I contemplated what this meant. My conclusion struck me as rather profound. Communication – like community -- is a way that people connect. We teach connection in our workshops all the time – it’s what makes people want to listen; makes people say, “
She’s talking to me!
”; and compels them to think about the application of the subject to their own lives.
Fail to connect and you’ll fail to get a response.
Back to my hyphenated revelation. Comm-unity. As a compound word, it would mean having unity or like views in our communication. That’s the holy grail. Everyone in the same room, same organization, or same forum saying and hearing the same thing. It means that we have a like purpose and are executing for a common goal. There’s that root “comm” showing up again:
comm
on. Shared equally by all. Pertaining to an entire group.
There’s a theme emerging here, and I think it makes a wonderful mission statement for a speaker. Our goal is to find the common ground or at least a resonant theme that has everyone considering the same outcome. Good communicators get their audience to spend their precious brain power on the subject at hand. Great communicators do it in such a way that the listeners feel compelled to believe the outcome is possible, plausible, and probable.
I must learn to speak your language. And you benefit from learning to listen to mine.
That’s lock-step with what I’m championing in my latest keynote,
The Four Questions
. We need to define success (in anything) in order to align our efforts with our objectives. I am seeing so many organizational failures at the root of defining what success looks like. Usually the stock answer is that people buy, they are “converted”, or they like us. But all of that is really out of our control. All I can hope for is that they consider my proposal, understand my outline, or could repeat my arguments to win them over. Their actual response is frequently based on items that are NOT in the communication realm (budget, politics, peer pressure, or tradition). My favorite question to ask when interviewing for a workshop or speaking engagement: “
What’s success look like if I do a great job?
” (See other questions I ask in my blog entitled
Questions speakers should ask BEFORE they speak
.
)
Which brings us back to common-community-communication. It’s the core of a great committee, a lasting commitment, an inspiring commander, responsible commissioners, profitable commerce, the future of our commonwealth, a positive commotion, and gives us a reason to insert a comma.
Rather than spending all your time focused on YOUR material and YOUR organization, ask yourself what the AUDIENCE wants and how you can connect with them. Most people tell us they spend upwards of 90% of their time focused on their content. Give some of that time to considering your audience, and great things will happen to your communication.
Need a speaker? Alan’s new keynote
The Four Questions
is filled with examples and inspiration on finding strategy and purpose that will give motivation, joy, and staying power to an individual or group.
