The word communication has been derived from the latin word ‘communis’ which means ‘to make common’, ‘to share’, ‘to impart’ or ‘to transmit’ – that is, make common, share, impart or transmit ideas, information or knowledge etc in ways that the impact stays for long.

To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others. The process of communication signifies a mutual shuttling of ideas or information till we reach the end of the phenomenon successfully. Communication needs to be as peppy as possible, every time, all the time.

It is important to understand that:

  1. Communication remains ineffective if it does not influence the subject and the object simultaneously.
  2. The communication should proportionately constitute the outflow and the inflow ingredient, regardless of the method, means or situation under which it is exercised.
  3. Simplicity of observation and simplicity of communication itself and only itself is functional.
  4. Communication is a ‘human connection’ and must be full of meaningful messages that have profitability inbuilt in them.

This process of communication is a means by which you make evaluation and determine relationships. It could include:

  1. to express oneself to other or tell others what you mean;
  2. to understand the expression of others or determine what they mean;
  3. to interpret the world and events around you or to determine the meaning of things; and
  4. to understand or to decide what you mean.

Let us understand that communication is our contact with reality, and really one has no choice but to communicate.

From the beginning of history, humans have found a way to communicate. Early humans used symbols and markings in the walls to communicate with one another. Then as humans began to evolve, spoken language became the primary form of communication. At first there was one language used by all humans, but eventually there became different languages for different cultures. In today’s society there are many different spoken languages throughout the world, however, body language and symbols are still used as universal communication. We shall talk about body language in another post.

For this post let me give a couple of examples that go beyond the traditional understanding of communication. When I was heading corporate communications for a company, our task was obviously to win over people to come to us. The CEO once called me in and said, ‘We are a financial company and are thinking of starting a few finance courses. An ad campaign needs to be thought of.’

I said, ‘That will be done. All I want to know is if we have the infrastructure to begin this course. What are the credentials of the faculty? Is the faculty recruited? What is their research orientation? Is the library ready? Do we have the affiliations with the industry done? Is the course going to be affiliated to some university? If yes, what are the details?’

The CEO looked at me and said quietly, ‘We need to have students before we think of taking any other step.’

This is ridiculous, I thought. Whatever I will communicate is not going to be based on truth as it exists as a whimsical fantasy in the minds of this CEO. I told him that communication is all about truth and it must never mislead people into actions that will regret. Well, I wasn’t asked to leave the organization… but the communication plan was done only after the essentials were taken care of.

The other example is the time I wrote an email to the Linguistics department in University of York in the late nineties when even connecting to the internet happened after a long and torturous hand-shake. I pressed the ‘send’ button without even re-reading that mail… and realized later that it was full of grammatical goof-ups. That taught me never to hurry with communication…

Good communication has the power to help you navigate through intricate relationships, complex interactions, and even conversations with life and living. Just take care to let it remain peppy and full of the music of energetic involvement and you’ll see that the impact is in your favour.

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Having something to say and saying something is the difference between sensible communication and monkeying around

Having something to say and saying something is the difference between sensible communication and monkeying around

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This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

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Arvind Passey
08 February 2016