I was recently ask to share with our church staff some ideas about improving our communication process. This caused me to reach back and dig out some maxims that I had forgotten. I thought these maxims might be good to share as they are important to anyone attempting to communicate a message:
Comprehension: Your message needs to clearly have a main point and that main point needs to be able to clearly be communicated back to you by your audience. We often try to cram too much information into our messages and thereby rendering them incomprehensible.
Connection: Connecting your audience to the message goes beyond having them "get it." If you want your audience to respond to your message then you need to connect them emotionally to your message. Think of the times you were moved to respond and you will get the idea.
Credibility: Being credible is not as easy as you would think. This goes beyond the messenger being believable. This means the message and that which you promote must match one another in intensity. Don't tell people that "whatever" is the greatest thing since sliced bread and then deliver them day old stale toast.
Contagious: For your message to be effective it should get people talking to other people. The effectiveness of your message will be mulitplied when the people that hear it cannot wait to share it with someone else. In today's language that would be taking a message and having it go viral.
Consistency: Nothing worse than sending out conflicting messages. Proofread! Proofread! Proofread! And check to make sure the details are consistent and chack that the core message is consitent with the overall mission and purpose of the organization.
There you have it. 5 Cs worthy of keeping at the forefront of your thoughts as you communicate with others. A more detailed discussion of this can be found in The 4Cs of Truth in Communication by Isabelle Albanese.
No comments:
Post a Comment