Why is communication seemingly such a difficult thing for most folks?
We have so many ways to communicate today from a technology standpoint. We have land line phones, cell phones, phones integrated into vehicles, walky talky phones, email, text messaging, snail mail, faxing, facebook, twitter, blogging and the list goes on and on. More mediums for communication than anytime in history, yet we seemingly struggle as a society to communicate and when we do to communicate "effectively".
Have we lost the art of communication? Or, have we lost the art of listening? Maybe we are too busy trying to use all of our mediums of communication that we aren't really truly communicating. Are we just multi-task communicating and just pushing out a bunch of white noise? Are we over communicating to the point of not communicating at all? Are people so tired of being inundated with information that they are rejecting it? Is a backlash coming to the technology of communication?
I personally find much of the communication that goes on today to be white noise and of little value. Much is said and put out there on twitter, etc that is poorly thought out and poorly verbalized, causing more useless communication of retractions and\or clarifications. I find the communication that I do need for projects, or from clients and coworkers to be lacking in timeliness and content. I also think that people use the wrong medium many times to communicate information. For example, don't see me an email the night before an early morning meeting wanting to change the date, pick up the phone and call.
This brings me to who owns or is responsible for communication. Obviously, in the above scenario it became my responsibility for the communication, because the communicator of the message dropped it off. They washed their hands of it...oh you showed up, I am sorry you didn't read your email. What about those who claim never to have received the communication? You left me a voicemail? I didn't get it, so you didn't communicate. Can we challenge that as the communicator? I think you get my drift here.
Have I done a good job communicating my thoughts about communication?
We have so many ways to communicate today from a technology standpoint. We have land line phones, cell phones, phones integrated into vehicles, walky talky phones, email, text messaging, snail mail, faxing, facebook, twitter, blogging and the list goes on and on. More mediums for communication than anytime in history, yet we seemingly struggle as a society to communicate and when we do to communicate "effectively".
Have we lost the art of communication? Or, have we lost the art of listening? Maybe we are too busy trying to use all of our mediums of communication that we aren't really truly communicating. Are we just multi-task communicating and just pushing out a bunch of white noise? Are we over communicating to the point of not communicating at all? Are people so tired of being inundated with information that they are rejecting it? Is a backlash coming to the technology of communication?
I personally find much of the communication that goes on today to be white noise and of little value. Much is said and put out there on twitter, etc that is poorly thought out and poorly verbalized, causing more useless communication of retractions and\or clarifications. I find the communication that I do need for projects, or from clients and coworkers to be lacking in timeliness and content. I also think that people use the wrong medium many times to communicate information. For example, don't see me an email the night before an early morning meeting wanting to change the date, pick up the phone and call.
This brings me to who owns or is responsible for communication. Obviously, in the above scenario it became my responsibility for the communication, because the communicator of the message dropped it off. They washed their hands of it...oh you showed up, I am sorry you didn't read your email. What about those who claim never to have received the communication? You left me a voicemail? I didn't get it, so you didn't communicate. Can we challenge that as the communicator? I think you get my drift here.
Have I done a good job communicating my thoughts about communication?
