Feeding My Ignorance

Actually - it would be more accurate to say that I was NOT understood rather than I was MISunderstood!! However, the former more often than not leads to the latter. It has happened twice to day already - actually probably more than that as those are just the ones that I KNOW about!!

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With the best will in the world the process of communication is fraught with difficulty. When we "speak" with each other there is an unspoken assumption that what we think we said is what the other person thought they heard. Unfortunately, and for a whole host of reasons, that is rarely the case. Communication is difficult when both parties are trying to communicate - communication is impossible if either party deliberately builds barriers.

A related point is that those with whom we seem to communicate easily may, in fact, be getting the wrong messages!! At least if we can perceive a communications "difficulty" we can realise that something needs to be fixed. The worst sort of communication breakdown is when both parties think that they are doing it much better than they really are.

In both cases today I had explained something - seemingly in a clear, simple and unambiguous way - and yet the message had not got through. In at least one case I could see, in retrospect, where things had broken down - but regardless of that there was, to my mind, no good reason why what I had said/written was not completely clear. Fortunately, others were quick to point out deficiencies in their understanding of what I had said/written and it was possible to rectify it (at least partially) - but it makes me wonder just how often that does not happen.

This could be a very long post - but, having made the point, I'll stop - lest I confuse the reader and they don't understand my communication.......