Contributor - Kari Heistad
Craft Your Message With Purpose
An enduring whimsical tradition that many people are familiar with is the act of placing a written message in a bottle and tossing it into the sea.
The composer of the message has no idea who is going to receive the message or when they might get it -or if anyone will at all. Not knowing the end recipient of the message limits the ability to communicate with intention. The message is written with little understanding of the end recipient, and created in a way that therefore may not be very effective.
Communication across differences is often done in a similar fashion. However, taking time to think about who, when, and how a message will be received allows the sender to craft a much more effective message that will produce much better results.
Discussion Questions
- What kind of planning should we do before communicating? What kind of confirmation should we seek to make sure we were understood?
- How do we handle miscommunication with each other? How could we handle it better?
- How does communicating across differences such as age, culture, gender, and department impact how effectively we communicate?
- What can we do as a team to improve communication across differences?
Sollah Training Resources to Consider
