Searching For Delightful Bussiness Communications
Communication lies at the heart of any business. In fact I would even go so far as to say that without communication there can be no business. As a draughtsman I quickly had to learn that you must assume the person who was looking at your drawing knew nothing. If it is true that experts are people who have made lots of mistakes then I am a super expert.
You should never write as though you were having a conversation. When so much of communication is usually down to visual clues in a conversation when those visual clues are not available communication becomes much harder. This is rubbish. Writing is far more complex than this.
A little while ago I was involved in a project where we had to redevelop part of a web site. I had assumed from the beginning that we were working on one part of the site (the part I thought needed the most work) but the person employing me thought it was another part of the site. This continued for about two weeks. This is not an uncommon problem in business.
The real trick is to write in such a way that you communicate your message without overdoing the detail. This is a problem about 90% of web site suffer with. Clearly there are good reasons for such thinking and many organizations take that advice to heart and it becomes policy. Of course, on the flip side is the dirty word of secrets and many folks who are not privy to secrets feel disrespected because they are not trusted and therefore, do not give their 100% at work.
Is it true that not everyone can be trusted with information? Many people would agree, some would go so far as to say that humans cannot be trusted with information, but why? And unfortunately, they have also been a studier of human societies and civilizations for long enough to see the problematic nature of the flow of information.
But, like water it does flow, information, like living organisms want to be free. Sometimes, even the folks who have the information do not even trust themselves with the information they have because it’s too easy to make a mistake. The right information is defined both as the correct information and only the need to know information.
There is little doubt that the business world locally, nationally and globally has been forever changed by the information age. The future of communication will show us more of the same, just as “The Road Ahead” predicted over a decade ago. But, what will these new technologies be that increase business communications speed of transmission and bandwidth be like? No it will not be infinite by any means, but compared to what we have now it will be.
Soon, we will have super small devices that operate by voice and eventually by thought. The storage capacity will be better than the library of congress even for a device the size of a mini-cell phone. Well, think about it for a second, you can collaborate on designs. You will be able to see a miniature of whoever you are talking too, watch the body language and get a much better feel for the conversation.
Tags: business communication
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