they are smarter than you at any chance they get. One of the challenges I face as a consultant is to help my clients to communicate clearly and effectively.
The longer we are a part of an organization, a movement, an industry, the more likely we are to create and adapt to our own language, ideas, and set of standards that often miss communicate our message to those in the outside. In Christian circles we often use theological terms to speak to non-Christians. Terms like "redemptive" and "eschatological" might win you points with your Bible study or seminary friends, but will, most often, fail to communicate with those outside the faith.
Great communicators do now show off how much they know to the point of overwhelming or confusing someone else. That's the fodder of insecure, pseudo intellectuals who want to make sure you know they are smarter than you.
In Brazil, people use language as a way to differentiate their social status. The more formal education you have, the more unintelligible you become to those less fortunate. That's not communicating. It's snobbery. I'm not, however, advocating lowering our intellectual standards so we can serve the lowest common denominator, but we must be able to change our language, and not our message, for the sake of our audience.
The perils of miss communication are many. The video below is a great example of the right message wrongly executed:
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Do you find instances where your business, church, or organization fails to communicate? why do you think it's happening?
4 comments:
I serve in a campus ministry with a Christian organization. I never tell them about the organization because every time those who are not believers go to the site, they are either offended or they tell me I'm nothing like what they saw on our main site.
There's definitely a disconnect with what I'm doing on the front lines and what's shown on our literature and website. I wish our leaders would consider revising the information we put out to the world.
Thanks for the post. I'll pass it on to my director.
Mike S
Love the video. I think she goes to my church. : )
I think I'm just arguing semantics here, but I do believe there are incredibly smart people who just aren't good at communicating. In my line of work (instructional design), it's my job to meet with subject matter experts (SMEs) and "dumb down" or simplify the concepts they think are important. I'm a translator of sorts between the REALLY smart and the learner. Some of us are naturals at communicating, we have jobs that lend themselves towards them - it's how we learn, as well.
Many of those experts don't belong in a communication role, they need to be exactly what they are - experts. Write books (that get edited), draw pictures, etc. Unfortunately, the world we live in says that if you're really good at doing something, we'll pull you out of doing it, and let you teach it. Many companies promote star performers into management roles, when that's not where they belong...
:)
mjd
God has a pattern of using the foolish things to confound the wise. I'm thinking of Moses at the moment. God chose a man who couldn't speak to people to lead millions of people around a desert for 40+ years. I think here in the Western culture we (the Church) have adapted the worlds insatiable thirst for talent, looks and celebrity to the presentation and propagation of the Gospel. The commodities of persuasion, influence and sensuality are running out way ahead of the Holy Spirit in most churches today. We set up emotion laden, often sensational Sunday morning productions with very little scriptural content so I really believe people are making decisions based on their senses instead of actually what going on in their Hearts (or heads for that matter). We want results NOW for our charts and files but it's really like the old mo-town song if you think about it isn't it? ... "You can't hurry love, you'll just have to wait."
Recent surveys from Granger, Willow Creek and even the PEW survey indicate fatal flaws in what the Church is doing today. I don't think communication is the issue so much as what is communicated, God's Word. It NEVER returns void.
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