Quotable Quotes: Communications
by Miki SaxonThis week has been about communications, so I thought it apropos to include some good quotes about communications.
I love communications and communicating, whether it’s a good book, a stimulating conversation or when something I write really clicks. I think Anne Lindbergh summed my feelings up best when she said, “Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.”
Do you ever feel that real communications is a dying art; and if not dying, severely incapacitated? Well over a hundred years ago Charles Dickens said, “Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.”
Before Dickens was even born Joseph Priestley said, “The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate.” I guess he was prescient.
Erma Bombeck said, “It seemed rather incongruous that in a society of supersophisticated communication, we often suffer from a shortage of listeners.” That’s because so many people are enamored with their own voice.
Effective communications requires real effort; as Russell Hoban warns, “After all, when you come right down to it, how many people speak the same language even when they speak the same language?”
Sadly, we live in an era that proves the truth of Josh Billings words, “Most men had rather say a smart thing than do a good one.”
Changing this paradigm can only happen if each individual makes a conscious choice to do it; not through promises posted on a Facebook wall or tweeted to a mass of followers, but one person to one person.
Let’s get everyone as hooked on good communications as they are on coffee.
Sxc.hu photo credit to: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/547050
May 17th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Interestingly information theory knows a lot about information loss during communication. As usual in business, that knowledge is mostly ignored rather than used to mitigate problems.
May 17th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
But of course. You wouldn’t want the management in those companies to ruin their record, would you?
May 17th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Well it is true that if you put in place a functional organization, you need less middle managers… shame to become unemployed because you succeeded ;)
May 17th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
So true:)