Effective Communication

Be blessed Proverbs 18 vs 13

“HE who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to Him.”

I think one of the most difficult things to do is to listen and understand. We often make the mistake of hearing and not understanding. I have mused at the number of times I have said something or given an instruction and yet the outcome has not been what I thought I had communicated.

Of late, my new catch phrase after I have said something is to ask the listener, does it make sense? In essence I am saying; in my mind it may have been logical and coherent but at the point of delivery what the recipient may have heard is a set of jumbled up words that do not make sense.

Not long ago I asked a group of my colleagues during a meeting to pass on a message I had whispered around the room. I sent out a concise but innocuous message, but to the shock and horror of us all, the last message that was repeated was far from what I had initiated.

Somewhere in the maze of repetition the message was lost and a totally new one was coined which was not far from what I had initially sent out but the meaning was lost and thus the instruction was now distorted.

That pretty much sums up how we process information and how things tend to go wrong. A lot of people endure needless pain as result of hearing but not understanding or better still, not communicating effectively.

It’s not enough to just open your mouth, the point is: has the other party fully comprehended what you have just said? Many of us have been involved in many a fight that has been caused by this one factor.

We rob ourselves of happiness and peace when relationships go wrong, but sometimes the whole issue could have been avoided by ensuring that all the parties were on the same page at the time of conversation.

What you deliver is not necessarily what is heard, we owe it to ourselves in our Christian walk to be effective communicators. The difference between success and failure is sometimes as a result of the things said that have not been heard.

In our day to day lives in our homes, work places and the church, we should ask; are we communicating to be heard or to be understood? We may just be at the center of many a needless storm as a result of this.

Make a concerted effort to communicate what you mean and ensure that it has not only been heard but the other party has comprehended. Likewise, if you are a listener and you have not quite understood there is no shame in saying ,”could you please repeat that again” and better still, repeat what you think you have heard.

Many relationships, friendships and fellowships have been ruined as a result of words that have been said or not said that have fallen into the cracks of ambiguity and confusion.

Do you want to be the best you that you can possibly be? Start by saying what you mean, don’t just bottle things up in the hope that the Lord will help the other party understand you. Ensure that you are understood, and as you do, a lot of the pain that has been caused by ineffective communication will fall away.

REFLECTIONS OF A WORK IN PROGRESS . . . For More Info: Visit our website: www.thefig-tree.org Email us on info@thefig-tree.org Catch us on Star FM, Monday to Friday at 0620hours.