You are in the middle of a conference call. You finally got everyone to work around their busy schedules to attend the meeting. Everything is going smoothly. You start thinking about how much technology has made our lives easier and brought us all together no matter the distance apart. It’s all perfectly magical. Right until someone’s voice starts cutting off and then the struggle starts as they say the infamous: “CAN YOU HEAR ME?!”
Yes, we too have been there one too many times; which is why we wanted to share our concerns regarding this issue.
While thinking that technology is making our lives quite easy, it is actually hindering one of our most essential skills, communication. As a result, we are constantly relying on technology in order to make our everyday lives easier. We live through Airbnb, commute through Uber, shop on Amazon. We remember birthdays through Facebook, share moments on Instagram, text through Whatsapp.. we literally live our lives through our phone! There is an app for anything and everything and that gives us the illusion that we are optimizing our lives. The illusion that everything will be perfect if we just App-it. What we fail to see, however, is all the tiny bits of real communication that are lost within this technological spectrum.
The thing is that messages fail to send, call to actions get lost in the overload of emails and tasks, important information fails to deliver on time, instructions go by unseen. The list is neverending! Before we knew it, communication became a huge issue and we need to fix it. We need to give it back its meaning: a way to successfully inform someone of what they are asked to do. Because of that, we need to find a way to make communication simple, precise, and crystal clear.
- Talking to people face-to-face.
- Wording your thoughts very clearly.
- Taking the time understand what the other person is trying to say through active listening.
- Engaging in a conversation.
- Emphasizing what is important.
- Making sure that the other end is made aware of the priorities.
No matter how intricate the piece of technology is, keep in mind that the key to effective communication is how clear and simple your message is. It’s not about where you say it, or to whom you say it. It’s all about HOW you say it.
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