The Most Important Rule in Communicationsfeatured

People often ask me what I do for a living. I often say, “I’m in Communications,” and they usually have a confused look upon their face.

“What is that?” They ask.

Simply put, it is everything.

It ranges from formulating speeches, decks, social media, internal newsletters, press releases, events, media relations, high-level messaging, etc.

I position companies and people to accurately represent their brands. I am an internal journalist, always seeking the truth and transparency that can be shared with the public.

I had someone send me a communication request. Working for a large corporation, I get requests from every department you can imagine. Whether the content is internal or external in nature, I am to help the company communicate about different initiatives, people, and events.

I got lost in the request. I had no idea what any of it meant. It was flooded with acronyms and processes that I could not understand.

My first reaction was to cry.

My second reaction was to become a teacher.

As a communicator, it is extremely difficult to communicate key principles, tactics and concepts to those that did not get a degree in it.

Ironic, isn’t it?

I realized the request came from someone who knows their subject so well that they simply were going through the same situation as I was.

My job is to unravel the ball of yarn presented in front of both of us to help Jane Doe, the future reader, understand why this message is important to her within a wider, more universal context.

I let the requester know I would need more information to effectively communicate their message.

My communications rule of thumb is: “If I can’t understand this, then others will not either and this message will then become spam.” And I did not sign up to become a annoying pop-up ad that you ignore in your browser.

To write about a subject, we must know the subject. Not just superficially, but genuinely.

Knowing the subjects I write about is extremely challenging because I often know nothing about them! I must learn as much as I can through context and resources available to me.

Once I know what it is the requestor is trying to say, I can then break it down for my readers.

Walking into the avionics sector, I can honestly say I knew nothing about airplanes on my first day. Getting confusing messages sent to my inbox made it so much worse.

That has become my mentality; write everything like your communicating with someone on their first day.

I don’t care how long a company has been in business, there will always be a new person, desperate to learn about their new place in the corporate world.

If I can simply make one new employee’s life better on their first day by helping them understand a foreign topic, then I have made the greatest impact possible as a communicator.

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