The #1 Thing About Communication That You MUST Know!

Hello, everyone. Welcome again to episode three. Today's video is all about communication. That's right. So. Well, specifically, clarity. Clarity. So I've got Peter and Ezra again with me. So let me start off with a story. And the story is, imagine if you are on the street asking for directions. And it's happened to me on a number of occasions where I've asked someone for directions and I was just as confused afterwards. Isn't it funny when we ask directions and they all say, oh, go a second to the right, and then after that go walk for 100 meters. Why is that happening?

Because people communicate in the way that they're used to communicating outwards. That's not necessarily how people receive that information.

Correct.

You know, some people might be very good at turn left at so and so street and such. Other people are very visual and they say, no, see the cathedral over there? You turn left at the cathedral and then you'll see the sports stadium. And you've got different ways of communicating.

I know. Especially. Especially. It gets worse when you go overseas, foreign countries where English is not their preferred language. For example, France, and you're walking around Paris, and now you're thinking, okay, where am I? Where am I? How do I get to the Notre Dame or whatever. And they say something which is Franklow. Most of it is French. Yes. And, yeah, I struggle. I struggle. And I tend to be visual, so I lose it. And then also, you're under pressure because you try to memorize what they're saying and directions and the flapping of the hands. Yes. And we're going, now, is that clear? No. No, it's not clear. So what is clarity?

Clarity is being able to say something so that it's received by the other person or communicate. Because it's not just saying communicate to somebody so that the actual message is received loud and clear.

Not so much loud, but clear. Clear.

Yes.

Why? Why is that important?

Because the purpose of any communication is to transmit information or to transmit some sort of intelligence. If that intelligence is garbled. It's like half tuning into the radio station and only getting every second or third word. You potentially are not going to get the outcome that you're looking for out of the communication.

Yeah. And I was going to add, I'm not sure if this is a revelation or not, but anytime that you actually talk with someone, you're trying to sell them your idea. You're trying to convince them of your idea.

Yes.

In essence, that if you're clear in your message, then they're more likely to Pick it up.

Correct.

And vice versa. So how do people in an organization look at clarity from your perspective?

I think in most organisations, clarity people believe that they're speaking or that they're communicating in a clear manner, but they're not gauging how it's being received. Now, in a written communication, that's not always possible. You don't get the direct feedback you and I are talking, you get facial feedback, you get eyebrows lifted, that sort of thing. But there is a tendency of people to say, well, I speak this way, so everybody understands the way that I speak. And that's an assumption that people can fall into a trap.

Yeah. And then there's also the other side, where management and executives, they have a different way of communicating to the people. And you could say some of it could be eroded. Like if you take the perspective of the typical employee.

Yes.

They might find it. That's because condescensing and so forth.

Yes, absolutely.

But maybe the challenge is that they probably think and hear and feel that they're not being heard. Okay, that's quite interesting. From a management and executive point of view, they're probably not delivering the message, as we say, in a clarity perspective.

Correct. From a management's perspective, you need to be able to rely on the fact that your message is being transmitted clearly, because from there, all of the activities, all of the motions of the organisation then spread out from there. So it's very, very important from a managerial point of view to refine, to sharpen the skill of clarity, because those communications that come from there are going to most likely water down a little bit. It's like the Chinese whisper syndrome. But the more clear that your message is right at the front, the more clear that it can then be projected out into the broader organisation.

Exactly. So what are some of the challenges that you see or come across around clarity?

So everybody has their own interpretation. So different people, and we talk about this a little bit when in the report, different people have different styles or methods of relating to the world. Some people are visual, some people are feeling or kinesthetic people. Some people like instructions written out. So you have a group of people that are made up of a random assembly of these different types and styles of communication. If you're an organizational leader, you need to be able to communicate across those boundaries or inclusive of those boundaries as well too, so that your message is understood, interpreted correctly, and that your general guidelines are pretty well understood throughout all of those different kinds of being able to relate to the world backwards. Because it's not just you're not just talking at people, you're talking with people.

