The importance of communication has been so widely discussed, debated & recognized in the recent past that not much seems to be left to say on the topic. However all this frenzy has spawned off a rhetoric of its own. So long as it concerns individuals, communication seems to be doing well. When it comes to an organizational level, the politics of communication combined with the diplomacy of denying clarity often takes precedence over its spirit.
The rise of Google has seen knowledge being commoditized, but understanding still remains elusive to many. Spread of the MBA culture has further strengthened the practice of using jargons without practicing them. More often than not, the sense of what is to be communicated gets lost in the cloak of diplomacy, resulting in a lot of goody-goody noise being made without any substance. The tragedy is that there is too much sound to hear but nothing worth listening to.
This politics of making statements destroys the very essence of communication. Communication was neither meant to be a showcase of linguistic excellence, nor a sales demo of the Oxford dictionary. It was meant to convey messages, simple & clear. It should not be a verbose diarrhea of complex vocabulary that even complicated minds cannot digest. Communication must be precise & the meaning loud. What should be paraphrased is the spirit of the message, with the exuberance of jargon being silently subtle. This is a fact that most fail to fathom, especially the people at the senior management levels who later lament upon the inability of their juniors to be in sync with them.
Let us pledge to say whatever we want to or will do, even if it be a sour statement to make. Merely coating a sour reality with sugary coatings gives no positive results. Not that sugar is expensive. The cost of opportunity lost due to the intent not conveyed is drastically more so.
