Communication – The key Skill...or is it?

You are a good communicator; your communication skills are exemplary; you need to improve your communication skills; you lack communication skills; I am adding communication skills to your development plan...And the list goes on...

Over the last decade our obsession with the word “Communication” has become pernicious...All of us have said or heard the above statements a numerous times...Sometimes albeit rather losely...Infact some very enterprising folks are riding the tide and have set up institutes to develop magic potions that are being delivered through numerous well packaged training programs to rid us of our “Communication Deficiency Syndrome”.

Hence, I feel it is time to take a step back and reflect a little more on this word...

Let’s start with a small exercise...Close your eyes and say “Effective Communicator”...and visualize this word.

I guess this word initiated a specific chemical reaction in your mind, and you visualized someone standing on a dais and delivering a speech or someone talking brilliantly in a meeting or some other setting of Individual oratory brilliance...Also, I feel that you would have seen someone who can influence you with his words and thoughts...Therefore I truly believe that effective communication is definitely a little bit about, Choice of Words, Intonation, Grammar etc but more about Intensity, Clarity, Conviction, Passion and most importantly Honesty behind the thoughts that are communicated.

However, before you dump this article as another “10 steps to effective communication” I should clarify that I am not selling any medicine here rather I want to discuss something more ethereal...i.e.,Psychology of the word “Communication”

Words influence our psychology which in turn reflects in our thoughts and feelings and ultimately gets expressed through behaviours and actions and it is no different with the word “Communication”.

If we go back to the visualization of the above exercise, what we saw was Individual Brilliance...and that is exactly what communication as a word is about...The complete focus is on the speaker...The listener only plays a passive role of understanding and acknowledging the speaker...Therefore this word creates the feeling of “I”, “Me” or “My Brilliance” Which I believe is important for one's self-development however it does not necessarily invoke the feeling of “We”, “Our” or “Our Success”...as the word is rooted in "ego"

There is another word that I used to hear a lot in my childhood but not so much these days, i.e., “Conversation”...If I repeat the above experiment what visualization does this word lead to...I see discussion, equal participation and togetherness and I am sure you see similar pictures or events....This word invokes a feeling of “We”, “Us” and “our” in me...and the sensation is bereft of “Ego”.

The above visualizations might make us believe that the two words are in contradiction with each other, however that is not the truth, the two words are in complete harmony and share a symbiotic relation...The first one focuses on Individual Development (Which has to be the starting point) and the second one dissemenates that brilliance to the larger group and also completes the knowledge cycle.

I believe, what we need though is to develop a better balance between “Communication” and “Conversation” to become more effective managers, Leaders and most importantly better people...

In a nutshell, continue to develop as effective communicators but do have more conversations....

Finally if you stop at just reading this piece, it will stay in the domain of Communication, however, if you choose to comment, you will complete the knowledge cycle and transform it into Conversation...Cheers

And Six Sigma Helped me connect with GOD !!!

Now that I have grabbed your attention with a chic headline, it is time to move to the subject that I really wanted to talk about.
“How is Six-Sigma different from other quality initiatives?” In the numerous seminars, trainings and workshops that I have facilitated on the subject, one question that would always make its unceremonious presence and make me twitch on my feet.
The experience of handling different kinds of audiences and numerous tricky questions over the years helped me give convincing answers but deep inside I knew…I only justified…and more I justified more curious I got to understand the real answer.
The question made its way from noisy classrooms and seminar halls to the silent confines of my bossom creating a noise within.
“All questions have answers” a statement, that I had rather arrogantly shot at my Grandmother as an inquisitive small boy when she could not think of a proper answer to a rather tough question that I had asked, now started to haunt me. My soul was still young and was now shooting the same statement at the seemingly knowledgeable me. Probably this is what wise men call poetic justice…feeling the same pain that we inflict on others.
These were some thoughts arising in my tormented brain on a cold wintry morning and manifesting themselves as drops of sweat on my brow. I let my thoughts wander some more like one does while practicing transcendental meditation hoping to finally be able to meditate on the all vital question that had become the centre of my being. One thought followed the other but none related to the seed question, probably I was not following the basic tenet of the exercise of not to focus on the seed question because more you try to concentrate, further away your thoughts will take you. But could I blame myself for that, how can you detach yourself from a question that engulfs your soul.
While in contemplation the memories of my childhood started playing in front of me and I visualized myself asking the rather tough question to my grandmother “How are religions different from each other when all of them are trying to achieve the same GOD?” I felt rather amused when I realized the similarity between the two questions, most likely the reason my thoughts took me there.
Are the answers also similar? I rather mockingly asked myself, realizing the idiocy of my thought. But has Genrich Altschuller in his famous TRIZ philosophy not said “All of us suffer from Psychological inertia because of which we always search for solutions in our known field of study whereas simple solutions are available in a different body of knowledge. The moment we rid ourselves of this inertia BREAKTHROUGH happens”.
Was I suffering from “psychological inertia”? Should I explore the mystic field to find answer to my question that is related to Quality Management and Statistics? Am I onto something here? Is my guardian angel making me tread this path? Or is it the Devil taking me further away?
While reflecting on these thoughts I felt a calm light emanate from my soul drawing away the darkness in my mind and the answers started revealing themselves. Altschuller was right “The answers to the current questions lie in the solutions of the past problems”.
“All the religions are meant to lead to the same GOD and all of them although seemingly diverse are nothing but a set of narratives, symbols, rituals, belief systems and prayers to meet the same objective. All these might vary from religion to religion but the underlying philosophy of each religion is “Spirituality” which is the discipline and process to achieve Almighty. Seekers can follow any of the well laid out religious paths to attain GOD or just follow spirituality to do the same.”
This answer to the childhood question was now manifesting itself as the answer to my current query.
“All the quality initiatives are meant to lead to the same goal “Excellence” and all of them although seemingly diverse are nothing but a set of narratives, structures, methodologies and systems to meet the same objective. All these might vary from initiative to initiative but the underlying philosophy of each initiative is “Six-Sigma” which is the discipline and process to achieve excellence. Quality seekers can follow any of the well laid out initiatives to attain EXCELLENCE or just follow Six-Sigma thought process to do the same.”
So, I got my answer, Six-Sigma is a thought, a process, a philosophy whose sole aim is excellence. And same thought is the foundation of all other quality initiatives as well. Six-Sigma is not different from other initiatives but the soul and spirit of all of them.
One thing you would have realized that next time I am asked this question in a classroom, seminar or a workshop I will not justify but give an answer, an answer at least I believe in.
One more thing, probably you would have realized by now, “Six-Sigma did help me connect with GOD”