posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Sep 1
Quick blurb today:
I was attending a “brown bag” session about communication once, and we were doing an activity to illustrate how, often, what one says is not exactly the same as what someone else hears:
The “Explainer” has a sheet of paper with a fairly simple drawing on it (ours was a rabbit in a hat). This person must instruct the “Drawer” on how to draw the picture without giving away what the picture is - in other words, the explainer will instruct, line-by-line, how the drawing is made up, like so: “Start with a straight, horizontal line at the bottom of the page. Now draw two vertical lines, each starting at the end of the horizontal line and going up, about the same length as the horizontal line, and each vertical line the same length.” and so on and so on until the picture is complete (or the communication has broken down so badly that the picture is unfixable!).
It was a neat exercise, but the most interesting thing was that, as the exercise was being explained to the “Explainer” and the “Drawer,” there was a misunderstanding on the part of the “Drawer,” and the Director of Training said, “She might be a good communicator, but she’s not a very good listener!”
WHAT!?!
Communication is not just about talking! 50% of communication must be about listening - it’s a part of communication! If you’re not a good listener, by definition, you can’t be a good communicator!
So I’ve decided that we should have a mini-course on communication on the Aviation of Business blog!
Stay tuned for it!
Fair Winds,
Andrew
