Effective Communication Without Assumption

One very amazing thing about human beings is their ability to effectively communicate with one another. Perhaps this skill has been taken for granted entirely too long or perhaps there is some other problem. Whatever the case, many people are incapable of effective communications and often times, with extremely serious side effects. In some instances, it can be funny but in some cases, the results can be devastating.

One instance that could have been much more serious, involved a small boy, a stranger and a dog. The boy had been raised in a rather conservative environment and had been taught not to question his elders or to talk back to people. The dog belonged to a gentleman who happened to be inside the store where this happened. The stranger, seeking an opportunity to be friendly, simply made an inquiry about the dog's temper ... or so he believed.

The small boy was sitting outside the store enjoying a cold soda pop on a hot summer day. He was mindful of the dog there but paid scant attention to it. The stranger, in an effort to be friendly to be sure, asked the young boy if "his" dog would bite. The boy replied quite honestly that his dogs did not bite people as they had been raised properly. When the man, assuming that the dog belonged to the boy, reached down to pet it, he was bitten.

So who was at fault for the occurrence here? The young boy had been asked a direct question by one of his elders and had answered it directly in return. The man who owned the dog had tied it up outside the store simply because it was illegal to allow it to run loose and not advisable to take it inside the store. The stranger had simply been making an effort to be friendly. Could anybody really be held to blame?

Quite honestly, the man who got bit was fully at fault under the circumstances. Perhaps it was through not fault of his own, but by making an assumptive question rather than asking what he really wanted to know, he allowed himself to be put in danger. In this case, the consequences were not major and required only a few stitches, some band-aids, a single tetanus shot and a little bit of wounded pride to pour on the wounds. However, given different circumstances, not communicating effectively can have disastrous results.

During disasters, naturally occurring or otherwise, effective communication is not only important but actually imperative for the survival of many people who may otherwise die. There is no room for ambiguity or indirect or even misspoken questions. Errors, whether intentional or not, can and do result in the deaths of innocent people. While both of these examples may be at opposite ends of the "extreme" spectrum, effective communications also play a very important role in the day to day life of everyone.

For the people who are in business for themselves, direct and effective communication is an imperative for maximizing production operations and ultimately, for the bottom line, profits and the success or failure of the business. For the manager in charge of some department, effective and direct communication is imperative to keeping that department running. There is no room for second guessing or hypothesizing all possible scenarios. The employees must have a specific task, be capable of accomplishing that task and have something to do once that task is completed or time, productivity and profits are minimized.

Humans have been given one of the most powerful tools in the world with communications skills. Communication, like any tool, must be learned and used properly for it to be of any real use. If you discover that you are not getting the answers that you wanted or perhaps even expected, perhaps you should look at the questions you are asking. Whether intentional or not, the problem may very well be one that you have created and only you can avoid.