Communication Passing Information
Learning how to communicate has always been an active part of my, life and has heavily influenced some life choices I have made. My decision to move away from being a software engineer, over 20 years ago, to more of a management role partially came about when I realized that I was surrounded by engineers who were more brilliant and productive then I could ever be, yet nobody could really recognize the value of their engineering contributions because they were, in general, poor communicators. Some of them would spend days and nights in their offices doing work that never saw the light of day or when it did, it was controversial or not useful simply because they could not make themselves understood clearly to their audiences. By helping them to translate “engineer speak” into “business speak,” I hope I was able to leverage their good efforts to so it could be of more benefit to them and their companies!
I first acted on my interest in communication in a formal way when I was 16 years old. Though not interested in nursing, I paid out of my own pocket, $39, for a day-long workshop for nurses on how to communicate with doctors. The course covered some of the different basic styles of communication: Aggressive, Assertive, and Passive. It was aimed at teaching nurses how to be more assertive with doctors and, in retrospect, I can see that it was not much different from my own or others’ current communications workshops. Good communications awareness and techniques stand the test of time. I am still learning to communicate and while I do not consider myself an expert, I am very much an avid learner about, and observer of, communication!
