Yesterday, in a restaurant, I sat next to a man eating rabbit.

You can read this sentence in two ways. One will trigger apathy; one, amazement.

So, the same message can mean vastly different things to different people.

For example, when leaders say “Here’s the new strategy”, they might think “Here’s my exciting vision”; whereas their people might think “Is my job going to get worse?”

Or, when managers say “I need this by Friday”, they are thinking “this is urgent”, but the other person might think “I’m sure you do. But I’m busy”.

The sender of an “FYI” might think “this will help you” (or “this is now off my desk”!), whereas the recipient might think “What am I supposed to do with this?”

And, to the hundreds of salespeople out there, when you say “We were founded in 1922; we have got 80 offices and 4,000 staff”, your customers often think “OK, so you’re old, big and fat. But can you help me?”

You can’t second-guess everything that other people will think, but you can do so more often than “not at all”.

Do you think you review your communications from your audiences’ point of view?

Do they think you do?

Action point

When preparing your next communication, review the content, pretending that you’re the audience…

• What will they like/not?
• When will they want you to speed up/slow down?
• What is in there that they wish wasn’t?
• What’s not in there that they wish was?

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