5 classic cases of misunderstanding caused by improper communication (2)

Case 4 of Misunderstandings Caused by Improper Communication

In 1910, in the United States, the battalion commander said to the officers on duty: "Tomorrow night at about eight o'clock, Halley's Comet will probably pass by." From our area, this comet is only visible once every 76 years. Order all the soldiers to assemble on the playground in field uniforms, and I will explain this rare phenomenon to them; if it rains, they will assemble in the auditorium, and I will show them a film about comets. ?

The officer on duty immediately carried out the battalion commander's order and said to the company commander: "According to the battalion commander's order, at 8 o'clock tomorrow night, Halley's Comet will appear over the playground only once every 76 years." If it rains, soldiers in field uniforms are paraded to the auditorium, where this rare phenomenon will occur. ?

The company commander immediately carried out the order of the officer on duty and said to the platoon leader: ?According to the order of the battalion commander, at eight o'clock tomorrow night, the extraordinary General Halley's Comet will appear in the auditorium wearing field uniform. This is the day every day. This happened only after 76 years. If it rains on the playground, the battalion commander will issue another order, which will only occur once every 76 years. ?

The platoon leader immediately carried out the order of the company commander on duty and said to the squad leader: ?At eight o'clock tomorrow night, the battalion commander will appear in the auditorium with Halley's Comet. This is something that only happens every 76 years. . If it rains, the battalion commander will order Comet to put on his field uniform and go to the playground. ?

Finally, the squad leader said to the soldiers: ?When it rains at eight o'clock tomorrow night, the famous 76-year-old General Harley, accompanied by the battalion commander, will wear a field uniform and drive the Comet. The car passed through the playground and headed to the auditorium. ?

Similarly, in business operations, who can guarantee that jokes like Halley’s Comet notification will not happen in your company. In fact, we often encounter "communication funnels" and often encounter the problem of information distortion during the transmission process. Once the information is distorted, employees will partially understand it, execution will be greatly compromised, production efficiency will be greatly reduced, and corporate efficiency will be greatly affected. In severe cases, it will cause the company to close down; when the responsibility is investigated, everyone will blame each other, and then Will directly affect interpersonal relationships. Therefore, you must master some communication skills and strive to make this communication funnel leak less and less.

Plug the holes in the communication funnel

Since communication loopholes play such a big role, let us plug these holes now.

1. Key points? Managers should make the key points clear to avoid information interference.

The first two missed 20’s are that you can only say 80% of what you think and 80% of what you say. The reason why others hear 60% is that the manager did not make it clear when speaking. Points. When managers speak to executors, they must know what to say in detail and what to say in brief. In fact, just make the key points clear. Do you still remember the case where the manager asked his subordinates to buy office stationery? It is very simple to make it clear that buying pens, just one sentence: "Buy blue and unscented" is enough, like "Don't"? Never? Such emphatic words are instead A kind of interference that makes people remember only the emphasized part.

2. Repeat? Ask the executive to repeat the key points you said.

The 60 that others hear, the 40 that others understand, this is the third missing 20. At this link, due to the reasons of the executor himself, or it is related to the cultural level, or to the personal knowledge background, or to the personal understanding ability, these 20 omissions dropped. The way to deal with it is to ask the executor to repeat the content of the task to the manager in person. If the manager hears what he said is inconsistent with what you said, the manager still has the opportunity to correct it in time; if the other party's repetition is not listened to in time, once When a task is performed incorrectly or misrepresented, remediation becomes very difficult.

3. The person who supervises and executes will reply on the execution status.

The fourth missed 20 is the 40 that others understand, but only 20 is acted upon. This is because when the performer performs the task, his or her own understanding is mixed and is often confused by his or her own thoughts and habits. If it is controlled, the executor will not be able to execute effectively.

The solution is for managers to promptly supervise the execution status of the executors, and to allow the executors to report the status of the execution to the managers from time to time. If the manager finds that the execution department of the executor is not in place, he should stop it in time and take remedial measures.

Part 5 of cases of misunderstandings caused by improper communication

In a company, as a manager, we will encounter a lot of confusion. What often happens is that the thoughts in your heart and The idea may be perfect, and you think what you say is accurate, but when your subordinates implement it, it is compromised. What you think and say is often very different from what they do.

It should be noted that we do not discuss the issue of execution. What we discuss is why there is such a big gap between what we think and say and what others listen and do.

For example, the office needs to buy a batch of stationery. You tell Xiao Zhang, Xiao Zhang, to go to the stationery wholesale market this afternoon to wholesale a batch of stationery. ?

?Yes. ?

?Also, when buying a ballpoint pen, buy a blue ballpoint pen, not a black one. ?

?Yes. ?

By the way, don’t buy scented ballpoint pens. ?

As a result, what Xiao Zhang bought was not only black, but also the fragrant one, which filled the entire office with a strange aroma of apple and orange. It made everyone want to vomit.

Why is this happening?

In fact, this is a typical "communication funnel" phenomenon.

The 80/20 rule in communication

The characteristic of a funnel is that it leaks. From what we think and say to what the other party hears, understands and implements, this kind of information is always leaking. In other words, the information conveyed by the messenger will show a trend of attenuation from top to bottom.

For communicators, if what a person is thinking is 100%, when you express your thoughts in words, the information has been leaked into 80%, and when this 80% information When it is transmitted to other people's ears, due to cultural level, knowledge background, and understanding ability, only 60% is left. In fact, only about 40% of the information is truly understood by others. When they follow the 40% of understanding and implement it concretely, , has become a terrible 20%.

This is the "communication funnel?!"

The so-called "communication funnel" means that when people communicate with each other, a person can usually only say 80% of what he expected, and what the other party heard The maximum number can only be 60, but the number that can be understood is only 40. When executed, there are only 20. In other words, what one person says is 80, and the other party can only implement 20. This is the "80/20 rule" in communication.

As long as there is communication between people, there will be a "communication funnel".