The Art of Clear Communication: Lessons from the Military and My Father
"Simple and to the point is always the best way to get your point across." ~ Guy Kawasaki
My dad, Tom, as well as being a world class boxing trainer was a heck of a storyteller. Every walk to the store became an epic journey; a trip to New Orleans was the Iliad and Odyssey rolled into one and my friends loved dad’s way with words and the pictures he painted with them.
When I began training officers in the military, I quickly realized that the material I presented was, to be charitable, dry.
Crawling across the desert, vultures circling with bibs on their necks, dry.
15 young people who, after being up since 0600, were sitting in a stuffy room learning about military memo drafting, dry.
I thought back to my father and how he kept everyone he spoke to, on the edge of their seats as they hung on his words.
I began to bring in real life examples of how the material related to their success, what were the situations you find yourself in and why it mattered.
I also learned thru experience and professional development that adults learn in different ways:
- Visually – by seeing
- Verbally – by hearing
- Experientially – by doing
If you limit yourself to one method, you fail 2/3 of your students. It isn’t their responsibility to adapt to your style, it’s yours.
Sometimes when folks try to relay important issues, they fall back on the style they prefer: the long-written explanation, the droning briefing, or repetitive self-directed work. Many would be communicators present massive walls of text and graphics, which for some is heaven, but for others places a barrier between understanding and acting on that information.
What I promise you, is that every communication from me will be effective and allow you to quickly understand the challenges facing you, your family, your business, and your community, and the steps we are taking to help you.
The greatest feedback I ever received was “Lt(N) McCluskey could make a parts manual interesting”, and I can do the same for zoning and land use.