Today I started my training to be a volunteer helping kids to read in schools. I wouldn't blink at communicating difficult news to 30,000 employees but I'm feeling pretty nervous about sitting down and reading with three children!
The trainer started by saying that what she was about to cover wasn't rocket science. It was all common sense and we probably did it all the time, but the day was about breaking it down and thinking about it. "Interesting", I thought. "Almost exactly how I introduce my line manager comms workshops". So I found myself thinking about things from two perspectives all day - the 'how to help children read' perspective, but also the 'and how might this apply to me as an internal comms person' perspective.
The biggest thing that struck me was how something that seems so easy to you can be so hard for someone else.
We were given exercises that put us in the position of someone trying to learn to read. Presented with a page of double dutch with a picture at the top, I panicked - I hadn't got a clue what it meant or how to start working it out. After five minutes of trying really hard and only managing three words, I was ready to give up.
We were given pages of tricky sentences to read out loud, and found ourselves counting down to which would be OUR sentences so we could try and work out how to pronounce them so we didn't look stupid when it was our turn. We saw how it's the 'easy' words like 'is' and 'the' that are hardest to learn because you can't visualise them (what's a 'the'?). We realised how full of contradictions and anomolies the English language is! Why DO 'cough' and 'dough' sound different? Why doesn't 'dead' rhyme with 'bead' or 'meat' with 'great'?
I started thinking about how it might feel to be a manager that's not a natural communicator.
How much do we ask of them, and how much help do we give them? What's our equivalent of the 'here's what it's like to learn to read' exercises? How do we feel what it's like to be a manager that doesn't get this whole communication thing, when the things that seem obvious to us seem an uphill struggle to them? And how can we make it easier?
I also thought about how often we just TELL people stuff.
We spent this morning sitting in our chairs with someone talking to us. I don't remember much of it. I was too focused on when I could have another cup of that nice belgian chocolate from the vending machine.
in the afternoon, out came all the games and exercises to get us thinking about how difficult it is to read. Those are the things I remember. I got involved, I thought about it, I had a good laugh and I learnt by DOING and coming to my own realisation. in the same way, we were taught to play games with the children, and to make reading fun. 'Why should they bother if it's dull and boring?' said the trainer. Good point. How do your communications stack up?
What else? Lots of checking understanding and asking questions to make sure the kids really have got the meaning of what they're reading. And the power of pictures to help people remember and bring things to life, instead of just words. Which I guess equates to feedback ("I always mean to do it, but I've realised I don't often get round to it" said someone on a recent Black Belt), and using pictures in communication. Organisations that use visuals like learning maps often say they're one of the most powerful methods they've used.
It's not rocket science, this communication stuff
But it's our total focus and even we're not great at it sometimes. We churn out the top down tell stuff that's dull and full of corporate speak. So how much help do we give to a manager that has 100 other things to do, less time and resource to do it, and possibly more of a natural connection with figures and logic than emotions and people? It might seem obvious to us, but how do we understand what it feels like to stand in their shoes?
Sue
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