Communication Assumptions

Becoming an effective communicator is one of the core skills everyone must have. There is no aspect of your personal or business life where being an effective communicator is not important.  

The following series of posts are about how to be a more effective communicator in business. However this can and should be used in all your personal communications as well. 

Here are the 8 Sensible Assumptions about Communication - From the Book Smart Moves by Sam Deep & Lyle Sussman

1. Communication skills are acquired more than they are inborn: You were born crying, not speaking. You learned how to speak by imitating others - that learning need ever end. 
2. Assume the next message you send will be misunderstood. You will thus communicate more thoughtfully, look for feedback, and examine yourself first whenever you don’t get your desired results 
3. Don’t worry about being clear; worry about being understood. Ask yourself, “How can I send this message in such a way that I will not be misunderstood?”
4. The meaning of a word cannot be found in a dictionary. Definitions are in dictionaries; meanings are in people. We don’t transmit meaning; we transmit messages (words and behaviors) that represent and elicit meaning in our listener’s minds.  
5. The meaning people get from you comes less from what you say than from how you say it. In fact, your tone of voice and your body language (your nonverbal communication) account for over 90% of the meaning received. 
6. Whenever two people are in each other’s presence, they communicate. Even when you don’t think you’re sending messages, you are. They may not be the messages you want to send, but the other person is receiving them. “You cannot not communicate.” 
7. 87% of the information stored in people’s minds entered through their eyes. When your words conflict with your actions, your listener will believe the actions. 
8. Communication is a complex, ongoing, dynamic, and changing process. It is not the simple exchange of words that most people think it is. More can go wrong that go right. And it falls apart if you don’t keep fixing it.