Communication …requires a source, a receiver, and a parcel of information
Effective Communication contains a vocabulary that is common to both the source and the receiver, builds on common experiences, ensures that there is no confusion between symbols and symbolized objects, minimizes abstractions, and occurs in an interference-free zone.
These considerations are critical to effective teaching and learning. So many programs, and so many educators, focus too much on the material to be taught (the parcel of knowledge), spending great effort to become expert in a particular field and not enough on the art and science of delivering that material effectively or inspirationally.
So many programs, and so many educators, focus too much on the material to be taught … and not enough on the art and science of delivering that material effectively or inspirationally.
Don’t get me wrong, being a master of the material is an essential building block. If you do not possess the experience and knowledge needed, you will have precious little to say that is of interest or value to the receiver. I’m picturing at one end of the spectrum a snake oil salesman who can sell anything to anyone and on the other end the stereotypical professor who has immersed himself so deeply into his field of study that he has departed from society. The ideal educator, or source in this example, will be the one who is seated right at the center of the spectrum and who has resource connections at both ends.
There’s a fairly well known party game -or icebreaker for group settings- where one person in a circle initiates a message and passes it quietly to the next person in the circle. By the time the message returns to the initial source it has nearly always changed fairly dramatically from its original version. Return to the concept of effective communication. The reason the parcel of knowledge is manipulated as it passes from source to source is due to the effectiveness of the communication. Not only does something need to be communicated, it needs to be communicated in a way that will be received by the next person the way it was intended. This is not as easy as it sounds as we all know.
It is not enough to know that we have said what we have to say about a given topic, we must also be prepared to look for cues as to how it was received, or perceived. In aviation this is why we receive a message and then read it back, preferably in slightly different wording so as to indicate comprehension and intention. The moral is: don’t settle for dishing out a message, take the time and effort to ensure and verify its reception.
The moral is: don’t settle for dishing out a message, take the time and effort to ensure and verify its reception.
We do it as pilots, we should do it everywhere and always.
