The Obituary of Words

The obituary of words refers to the failure of communication. What exactly is communication, you might ask?

Communication is the mutual exchange of information and understanding between the speaker and the audience by any effective means. This exchange of information most times is non-mutual i.e. they fail to achieve the purpose intended.

Before I proceed, let me give you two examples of failed communication that we experience everyday. One, I was considering a cartoon picture recently where there was communication failure between a man and his wife. The wife barked out command to his wife, ‘… Go to the
store; lay down the mulch; wash and wax the car; get the kids at school; rent some videos and finish the rest of the dishes.’ What the husband heard was, ‘… Go… lay down… and get… some … rest.’ What the man was expecting to hear was what he thought he heard, he didn’t expect his wife would tell him to do all that.

The other example is that of a memo sent from the CEO to the Company Manager. The CEO wrote, ‘Today at 11 O’clock, there will be a total eclipse of the sun. That is when the sun disappears behind the moon for two minutes. As this is something that cannot be seen every day, time will be allowed for employees to view the eclipse in the parking lot. Staffs should meet in the lot at ten to eleven, when I will deliver a short speech introducing the eclipse and giving some background information. Safety goggles will be made available at a small cost.
The Manager in turn sent a memo to the Department Head, today at ten to eleven; all staff should meet n the car park. This will be followed by a total eclipse of the sun, which will appear for two minutes. For a moderate cost, this will be made safe with goggles. The CEO will deliver a short speech beforehand to give us all some information. This is not something that can seen everyday.’
The Department Head sent a memo to the Floor Manager, ‘The CEO will today deliver a short speech to make the sun disappear for two minutes in the form of an eclipse. This is something that cannot be seen every day, so staff will meet in the car park at ten or eleven. This will be safe, if you pay a moderate cost.’
The Floor Manager also sent another memo to the Supervisor, ‘Ten or eleven staff will go to the car park, where the CEO will eclipse the sun for two minutes. This doesn’t happen every day. It will be safe and as usual it will cost you.
Finally, the Supervisor wrote a memo to the Staff, ‘Some staff will go to the car park today to see the CEO disappear. It is a pity, this doesn’t happen everyday.
Can you imagine the failure n the communication? Words have been murdered resulting in the Obituary of Words.

Research has shown that 65% of every spoken communication has nothing to do with words and the bad news is that 7 out of every 10 communication fail. Why does it fail? Simply because every communication contain three (3) factors i.e. Facial Expression, Tone of Voice and Body Posture. The body relates 45% of it, 20% s related by the tone of voice, the remaining 35% s taken by words and phrases. These infer that 65% of spoken communication has nothing to do with words. Therefore it is necessary for you to watch the expression on a person’s face and his body posture while communicating. This is why it’s sometimes difficult to understand certain communication where the body posture and facial expression are saying something and the words are saying something else.

The goal of communication is majorly to clarify, convince, impress, inspire, provoke action and to entertain.
Stephen Covey puts it in clearer terms when he wrote that the purpose of communication is to understand first and then seek to be understood.

Let me conclude by saying that success in life, in business and career has been linked to effective communication, I hereby challenge you to seek to communicate. It’s a learnable art for every leader. You too can!