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Show Me! Let Me Do It! Can We Talk?
I can't wait for the elections to be over this November (2004). This political campaign has been an unbelievable, carefully orchestrated "miscommunication" fiasco by every candidate involved!
As I review the audio, video & printed messages we have been exposed to during this event, I am overwhelmed with the need for believability as a prerequisite for any meaningful communication between humans.
Re-examining the believability concept makes me realize that I may be overly simplistic as I stress it. Actually, a quote from a book that I recently read says it best... 'Most of the conflicts and disagreements among men result from misunderstandings.' This political campaign is a classic in spin & how to create misunderstandings.
I must confess that it has been difficult for me to understand why so many people in this day and age, regardless of their educational level, violate what I have always thought were the most fundamental concepts of effective communication.
I am, however, beginning to realize that the reason this has been difficult for me has probably been my own lack of an understanding as to how much a persons individual differences and behavioral patterns really influence how we think, learn, and communicate with others.
This story about two farmers drives the point home....
One farmer was from
In my efforts to become a better communicator, one of the most enlightening discoveries that I have come upon is the fact that all of us learn through three sensory language preferences. Also, it seems, each person develops one of these senses as the 'preferred' or predominate learning sense. These three sensory languages are:
#1 - visual or seeing, #2 - auditory or hearing, and #3 - kinesthetic or hands on.
"SHOW ME!" [ Visual language preferences ]
Visual people make up 55% of the population. They take in information via print, pictures, and visual aids of all types. In other words, things that they can see and be shown. They prefer to watch a ' how to' demonstration or instructional sequence. They study best by re-reading notes & important data.
"CAN WE TALK?" [ Hearing language preferences ]
Auditory people make up 21% of the population. These people rely on their hearing. They develop the ability to learn best from the sounds of voice inflections and tone as well as volume. They need to be able to ask questions, discuss and listen. Audio tapes, reading aloud, and quizzes work very well for this group.
"LET ME DO IT!" [ Hands on language preferences ]
Kinesthetic people make up about 24% of the population. This group relies on touch, taste, smell, and feelings. They learn best by doing. They take notes during a seminar and never look at them again or they use highlighters as the program moves along, just to feel the involvement.
Now, at about this point you are probably thinking, "Wait a minute. I use ALL my senses during my learning processes." Or, "The sense I rely on depends a lot on the situation." Of course, you are absolutely right. We all do the same thing, but we all also use one of these sensory languages predominately.
As business communicators, the problem we
have is that we tend to communicate with others using OUR preferred sensory
language! That's exactly why we wind up saying things like : "I don't know what's wrong with him. I've told him a dozen times and he still doesn't get it!"
If we can learn a lesson from this years political communications abuses and apply them in our own businesses, it's that we have to listen to find out what language our customers or employees are using and communicate with them in their sensory language in order to achieve the results we want.
