Talk is Cheap - Communication is Priceless
Nine rules to more effective communication.
Remember the children's game "Telephone?" A group of kids sits in a circle and one of them begins by whispering a simple message to the person next to him or her. That person, in turn, relays the message to the next child. And so on and so on, until it finally works its way back to the originator.
Of course, the final message bears little resemblance to the way it started out. The more twisted the meaning, the funnier it is.
So it is in real life. Only the results aren't always so amusing. Messages get garbled. Dialogue is twisted. Conversation is taken out of context. The toll such miscommunication places on personal and professional relationships is incalculable.
It doesn't have to be that way. Communication is a skill that requires much discipline and hard work. But it can be far richer and more meaningful if you apply some of the following rules: