Top 10 – Communication Tips

Communication remains a challenge to many, including myself.

I’ve found that the following tips really help though:

1. Listening is more important than speaking
2. If you can, start with a question.
3. Too many words are more destructive than too few words.
4. Simplicity is far more difficult to achieve than complexity.
5. When preparing a message, constantly ask yourself “so what?” and remove everything that is not answering that question.
6. A conversation is much more valuable than a presentation.
7. Pictures speak a thousand words, but they may not be the words that you are thinking.
8. Metaphor and analogy form gateways to understanding.
9. Tell people a story, they’ll remember the story much longer than they remember the point of the story. The story will then lead them back to the meaning.
10. Just because it’s interesting to you – doesn’t mean that it’s interesting to anyone else.
11. Lists are often the worst way of communicating.