I have worked in advertising all my life, as a writer. It is a business that requires creativity, good communication skills, as also an understanding of business. Most of all, it is a service business and a people-based one. If you can’t express yourself clearly and effectively, you’re in trouble.
While I have been writing on my blog about brands and brand strategy, I thought I’d spend some time sharing my thoughts on what makes good communication between people. I thought I’d touch on this subject especially because in today’s world of business, technology has taken over our lives and work to such an extent that we think communication skills don’t really matter anymore. Now, we even have ChatGPT, an AI tool that can write for us! Besides, even in school and college education these days at least in India, I think the focus is so much on STEM and new streams of study that perhaps there are many who think that written and spoken communication doesn’t count for much.
Such people would, of course, later discover the hard way in the course of their working lives that it is what and how they communicate that matter. Domain knowledge is important, no doubt, but what use is it if you cannot explain your knowledge or your idea based on that knowledge, clearly enough?
Here are some of my discoveries and experiences regarding communication, both written and spoken, honed over decades of reading, writing, discussing, reviewing, presenting, and speaking, in my own small world of advertising.
Work out your thoughts before communicating
As I wrote even in my blog post on ChatGPT, thinking comes before speaking or writing. It is very important to think through what you wish to communicate before you actually put pen to paper or speak. Each one of us has different ways of processing thoughts and ideas in our brains, but thinking them through is important.
You might have observed that those who are good communicators most often also display clarity of thought. There is always a clear line of argument in what they are saying, and each thought flows from the previous one in a clear line of logic.
Keep in mind the target audience
Just as we folks in advertising know the importance of the target audience in the communication ideas we devise, so too in every day, regular communication. Whether you are in a discussion with a colleague or group of colleagues, or at a meeting with a client, what and how you communicate would change.
It is critical to consider the person or persons being addressed, so that your message is relevant to them, understood correctly and strikes the right chord. We all need to learn to have conversations at the right level, for which knowing your audience is important.
Often, it helps if you can find some common areas of interest with the people you communicate with the most. It is not only an ice-breaker, it eases the flow of future communication with these people.
And be absolutely certain of your target audience, if you tend to use humour or sarcasm or idiomatic or metaphorical allusions sometimes in your communication. Not everyone understands them; worse, some people tend to take everything literally!
Work out the structure of your communication
This is a continuation of the need to work out one’s thoughts before communicating. Now that you know what you wish to say, you need to put it into a structure that helps deliver your message clearly and effectively.
I have always found the three-part, beginning-middle-end structure extremely useful in my writing. Try and create a brief introduction to what you have to say, get quickly to the core of your message, and find a way to conclude your piece.
This helps in most written and spoken communication, and especially in long-form communication. Whether I am writing an advert, or a document, or a letter, this structure has worked well for me. Similarly, when speaking to someone, or even during a meeting at the office, it is important to have a structure to your piece so you don’t ramble into unnecessary areas, or speak in a convoluted way which is hard for others to make sense of.
Use language, simply and clearly
This doesn’t mean that one cannot or should not express complex ideas or thoughts. On the contrary, expressing even the most complex thoughts in simple language would help you be understood better and easier by the recipients. Avoid jargon, bombastic phrases, too many adjectives or superlatives and flowery language, and you will be surprised how much more effective and clear your communication becomes.
Try reading some of Mahatma Gandhi’s writings as well as Jawaharlal Nehru’s, and you will realise why Gandhi was a better communicator and could easily mobilise people in their hundreds of thousands.
Use sub-headings in really long-form copy
If you are writing really long form text, such as a document, a long letter, or even a speech, and you think that the reader or the audience might not be able to stay with the long train of thought that you are expressing, it is best to break the text with subheads. Many writers use this technique even in long copy advertisements.
This breaks the monotony of reading or listening to long copy, as well as makes it easier for the reader/listener to stay cued in with your message right through by following your small subject headings.
Give examples, where necessary
Another device that makes communication easily understood and appreciated is the use of examples. These help to illustrate what you mean, and they also make the reading or listening more engaging. Be careful not to use too many, though, as these can then distract from your main message. Also, when you’re done with the example, indicate that you’re returning to the main subject.
Close the loop
Another technique that works like a charm in advertising, though there is no hard and fast rule or formula regarding its use, is to link the end of your piece back to the thought expressed in the beginning or in the heading. This completes the loop of understanding for your reader, without leaving any loose ends.
In fact, you must make sure that there are no loose ends in your piece and by this, I mean unresolved issues that you might have raised, but haven’t addressed fully. I think the closing of the loop technique works even in writing articles and talk pieces, or any other long-form copy.
Read, read and read
In the days when I was growing up, which is a long time ago considering I am over 60 now, we were encouraged to read as much as possible. Not just books, of which we had plenty at home and which we devoured, but the daily English newspaper.
This has come down to us from my parents and grandparents’ days, who believed that reading the daily English newspaper not only opens one’s eyes to what is happening around us, but it improves our vocabulary, our use of language and our ability to be succinct in expressing thoughts. The Statesman was our daily newspaper in Guwahati, Assam, and also in Delhi in the old days.
Alas, that is not the case anymore. Today, our newspapers are filled with politically motivated news, PR agency nonsense and the writing too is appalling. Even business and financial newspapers have been reduced to reprinting companies’ press releases verbatim. And with so many getting their news from digital editions and the internet nowadays, the use of language in communication has suffered terribly.
I remember seeing adverts decades ago of Times of India’s initiative, Times in Education, of writing workshops for children conducted through schools in Delhi. And my old friend, and former sister-in-law who was a school teacher in Delhi told me of how good and useful these sessions were.
In my days at Ogilvy Delhi decades ago, I read Joel Raphaelson on writing simply, and I would recommend his piece to anyone who writes. Some years ago, my aged father gifted me a book by Harold Evans, former editor of the Times London, called Do I Make Myself Clear?, which too is great reading.
Write, write and write
There is nothing like writing and communicating more, in order to become a better communicator. Writing brings greater clarity to one’s thoughts and ideas. It helps us improve our language skills and ability to express ourselves well. And most importantly, writing and speaking helps build and strengthen human connections that are still crucial in our fast-changing world.
The digital medium, and especially social media, provides millions with the opportunity to express themselves freely, as never before. If only more netizens would use the forum to share their thoughts, ideas and their creativity, instead of spreading hate, prejudice and hostility.
I must add that many of the tips I have shared in this piece can be applied to spoken communication as well. Some of you might think that it is not possible to think through one’s thoughts and work on structure, when speaking. I say it is, and it is only through practising the art of communicating well, that we become articulate enough to speak as we think. Clearly and fluently.
Better communication helps build better understanding between people, cultures and countries.
Peripatetic Perch 