That's a very clear distinction. Correct. What happens if that clarity of communication doesn't transpire?

Well, you can sometimes have very comical results and sometimes not so comical results. Many people, especially management, have come to me and said, I'm so frustrated that I say something, but it never actually comes out the way I want it to be said. And that to me is a big flag that says, well, there is an unclarity going on there in the communication. So we start looking at the words that people are using. Different strata of organizations have different ways of speaking. That way of speaking may not translate well to the other strata that need to implement those idioms.

Correct.

You know, we talk about sometimes about the jargon. Well, different layers of organizations have jargon as well too. Just like the IT organization.

Yeah, I was going to talk about it. We've seen a lot. I mean, the it, the information technology and the cybersecurity love jargon.

Yes.

And I often see that it's normal way of communicating to one another. But as soon as you try and communicate outside your department, like with executive or within other sections of organizations like HR for finance illegal, they lose it. They lose it.

And look, it's hard to talk outside of your knowledge pool in words that you can describe what your technical understanding is to somebody who doesn't have that technical understanding.

Correct.

Yeah, it's almost like it's a mouth habit. The way that we speak. We habitually form these words to describe certain things. So there is a bit of discipline involved in being able to translate that across different areas of the organization.

Correct area. And I think clarity is usually talked from a communication. And when we talk about communication, we mean actually a verbal discussion. But clarity could also be done in other areas, like for example, organizations, corporate policies. Now, these are written information documents asking people to behave well. It's really a set of behavior rules, in essence. Now what happens when there's lack of clarity when it comes to policies?

People make up their own mind. They interpret things in ways that are conducive to their environment that is easier for them to implement. Although just. That's just how they understand.

Yeah, and we see that a lot. In fact, there have been some statistics, I can't even say that properly, statistics showing that around. And I'm just trying to remember who was. But around 90% of policies are being breached by the rules that they've been asked to follow. And the question is why? And so one of the challenges is Clarity. And I look at it also from a perspective of if managers and executive don't follow the policies, then that clarity of someone above them not following then transmits to the normal employees. First of all, if my manager doesn't follow, why should I follow? But having said that, if the policy itself is convoluted, complex, then how do you expect someone to actually understand it?

Well, exactly. A lot of times these policies have legal requirements around them that certain things need to be included. However, the people that are receiving those policies and need to implement them are not necessarily legally trained.

And that brings me to a very interesting point. And you just nailed it, the legal language. So I don't know, when you look at a legal document, the language there is difficult and it's funny is that the responsibility is being put on to you to understand it. And yet you're thinking, what the hell does it actually say?

Exactly. What am I supposed to do with this?

Is it a surprise then that we as a population getting ourselves into problems? Is it a surprise that our insurance are not comprehensively like home insurance or car insurance or are not probably done because we just don't find the language there as clarity? Why is it that there could be a completely different discussion? But I just, maybe just dig. Why do you think that the legal language is difficult because it is so.

Convoluted and also it's not a language that we're trained in.

Correct.

You were speaking before about going to another country in certain ways of looking at it. Walking into a legalese type document is like looking at a document written in a completely different language to most lay people. So yeah, and I mean there are moves afoot now to create those kind of documents in a more understandable language. And that's a really good, that's a really good effort. But a lot of times it's still, we talked before about jargon. It still has this jargon ease inserted and people go, it's all too hard. Okay, I'll sign.

Correct, Correct. Now, some time ago we talked about clarity, sort of, and you said bad clarity creates blunt effort. Yes, I like that one.

Bad clarity creates blunt effort. In terms of. You get a response that is more utilitarian than directed. So people say, well, I've done my job in terms of what the policy is or in terms of what I've been told to do, and I'll leave it at that. Whereas if you were able to engage with that person and get the buy in with that person, you would get a much sharper, a much more laser Like a much more focused effort with the results that that will bring along with it.

