THE ART OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

THE ART OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

‘Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools, because they have to say something,’ is what renowned philosopher Plato had once famously remarked.

 Communication is the imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing or through any other medium. It can be also termed as a process or a flow. Disruptions in communication occur when there are deviations and blockages in the flow.

The science of communication clearly entails – a source of communication, encoding or encrypting the information, the content or say the message, the channel of communication and the receiver of the matter. The circle gets completed by providing a feedback.

Zen teachers and the monasteries they headed trained the minds of their pupils and tutees towards effective communication and to express a dialogue cogently. 

Long ago two child protégés were under the instruction of their respective Zen Masters. Every morning, each embarked from his monastery. One learner was deputed by the Master to fetch vegetables from the market. He was an inquisitive tutee with a febrile state of mind. He would confront the other tutee as to where he was proceeding. The latter replied that he moved wherever his feet took him. This stupefied the disciple. In an agitated state of mind, he implored the Zen Master to unravel what really his fellow tutee implied.

The sagacious Zen Master pondered over the reply and the communication between the two protégés. He directed his disciple to pose the question once again the in the days following.

He punctiliously followed the covenant laid down by the Master and repeated the question. The other disciple merely smiled and replied that he was planning to embark upon a journey to wherever the drift of wind took him.  

This reply harassed and unsettled the mind of the disciple further and he was to ask the Zen Master the import of this statement. In a calm manner, the Zen Master mulled on the dialogue and after dissecting it, asked the student to enquire the following day as to where the direction of wind would take the latter.

Once again, the tutee discharged the stipulation laid down by his Master and enquired from his colleague disciple as to how far he would traverse with the velocity, force and the direction of the wind. With all humility and modesty, the disciple answered, ‘To the market to procure vegetables.’ This is precisely the location where the protégé of the Zen Master proceeded to every day. However, the mind of the tutee was fuddled to an extent that that he could never establish a dialogue or communication with his fellow student.   

The two Zen Masters were aware of the destination of their protégés, however they worked on a communication strategy between the two disciples which could be seamless. Apparently, the mind of one tutee was cannonaded with several thoughts. He could not decipher the science and tenets of communication properly despite being a student of Zen and acquiring skills under an accomplished teacher. Thus, there was disruption in the discourse and conversation.

Encoding of a message requires virtuosity and adroitness, proper and positive attitude, profound wisdom and awareness of the existing social-cultural system. The message itself could be verbal, written or through mere gestures. The originator and recipient of communication, both need to establish a wavelength and platform where transmission of data ought to be uncorrupted or non-disruptive.

The channel of communication can be formal, informal or through the labyrinth of networking. The direction of communication channels in organisations and individuals could be upward, downward or lateral. Many a time channel lines get clogged by pollutants and impurities which impede in the transmission of data or information.

Decoding of the message, like encoding requires prowess and mastery over the subject and a socio-cultural milieu where the recipient possesses the ingenuity to grasp the import of the content being transmitted.

The ultimate lap in the circle is the feedback loop. In case the communication source decodes or deciphers the message it is put back into the system which is the sounding board or the feedback.  If the transaction takes place in a seamless manner, it is obvious there were no disruptions in the flow of message or passage of the information.

Communication and the art of listening is like an androgynous machine, akin to Ardhanareeswara or even Siamese twins, wherein both must be supple and function effectively like two wheels of a vehicle.

Several individuals, organisations and the populace in general take listening skills for granted. Hearing is often confused with listening. The recipient many a time only picks up only sound vibrations and the mind is not challenged by the stimuli. The mind should be able to wade through swathes of information and be able to differentiate chaff from grain.

It is reckoned that an average person speaks at the rate of 125 to 200 words per minute while a listener has the capacity to comprehend up to 400 words per minute. In such a scenario and the mind of the recipient is bound to meander and travel the universe in those split seconds. This, organisational behavioural scientists term as the ‘idle time’. Idle time contributes to inefficient listening; thus, the comprehension of message disappears in the dreary desert of garbled and corrupted misinformation.

To sharpen the communication strategy important behavioural and listening skills are desirable and warranted – proper eye contact, exhibition of affirmative head nods and proper facial expressions, avoidance of distracting actions or gestures, proper scrutiny and posing of appropriate questions, paraphrasing what the speaker utters by the recipient. There should be no unnecessary disruption in the flow of the speaker or communicator, who should make the communication a two-way process, create adequate drama and theatre to attract and retain the attention of the listener. The speaker should not indulge in verbal over dosage while delivering his talk and be prepared to accept questions even if they are uncomfortable. 

With advancement of technology, the entire paradigm of communication has undergone a transfiguration. Gizmos and robots are replacing humans. The pace at which transmission of data takes place is stupefying, wherein both the communicator and recipient have to keep their antenna on alert all the time. The content, its quality and veracity to needs constant updating. The repository of knowledge and wisdom is undergoing radical change at a breakneck pace. Given this template, it is paramount for the flow of information to be proper.

 Communication is also the art of what is left unsaid. Silence can also be an effective tool of communication, provided the communicator and the recipient are on the same wavelength. In the spiritual path, particularly, silence is an effective way of transmission of ideas. Our ancient rishis conveyed esoteric knowledge about the creation and its myriad forms to their disciples.

It is indeed extraordinary that the entire corpus of knowledge of the Vedic literature, Upanishads, Aryankas, the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata have been passed down from generations through verbal and what perhaps would have been recorded on palm leaves. This is because the communicator and the recipient maintained reverence and sanctity of this profound knowledge.

It is said that Lord Krishna conveyed, all the chapters of the Bhagvad Gita to Arjuna in a matter of fraction of seconds after revealing his divine form and Ganesha wrote the entire Mahabharata without any interruption  as Veda Vyasa narrated all the incidents.  There was no disruption in the flow of information, knowledge and wisdom.

Contrast this with the information boom we are faced with today. The situation has virtually broken down in to a free-for-all. Most people no longer respect the boundaries of the flow of communication. And at the extreme end of this channel are hackers who have the power to create severe disruptions in the communication channels. This is a dangerous trend.

‘Social media websites are no longer performing an envisaged function of creating a positive communication link among friends, family and professionals. It is a veritable battleground, where insults fly from the human quiver, damaging lives, destroying self-esteem and a person's sense of self-worth,’ writes Anthony Carmona.