Total Pageviews

Monday, March 16, 2009

Key details matter for better communication

We skip mentioning important details in our conversation simply because we know them ourselves, without considering whether the audience knows them too
One common problem with communication is the way we skip mentioning important details in our conversation simply because we know them ourselves, without considering if the audience knows them too. For instance, sometimes we just start saying “there was this nice big clock and it had this man coming out, and striking the chimes…”
And it doesn’t make too much sense to anyone. But instead, start by saying that you visited the Salar Jung Museum the other day, and everything will be clearer.
This seems to be simple common sense, but in fact it’s a lot harder to get this right than most people imagine.It is common to get carried away and imagine that the audience knows what one is talking about. But why should this be difficult at all? Because, really, you cannot tell people what they need to know, unless you clearly understand what they know and also what they do not know. Know your audience
In short, you must know your audience well. Let’s take a very simple example: “The Seven Samurai, Kurosawa’s finest work has influenced people across the world.” With a sentence like that, there’s a good chance that many people would not understand what I’m saying. So I need to take a step back. Does my audience know about Kurosawa? Have they heard of The Seven Samurai? Depending on the answer to these questions, I might revise my sentence:
“Kurosawa, one of the finest filmmakers in the world, influenced world cinema greatly with his film The Seven Samurai, which shows a poor village standing up to a gang of ferocious robbers with courage and intelligence.”
In simple day-to-day situations, like the one about the museum visit, this doesn’t seem to be important—after all, if your friend doesn’t understand something, you can always explain it again.One chance
But there are many instances in life, when you’ll get just that one chance. I had one such experience while interviewing one young graduate for a company. When asked a basic question like “What would you like to do as an alternate career?” he answered that he wanted to start a college in his village. Running a college can be a lucrative and ambitious business, and he didn’t seem like someone who had such ambitions. It was only after some probing that I found out there was no college in his village at present, and he saw it as a service to the people, rather than as a business.Solution
How do you avoid such gaps in communication? The solution is to consciously ask yourself: “What does this person know about me / this topic?” Make a list in your mind, if you wish. Once you have this, you will be able to clearly identify what it is that you need to communicate.
---
Online edition of India's National Newspaper The Hindu Monday, Mar 16, 2009

New blog

Dear students,
I found a blog which is very informative and useful

http://helpbiotech.blogspot.com/