Yeah, interesting. As you know, I've written quite a few books. This is book number three. I was told many years ago that for me to communicate effectively, I need to write it in a language that a year nine student would understand. Correct. And it's funny because when you look at books, if you go and pick up a book, especially business books or Technology Books, 10, again, we talk about jargon, but also they use various flowery words. It's not a surprise that after one page, two page, you fall asleep.

Yes, absolutely. You need to be looking at what the purpose of the communication is, whether you're now writing the next best seller or whether you're now writing a policy document for your. Your organisation. There are two different ways of approaching each document. If you are looking at the instruction manual, if you like, for your organisation that now needs to be picked up by everybody, from the top right down to the person who, you know, does the tea service, whether that still happens or not, you need to be able to talk in language that everybody can understand. And there is a commonality there as well, too. It's not got anything to do with intelligence. It has to do with absolute clarity. So that what you say is what you mean and you mean what you say.

So what is the. So I was going to come down to the takeaway, but we talked about the antidote.

Yes. So the antidote is if you have a policy that, or even a document, even if it's a mission statement. I mean, my favorite is, you know, we strive to be the best at what we do. So the antidote is the question, how specifically? Specifically, how do you do that? If you can answer that question, then you've found the right tool to be able to describe to people in languages that they can understand.

Yeah, because it's too generic.

No. Yes, absolutely.

So if you say, you know, we strive to be excellent in what we do, it's just way too generic. And for someone to actually comprehend and understand and take it away, implement, and implement it makes it difficult. It's the same as going to a salesperson and saying, we want you to make more sales.

Yes, absolutely. Taking back to your. To your analogy of instructions. So you need to go from here to the football stadium. Oh, what I forgot to mention is you need to take the tram because it'll take you three days to walk there.

Exactly. How specifically? So clarity is one of those pillars, foundation pillars, that is part of behavior, but also it's part of Rapport. Just mention it quickly about why it's fundamental to part of rapport.

Rapport is the ability to engage with somebody's worldview so that you can then get the permission to describe the worldview that you want to translate to them. You want to be able to say to them, this is the world that we live in. This is how it works for you. And because we have this rapport, we have this understanding that we're having a communication and you have the ability to tell me that you understand. Yes. And that there is a respect going on. Many people see rapport as kind of a manipulative thing, but it is actually a tool of respect.

Yes. So what is the takeaway?

So the takeaway is how specifically, how specifically are people supposed to be implementing whatever it is that I'm saying or that I'm writing or that we've laid down in policy? How specifically are they supposed to implement it? It doesn't mean micromanage, but it means clarity. How clearly specifically do we do that?

Yeah. So someone struggling in terms of policy failures or why people are not fault policies, it's probably a good area to review the policies and make sure there's clarity there.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Good. Excellent. So I was going to mention something else that in my previous video we talked about rapport. Peter runs a half day workshop. These great value. Peter, just, just mention a little bit more about it and why they should join.

Rapport is absolutely a learnable skill. So it allows you to create a bridge of communication that creates clarity. We're talking about clarity today. Rapport is, is a very big component for clarity if you are, especially if you're on interpersonal personal communications with somebody so that you can get your message across and you can receive any feedback in a smooth and organized manner.

Great, Excellent. So information will be posted on this video or just below. Now, if you haven't seen video one or episode one, it's all about behavior. So again, that was the foundation to what we're talking about. The next episode, which is episode four, is going to be about values. Now this is one of the. Well, values are the part of the foundation of behavior. So anytime that you hire a person, where do we go wrong?

Yep. Alignment of values.

Correct. So look, stay tuned. This is going to be really exciting. We're going to bring a guns because we're going to actually open some really fundamental understanding around values.

Wonderful.

Excellent, Peter, looking forward. Thank you very much. Thank you. We'll talk next time. In the meantime, if you've got any feedback, please would love to hear about it. And then more importantly, if you'd like to talk. If you'd like us to talk about a specific topic, please let us know and we will entertain that idea. With that, I bid you have a great week and see you next time. Thanks. Cheers.