I've been out of the country for the last week or so. During the meetings I attended I was watching how people interact in a presenter-attender situation. I'm sure you've all been part of a situation like this. One person is presenting information as the rest of the group listens, asks questions, and discusses the topic.
The thing I noticed was how often the communication between two people simply didn't work. These were all highly-educated professionals who were trying hard to both transmit their information and understand what was being transmitted to them. About half the time when one person would ask a question the other person would misunderstand the question completely and answer some other question (at least that's what I inferred from the disconnect between question and answer). Sometimes the questioner would accept the answer and things would move on, and sometimes they would ask another question that was related to the first. Only rarely did the two of them figure out on their own that a communication failure had occurred. Most of the time someone else would point out the disconnect.
I wonder how often this happens when we try to communicate the gospel message to others. It's perfectly clear to us what we're saying, but half the time the other person simply misses the message completely. They shake their heads and figure we're ignorant fanatics, we walk away concluding their hearts are hardened to the gospel. In fact they didn't hear what we said and we didn't notice.
3 comments:
I am sorry Rob. I don't understand what you are trying to say here. Let's talk about it tomorrow, so it will be even more unclear.
I don't know what is more prevalent or more dangerous - that others don't listen to us or that we don't notice their non-listening.
I've noticed this in particular when dealing with internationals. Whenever I deal with the Japanese, there are three layers I have to get through: what I actually say, what they hear when they translate that from English to Japanese in their heads, and what they actually think I'm saying. Of course, I can only control the first one, so I do everything in my power to make what comes out of my mouth as clear as possible.
I have found it interesting how several people can read a blog post and all interpret it a little differently. Communication snafus occur when I least expect it. I always feel that I am writing so clearly, but then I realize that someone out there is reading my words from a different "place" altogether. It is quite eye opening and at times even disturbing.
Post a Comment