The Power of Inclusion
My first post on this blog was in German. At the time it was a spontaneous idea to share a unique experience that I knew would mark a significant moment in my life. I shared it foremost with my friends and the members of my sports club. Later I started to write posts in English just to test how it feels. As a German native speaker I only speak English as a second language, so why would I write in English? A simple and obvious explanation is that English is spoken by a lot more people than German. I do not intend this blog exclusively for a German speaking audience. In order to grant access to this content for as many people as possible is of course a very obvious, however not my most important reason.More Eloquence is More Potential for Clutter
During my professional experience on multiple international projects and assignments I have realized that English native speakers can sometimes fall into a squabble where they talk a lot but say very little. Especially American colleagues seem to have a tendency to talk fast with an abundance of figurative speech -in the worst case even with a more or less strong dialect- but deliver little content. Every time someone elaborates on simple matters more than necessary or uses an overtly decorative or complicated speech the risk of losing your audience along the way mounts. I found that non native speakers often have a clear advantage in communication over native speakers. This advantage is a result of two facts: Compared to native speakers non native speakers neither have as rich a vocabulary nor as vast of options to formulate complicated sentences as native speakers. This forces them to think clearly before they say anything in order to maximise the effect and with that the value of each word spoken. If you measure the value of any word spoken by the amount of information that it transports to the recipient, simple and short sentences can be pure gold. Second, if you speak a second language and you don't fully think and dream in that language chances are you intuitively think in your first language and then translate -maybe instantly- into English. This will work best if you don't formulate complicated sentences and structure your thoughts clearly into separate modules that you can combine like lego blocks. Everyone who learns a second language goes through this learning process - I witness this with my kids in German - Hungarian on a regular basis. For me they are the perfect example (not to say lab rats) how the human brain processes two -in this case even very different- languages. When they speak German (their first language) they are able to tell eloquent and long and shiny stories. However with Hungarian (second language) they have a harder time. The reason for this is because mostly it is me who speaks Hungarian with them - and usually they reply in German. Therefore when they speak Hungarian their communication is much more to the point and does not include a lot of 'decorative speech'.
The Gold Standard of Communication
I have a serious issue with listening to people when I don't know what their point is after several sentences. Some people seem to enjoy building long and unnecessarily complicated sentences and elaborate over minutes on simple questions like 'Are you sure this is what our customer expects us to do?' or 'Should we not replace assumptions by facts?'. Test it, it's hilarious. Instead of answering the question with a simple 'Yes' or a 'No' -or even an 'I don't know.', people often fall into an endless spiral of eloquent justification. Especially in writing this habit of overdoing can be a real pain. Sometimes I read documents that contain single sentences over half a dozen or more lines - sadly you can easily do that in German. It is confusing and outright frustrating. Nobody would speak like that. So I ask myself why do people write in a way they would never speak? My theory is that most people don't like to write and therefore have little experience with writing. Nevertheless when they have to write, they follow a false impression for a necessity to impress by overcomplication. That's always bad writing or bad speaking, especially if the chain of thought is lost in complication.
In order to avoid falling into the trap of over communicating I have created three simple rules for effective communication:
1. Keep it short - Ask yourself what information is really necessary and try to cut the unnecessary as much as possible. This also means that you should not pontificate or lecture people over long stretches of a meeting but to limit your speeches to a few sentences. In case more details or further context is required people will most likely ask you anyways.
2. Be easy to understand - Don't use abbreviations and buzzwords that might alienate members in your audience. Formulate short and clearly structured sentences and use precise vocabulary. This may sound boring, but in a professional business context with non-native speakers 99.9% of the time the task is to bring your core message across and not to create mesmerizing novels.
3. Encourage Commitment and Contribution - A simple and comprehensive communication is also an invitation to your audience to follow up with action or further questions. Any kind of engagement and active contribution by your audience will benefit you more than if you leave your audience impressed with your speech but clueless or anxious to commit. Pro tip: Statements always shut down the thinking process. Questions encourage people to think. Hence rather than saying 'This is not sufficient.' I rather ask my team 'Why do you think this is the best we can do?' or 'How can we make sure our client will be satisfied with our product?'. Instead of stating 'This is too late/expensive/much.' I ask 'Why do you think we have sufficient time/budget/capacity?'. Make it easy for your audience to engage.
There's a ton more reasons why I write this blog in English - mostly fun and joy related :-) But the opportunity to practice the application of structure and logic in thinking and communication is the most essential. A second language is a perfect school for this kind of mental training. Try some regular mental workout - learn and improve your second language. In case you feel most comfortable and eloquent in your second language, take up a third. x-p And start to write.
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