I don't know what it is about this week that has me finding these items on communications and effectiveness. This somewhat humorous take on human communications on a mailling list where someone was overwhelmed by all the specialized language. Think of Murphy's Law applied to communications.
Critically, the author of this piece reminds why communication is so difficult. We have different backgrounds, feelings, levels of caffeination -- even if we all speak the same "mother tongue." Our context is important, whether we want to believe it or not. Good communicators understand how to approach their audience.
How all human communication fails, except by accident, or a commentary of Wiio's laws
- Communication usually fails, except by accident.
- If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a manner that maximizes damages
- There is always someone who knows better than you what you meant with your message
- The more we communicate, the worse communication succeeds
- In mass communication, the important thing is not how things are but how they seem to be
- The importance of a news item is inversely proportional to the square of the distance
- The more important the situation is, the more probably you forget an essential thing that you remembered a moment ago