Wednesday Wisdom: How is your messaged being received?

Today's Wednesday Wisdom is brought to you by Indra Books of Agility for All. Do you have a question? Post it in the comments.

Last week, I said I would share with you a technique to find out if what you are saying or writing is clear. Do you know how people are receiving what you say or write? How do you know? I myself have said many times. "What wasn't clear about that?" But if there was a mix-up or misunderstanding, then it doesn't matter how clear I thought the message was. It wasn't well-received. Now it is possible, the message may have been clear in what it was saying, but the receiver didn't want to take it on board, but we have to unpack what is happening and explore where things are going off track. 

One of the things that we do in our leadership and teamwork group coaching sessions is work on this very concept. We do two different exercises that you can do with your teams. 

First, write down the message that you were intending to deliver. Send it to two people to read. Ask them for feedback, but don't leave it open-ended. Ask for specific information. As what they took from the message, how it made them feel, and what the initial impact is on their work. Using the feedback, rewrite the message and send it again. 

Repeat this with a verbal message. Asked two people to join you. Deliver a verbal message. It can be the start of a difficult conversation or an opener you need to give to the team about a problem. Ask one person to give you the same feedback as before, but ask the other person to give you feedback on the social cues they took from the person who was listening. 

This is only one way to check how your messages are being received. And we work on a whole series of them in our programs. But the next time you find yourself saying, "but that was clear," Stop and think where it could have gone wrong. And then ask. Don't make an assumption that you know, what happened or how it went in a different direction. Ask. 

And if you have created a safe culture where people have the power to speak their truth, then they will tell you.  

 And that is today's Wednesday Wisdom. Don't forget. If you have a question post it in the comments. Tune in next week for our next segment.  

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