Communication

“A world community can only exist with world communication, which means something more than extensive software facilities scattered about he globe. It means common understanding, a common tradition, common idea's and common ideals.”

Robert M. Hutchins

THE ART OF COMMUNICATION

There are many more tools for communicating including the internet, VOIP, mobile phone, newspapers and many many more. But what I see every day in business is that flash tools are only tools.

"The one thing I remember about Christmas was that my father used to take me out in a boat about ten miles offshore on Christmas Day, and I used to have to swim back. Extraordinary. It was a ritual. Mind you, that wasn't the hard part. The difficult bit was getting out of the sack."

John Cleese

“Years ago, I tried to top everybody, but I don't anymore, I realized it was killing conversation. When you're always trying for a topper you aren't really listening. It ruins communication.”

Groucho Marx

THE ACCENT ON THE ACCENT

A person's ability to be understood and to understand is paramount to a successful interaction. A strong accent of any kind from anywhere needs to be listened to with great care.

All over the UK people are speaking English as their mother-tongue, but use local/regional words and phrases combined with the local accent. Texting on mobile phones is an example of a new language - it’s English but a new version of communicating with text speak.

"When I was young I was called a rugged individualist. When I was in my fifties I was considered eccentric. Here I am doing and saying the same things I did then and I'm labeled senile."

George Burns

“The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success are concentration, discrimination, organization, innovation and communication.”

Michael Faraday

What I believe we need to aid good communication is to employ people in front-line positions who speak clear plain English, who do not have strong accents, which may result in people finding it difficult to communicate effectively. The council has a duty of care to all residents and other stakeholders to employ people who have an excellent command of the Plain English Language, who can be understood by everybody regardless of any accent they may have. English doesn’t have to be the person’s mother-tongue, what is important is their ability to speak English which is clear and easily understood by every caller.

If I find it difficult at times to understand the people I speak with at the council, and I now have a pretty well trained ear, I believe it is likely to be very difficult for the elderly and others to understand people with thick accents regardless of where the accent is from.

“Communication can't always follow the top-down model. With the fluidity of information in business today, leaders need to be masterful listeners; they need to be able to receive as well as send.”

Joseph Badaracco

“Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.”

Charles Dickens