Communication technologies constantly change, but learning, practicing, and improving effective communication techniques are valuable for any medium of expression.
Communication may be more immediate and informal than ever, but it’s still important to understand your audience and choose the best way to reach it.
The Mind of the Beholder
The first thing to remember is that effective communication takes place only in the mind of your audience.
It doesn’t matter whether you think you are expressing yourself clearly if your audience doesn’t understand what you’re trying to communicate. This isn’t always easy, but it’s always essential.
Sometimes developers assume that human language is like computer language and translates precisely into a set of executable ones and zeroes.
No — human language is translated imprecisely in someone else’s head and understood individually because everyone is different.
One of Murphy’s Laws (at least it should be) is that anything that can be misunderstood, will be.
You have to learn which words and expressions are more easily understood than others, and which examples most clearly prove a point.
Always use Examples
Back up every statement with a specific example. Generalizations and summaries are derived from specifics, and you have to help your audience reach the same conclusion that you did.
For example, Ray is very stupid. He walks out into the street without looking.
Oh, I see what you mean, yes. That is a stupid thing to do.
If you don’t provide a specific example someone will supply one from their own experience and you can’t be sure they’ll reach the conclusion you want them to.
Communication Forms
Choose the most effective form of communication for your content. The following is not an exhaustive list but describes some commonly used ones.
Inverted Pyramid
News stories traditionally use the “inverted pyramid” style, in which the most important part of the story is presented in the first paragraph or opening statement (i.e. the lede).
The next paragraph contains the next most important part of the story, and so on.
For example, “Five people died in a bridge collapse in Baltimore this morning,” is the lede. The following paragraphs fill in the important details about how it happened, the search for survivors, specifics on the location, etc. in order of importance.
The inverted pyramid effectively communicates the most important points of a story in the shortest amount of time, which readers often appreciate in today’s world of short attention spans.
It’s still widely used for this reason, and a good option if you want to be sure to communicate the most important points or facts.
Tear Drop
Another common content form is the “tear drop” style, also known as the “hourglass” style, which is employed by the New York Times and other media organizations, usually for longer pieces.
In the tear drop style, the lede is the central theme or concept that draws attention and ties the story together.
For example, “Her life was fine until the fire destroyed her home.” Now you want to know more about how it all happened and what it means for her life.
Generally the tear drop style requires the reader to spend more time gathering all the important facts as he or she reads through the article, and can frustrate those who just want to get to the main point of an article as quickly as possible.
You may decide for some content it’s more effective to stimulate someone’s interest in the entire article because it builds to an important conclusion rather than simply communicating the most important facts as quickly as possible.
Blog Posts
Blog posts typically employ a more personal style of communication than a more traditional publication. A blog post is less about broadcasting a story to a broad audience and more about posting about a topic of personal interest to share with others who may share such an interest.
Effective blogging typically follows the principles of The Cluetrain Manifesto, which defines a modern, more informal approach to communication than organizations traditionally use.
A global audience, multiple channels, and rapid iteration means everyone can express their opinion and find a receptive audience.
Instead of ensuring everyone in an organization agrees and signs off on formal content such as a marketing message, the Cluetrain Manifesto defines effective personal expression of the same content.
It’s important to choose a topic of specific interest to a specific audience, such as microservice architecture or beer fermentation techniques.
Generative AI
Now that you mention it, can’t I just use Chat GPT or another generative AI tool to create all my content?
No, unfortunately you can’t. It’s not that easy. Gen AI produces an anonymous rehash of existing content — without the soul or artistic lifeblood that creates impact and effective communication.
The passion you feel and artistically express for your subject is what gets the point across effectively. Generative AI can’t give you that.
Find your voice. AI doesn’t have it; only you do.
The Intellyx Take
Effective communication has many aspects and angles, takes many forms, and is constantly changing. But at the end of the day effective communication remains a personal effort that you can practice and improve upon.
Through whatever means are available to you, find the style and voice that best expresses your passion to your audience.
Getting feedback from your audience is essential because communication is in the ear of the receiver, to paraphrase a famous maxim.
Here at Intellyx, for example, active voice helps us communicate with our audience more effectively.
We say “Resolve challenges migrating to microservices using the right tools.”
Not: “Challenges in moving to microservices are resolved by using the right tools.”
Active voice gives more urgency, a sense of impending action rather than a description of something that happened.
And we typically search for images that help convey core concepts.
Copyright ©2024 Intellyx B.V. Intellyx is an industry analysis and advisory firm focused on enterprise digital transformation. Covering every angle of enterprise IT from mainframes to artificial intelligence, our broad focus across technologies allows business executives and IT professionals to connect the dots among disruptive trends. As of the time of writing, none of the organizations mentioned in this article is an Intellyx customer. No AI chatbot was used to write this article. Image www.Pixel.la Free Stock Photos, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
