Effective Communication

Why Communication Is Never Truly Finished at the Point of Speaking

Many people assume that communication ends the moment words leave their mouth or fingers leave the keyboard. In reality, communication is only complete once understanding has occurred on the other end, and ideally once that understanding has been confirmed. This is why two people can have an entire conversation and walk away with completely different impressions of what was agreed upon. The talking stopped, but the communicating never finished.

This single idea, that speaking is not the same as being understood, is the foundation on which every other concept in this book rests. It shifts responsibility away from simply producing words and toward actively confirming that those words have done their job..