Читать книгу The CommFlow System - Christian Horak - Страница 10

The third gate to understanding and agreement I want to explore after the brief discussion of community and intent is the concept of coherence.

I chose the word coherence to encompass a number of important concepts including but not limited to:

Consistency ... sticking with a line of reasoning, with certain agreed upon terminology, etc. Continuity ... an extension of consistency in the time dimension, i.e. picking up where one left off earlier Cohesion .. the concept of presenting facts, words and sentences that "make sense" and fit together A number of other concepts such as integrity, and credibility also fit into this category as well, but I have no intention to be complete or scientificly accurate in this description. The main concept behind coherence is that it is easier to get to understanding, and therefore to agreement if we present our line of thinking in a consistent, continuous and cohesive way. This might seem like a “no-brainer”, but next time you listen so someone, try to rate them on a scale from 1 to 10 on how coherent you think their presentation was. It’s actually quite amazing how much clutter and incoherent babble passes for conversation or dialogue these days. It literally seems like most people start talking or writing to figure out what they want to say "in flight". When this happens to you, you will notice. Here are a number of tips and best practices to keep in mind to unlock this gate to understanding and agreement:

 Remember that communication happens at multiple levels. While we mostly tend to use verbal communication (spoken or written) we often tend to ignore that the non-verbal signals we send tend to influence the credibility or valuation of what we communicate. The non-verbal signals sometimes even negate the spoken or written word, i.e. your body language will completely betray your intentions to a skilled observer.

 Remember that the medium is the message (an old communication rule). Delivering a personal message on an impersonal medium like email just is not very coherent. Try to leave a voice mail instead, for example.

 Remember to set context for your communication. Do not assume that your audience knows about your jargon, the history of the subject, the decisions made in the past, etc. Establishing the context will help to achieve coherence of your message.

 Try to stay consistent with the facts discovered or decided with the first 2 gates (Community and Intent). If you know about the culture and community aspects of your audience, and if you have communicated your intent, stay consistent with that model and try not to "sell" in a socialization context, or to socialize to much in an education context

 Do not forget about the circumstances surrounding your communication. Where you communicate is important. How you are dressed, if you show up on time, if you properly set an agenda, greet everyone in the meeting etc., are all important factors to consider if you want to be perceived as "coherent". Perception IS reality.

 Remember storytelling from your own childhood. Every story ever told had a beginning, a middle, and an end. And usually the story line of the most successful stories ever told can be boiled down to a very simple core. When you communicate, try to have a clear beginning, a clear middle, and a clear end, and you will do miracles in terms of improving your coherence.The exercise I would like you to go through over the next couple of weeks is to observe your perception of the communications and dialogs you are involved in. How coherent do they seem? How is your understanding and agreement level in more coherent situations? I'd love to hear your feedback and will be happy to answer questions and give tips.