Having good communication skills is vital in the business world. In fact, it’s vital in most aspects of your life. It is very hard to tell someone what you need or want, and understand what they need and want, if you cannot communicate well with them. Misunderstandings can lead to funny, embarrassing or even down-right disastrous consequences! Here are a couple of examples:
“A man went to visit a new neighbour. There was a dog on the porch with the neighbour. The visitor asked: “Does your dog bite?” “No”, said the new neighbour. The visitor reached down to pat the dog on the head and the dog bit him. Embarrassed and somewhat angry, the visitor said: “I thought you said your dog did not bite!” The new neighbour said: “This is not my dog”.*
The next example is related more to business and when you read this, it’ll be clear why it is very important that both parties know what is being discussed in the conversation.
“A man walking down the street noticed a sign in the window of a restaurant that said, SPECIAL TODAY – RABBIT STEW. He said to himself, “That’s a favourite of mine”, and went in to order the stew. After he had taken three or four bites, which did not taste quite right, he asked the waiter to call over the proprietor. “By any chance is there any horsemeat in the rabbit stew?” the customer asked. “Well, now that you ask, there is some”, responded the owner. “What is the proportion?” asked the man. “Fifty-fifty”, came the reply. Now, most people would have felt that no further questions were needed, that there was a clear understanding. But this man pursued the issue. “What do you mean by fifty-fifty?” he asked, and the proprietor replied, “One horse to one rabbit”.*
See what I mean? Misunderstandings can happen so easily if you are not careful about making yourself clear. So, how do you make yourself clear? Well, you can use the 7Cs of communication.
The 7Cs of Communication
The 7Cs of communication is a checklist you can use to make sure your writing is efficient and easy to understand. It can be applied to all the different methods of communication you use during the day.
- Clear – Be clear in your mind what you want to say before you start to write anything down. This clarity will then translate into your communication.
- Concise – Keep your correspondence brief and to the point. There’s no point including irrelevant details and check for useless words such as ‘basically’, ‘definitely’ and ‘literally’ too. Also check for repetition of words and phrases.
- Correct – Make sure that you check any facts you have included to ensure they are correct and proofread your work for grammar or spelling errors too!
- Courteous – Be polite, open and honest in all your communication. Don’t hide insults in your words or come across as passive-aggressive – it will not go down well in any setting.
- Complete – Make sure that all the relevant information is included. If you want the reader to contact you, be sure to include your contact details. If you want to arrange a meeting, ensure that you note the date, time and place so the recipient has all the details they need.
- Coherent – This simply means make your communication flow in a logical order. There will usually be a main point, which should be stated first with any related points following.
- Concrete – Make it immediately clear to the reader what you are referring to. Don’t waver from the main focus into unrelated areas – you’ll lose the reader’s attention.
A good way to put this checklist into action is to draft your next piece of writing and then read through it with the checklist at your side to see if it meets each criteria. If it does, great! If not, change it and pretty soon you’ll be writing effective communications without even thinking about it.
http://day1.org/1723-dr_thomas_lane_butts_the_consequences_of_miscommunication
