One of the more common communication barriers that prevents clarity in communication, are words that people have a sense of but don’t clearly define, and as a result, ideas don’t actually transfer with a clear and understandable conclusion. We call these “sense of” words. In our hearts and minds we have such a clear sense of what they mean that other people must obviously have that same sense; uh, not true. The result, communication breaks down and goal achievement suffers. For example, if our team needs to communicate better, in our minds we have a very strong and clear sense of what that means to the degree that we can feel the truth of it deep in our bones. But until this sense can be clearly articulated, don’t expect either “better” or “communicate” to actually happen because other people with whom you communicate may not sense that same sensation.
Other terms that people sense but do not clearly articulate are improve, engage, organize, efficiency, accountability, agile, and on and on. People can be so attached to the sense of their meaning that it is believed other people must sense or connect to them too, and with the same definition. Again, not true and this is where communication breaks down.
The solution; articulate the idea in a clear description, and then offer possible or expected evidence of it. For example, making meetings more efficient might look like assigning a meeting owner who develops a specific agenda that supports the meeting purpose, brings discussions to conclusions, assigns next step tasks to specific people by specific dates, and a clear understanding that this agenda will NOT be repeated in the next meeting. That moves the sense of efficiency to actual efficiency that people can attach to.
A valuable step in improving (a sense of word) communication (another sense of word) is to move from a sense of what is meant to a clear definition of it backed up by evidence to support it. That is good (a sense of word) communication.
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