Controlling the Outcome of Your Communication

“That’s not what I said…”
“That’s not what I meant…”
“You’re not hearing me…”

You’ve probably said at least one of those three things at some point in communicating with your colleagues. At first pass, they may seem like simple objections, simple statements to help steer someone to the point you’re trying to make.

But if we look closer, those three elements — what was SAID, what was MEANT, and what was HEARD — are actually part of what makes a clear message. What happens if the three are in alignment? With a clear, well-prepared message, you have a good chance at the outcome you desire. If not, there’s room for your message to be misinterpreted.

via GIPHY

As the animation above suggests, the better job we can do of making sure what we say is what we mean, the better chance our audience will hear our message as intended. When we don’t plan our messaging, it’s much more difficult to control the outcome of our communication. When we don’t prepare, our intention rarely matches up with reality of what we say, and rarely matches up with what our audience hears.

However, when we prepare our communication, practice our delivery, anticipate objections, and set our audience up to listen, there’s much more overlap among those three elements. There’s consistency, because what we mean to say actually gets said, and it is probably said well, so that is also what gets heard. As a result, we have a much better chance at getting the outcome we want.

Good luck!

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Does your team:
– Overwhelm the audience with too much detail?
– Make things too complicated?
– Fail to ask for what they want or need?

Does your organization:
– Waste time because of poor internal communication?
– Take too long to make decisions?
– Struggle to clarify and frame discussions?

Do your leaders:
– Exhibit poor executive presence?
– Lean on incomplete communication skills?
– Fail to align the organization?

We transform teams and individuals with repeatable toolsets for persuasive communication. Explore training, coaching, and consulting services from The Latimer Group.