1.3: Principles of Effective Communication

Once you accept that communication is important, it’s important to understand what makes communication succeed and what makes it fail. Most mistakes are caused by forgetting one of five principles of good communication. This section addresses these core principles for strong writing and speaking, which we’ve organized to spell out the acronym FOCUS.

FOCUS Principles

• Focused: Address the issue, the whole issue, and nothing but the issue.
• Organized: Systematically present your information and ideas.
• Clear: Communicate with clarity and make each word count.
• Understanding: Understand your audience and its expectations.
• Supported: Use logic and support to make your point.

FOCUSED: Address the Issue, the Whole Issue and Nothing but the Issue

The first hallmark of good communication is that it is focused. In a staff or academic environment, writing and speaking often attempts to answer a question provided by either a boss or an instructor. In such situations, answer the question, the whole question and nothing but the question. Failure to focus comes in three forms:

1. Answering the wrong question. This happens when we don’t understand the assignment or what the audience really wants. Have you ever written what you thought was an excellent paper, only to be told you answered the wrong question or you missed the point? Have you ever asked someone a question and received a long answer that had nothing to do with what you asked?
2. Answering only part of the question. If a problem or question has multiple parts, sometimes we work out the easiest or most interesting part of the solution and forget the unpleasant remainder.
3. Adding irrelevant information. Here the communicator answers the question, but mixes in information that is interesting but unnecessary. Though the answer is complete, it’s hard to understand-it’s like finding that needle in the haystack.

fo \(\cdot\) cus n

1. a state or condition permitting clear perception or understanding: direction;
2. a center of activity, attraction, or attention; a point of concentration; directed attention: emphasis.

Failure to focus can really hurt staff communication. Time and time again, our efforts crash and burn because we don’t carefully read the words or really listen to the speaker for the real message ... for the specific question! Most executive officers will tell you that failing to answer the question is one of the primary reasons staff packages are returned. Chapter 3 provides suggestions on how to be clear in your purpose and avoid these problems.

ORGANIZED: Systematically Present Your Information and Ideas

Good organization means your material is presented in a logical, systematic manner. This helps your audience understand you without reading your words over and over, trying to sort out what you’re really trying to say.

When writing or speaking is not well organized, audiences become easily confused or impatient and may stop reading or listening. Even if you’re providing useful, relevant information, your audience may underestimate its value and your own credibility.

Chapter 6 is full of suggestions on how to organize well. Problems with organization are relatively easy to fix and the payoffs are enormous. In our limited time and resource environments, a little effort on your part will save your audience a lot of time and pain.

CLEAR: Communicate With Clarity and Make Each Word Count

This principle covers two interrelated ideas. First, to communicate clearly, we need to understand the rules of language-how to spell and pronounce words and how to assemble and punctuate sentences. Second, we should get to the point, not hide our ideas in a jungle of words.

People are quick to judge your credibility through your mastery of language to convey ideas. Acceptable English is part of the job, so commit to improving any problems you may have. Developing strong language skills is a lot like developing strong muscles-steady commitment produces steady improvement. Always remember that progress, not perfection, is the goal. Grammar scares most of us, but the good news is that many common mistakes can be corrected by understanding a few rules. Start by scanning our section on editing sentences, phrases and words. If you want to dig deeper, then check out some of the books and Internet sites that address grammar and writing-contact your local librarian or our References section for some Suggestions.

Using language correctly is only half of the battle, though-many Air Force writers and speakers cripple themselves with bureaucratic jargon, big words and lots of passive voice. These bad habits make it hard to understand the message.

UNDERSTANDING: Understand Your Audience and Its Expectations

If you want to share an idea with others, it helps to understand their current knowledge, views and level of interest in the topic. If you’ve been asked to write a report, it helps to understand the expected format and length of the response, the due date, the level of formality and any staffing requirements. It’s easy to see how mistakes in understanding your audience can lead to communication problems, and I’m sure you’ve watched others make this mistake. Check out Chapter 3 for some helpful hints on audience analysis.

SUPPORTED: Use Logic and Support to Make Your Point

Most writers and speakers try to inform or persuade their audience. Part of the communicator’s challenge is to assemble and organize information to help build his or her case. Support and logic are the tools used to build credibility and trust with our audience.

sup \(\cdot\) port

n information that substantiates a position;

v to furnish evidence for a position.

Nothing cripples a clearly written, properly punctuated paper quicker than a fractured fact or a distorted argument. Avoiding this pitfall is most difficult, even for good writers and speakers. Logic is tough to teach and learn because it challenges the highest levels of human intellect-the ability to think in the abstract. We slip into bad habits at an early age and it takes effort to break them. Chapter 4 provides practical advice on how to use support and logic to enhance your effectiveness as a speaker and how to avoid common mistakes.

SUMMARY: In this chapter, we defined communication as the process of sharing ideas, information and messages with others and described how effective communication enables military personnel to work together. To help writers and speakers stay on target, we introduced five FOCUS principles of effective communication. In the next chapter, we’ll describe a systematic approach to help you attain these principles and meet your communication goals.