COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS
AND A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP!

THERE IS NO "I" IN TEAM BUT
THERE IS AN "I" AND AN "U" IN COMMUNICATION™

They say education is the key to success. I almost sure that is only partly correct and that communication also holds the key to success. There is an old saying, "When you ASSUME things, you make an ASS out of U and ME." This cannot be more accurate. Assuming things, even the littlest of things, can create massive headaches later. Check out this scenario. You tell your friend, hey I'm finishing up what I am doing and I will meet you at Wal-Mart at 2pm. Your friend says, "That's cool I will see you then." 2pm comes and you are waiting for your friend and call them to see if they are running late. Your friend is sitting and waiting for you at another Wal-Mart that is about 2 miles away. Both of you just ASSUMED that the one in your head was the one that you were agreeing to meet at, but both of you ended up at different Wal-Marts because you BOTH ASSUMED that you were on the same page and seeing eye to eye.

 

There are many much more important scenarios, where miscommunication can make a situation much more difficult to deal with or even more costly. Think about a simple scenario. You are giving directions to your friend. Your friend says, "Which way do I turn when I get off at exit 75 on Interstate 95?" You tell them, "Turn right and go 10 miles." They call you 20 minutes later and realize they were getting off the exit in the opposite direction that you thought they were. They are now 45 minutes late because you both assumed that you knew which direction they were headed. A simple miscommunication occurs from leaving out the simplest most seemingly unimportant details. It can turn a simple situation quickly into complicated and aggravating mess. Both of these were true stories.

"The secret of many a man's success in the world resides in his insight into the moods of men and his tact in dealing with them." - J.G. Holland

Now lets take this a step further and explore how a relationship can be affected by miscommunications. In each situation it was a friend that the miscommunication occurred with. When miscommunications occur between lovers, spouses, or significant others, the situation can escalate quite rapidly. One of the parties gets irritated blaming the other party for not catching the communication error. Words are exchanged about whose fault it is, and one party hangs up on the other. Now a simple miscommunication has turned into an escalating argument. Blame is another thing that can be attributed to relationship problems. Whether it is self-blame or being blamed by the other party, blame is irrelevant. Blame should never become part of the situation. Blame can quickly cause the other party to become defensive. Being defensive can lead to being passive-aggressive and before you know it one of you or both of you are screaming at the top of your lungs trying to get your point across. What did you just accomplish?

"All I need now is intellectual intercourse." - Alanis Morissette "What we have here is a failure to communicate." - Cool Hand Luke

A miscommunication as simple as an email in which the word NOT or DON'T was left out, can have catestrophic effects on a day. For example you mean to type, "Make sure when you call them, you don't tell them what really happened." You are typing fast, your on the phone with a customer, and send the email. Your assisstant gets it and it says, "Make sure when you call them, you tell them what really happened." I'm sure there are far better analogies than the one above, but you get the idea how important proof reading an email is and that spell check would not have caught that miscommunication.

Blowing situations, statements, and context out of proportion can have catastrophic effects on a relationship.

THERE IS NO I IN TEAM BUT THERE IS AN I AND AN U IN COMMUNICATION.™