You communicate all day long at work and at home. I communicate with you and occasionally you communicate with me and to other readers via the Comments section. Osmo Wiio is a Finnish researcher of human communication. He has studied, among other things, readability of texts, organizations and communication within them, and the general theory of communication. His laws of communication are the human communications equivalent of Murphy’s Laws. I hope that like me you will enjoy reading them. They are so true.
- If communication can fail, it will.
- If a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in just that way which does the most harm.
- There is always somebody who knows better than you what you meant by your message.
- The more communication there is, the more difficult it is for communication to succeed.
And I particularly like his observation that anytime there are two people conversing, there are actually six people in the conversation:
- Who you think you are
- Who you think the other person is
- Who you think the other person thinks you are
- Who the other person thinks he/she is
- Who the other person thinks you are
- Who the other person thinks you think he/she is If you find this interesting, you can read more about Oslo and his theories on communication.
All the above is so true. Excellent.
Remarkable thoughts.
After reading this three times I’ve come to the conclusion it’s likely way to deep for me. On the other hand I will express my initial reaction. That is that it seems a bit too pessimistic.
CH
thank you, good post for us that work mostly thru emails
Sounds like a re-worded Johari Window. Nothing really new under the sun?
This smells of Social Engineering 101.
Anyone who isn’t brain dead understands that “Human communication” occurs on any number of levels, reflecting the Reality that none of us are the “same”…….
At some point it becomes painfully obvious that the incessant yammering that “we’re all equal” is in fact a big lie……
Life as a human is all about getting our point across as succinctly as possible with the minimum of “i’m OK, Your OK” BS.
Those who can pull it off typically “pull ahead” of those who don’t … Life is what it is….. be the best you can be.
-nicker-
“The more communication there is, the more difficult it is for communication to succeed” wow.
You can reach me on Twitter, no, wait Instagram is quicker, but if you’re already online, just shoot me an email…..actually, Face…. ……..
“It’s not that I don’t hear, I just don’t listen anymore.” John Mayall saved my marriage!
All these statements are very bright. Thank you for posting, Cyril. I am just afraid that they are too bright for many. But at least they should make the effort to stop and think. I noticed that in comments Woody’s is always the guy who pretends to know more. Really?
I’m sorry PH, I can dumb it down if you prefer. How’s, “neener neener neener, you’re a poo-poo head”? ☺ Seriously, what exactly did I write that ticked you off? Am I wrong thinking Osmo Wiio is just re-wording Luft & Ingham’s work from the 1950’s?
“If communication can fail, it will!”
I want the t-shirt…
Don’t worry Woody’s. Haters are gonna hate. I think you always write well thought out and interesting comments.