Communication is the process of creating understanding where two or more people are involved. What does is take for that to be effective? Talking and listening. Seems simple, right? We all know it’s not. So many things get in the way of the understanding space…personality, culture, family, tension, our world view, body language, tone, and the list could go on.
I’ll never forget a trip we took to Thailand in 2016 to visit family. It was the first time the cousins had been together in quite some time, so I was determined to take photos of anything and everything we did. Our first week was spent in Koh Chang. One day we found ourselves at a beautiful watering hole that, of course, had to be documented. I found a sweet family there with their twin daughters and asked, “Will you take a family photo?” They said yes, so I got my camera out and started preparing the settings. Once it was all set, I looked up to see this scene in front of me…
Someone once told me that the meeting place of communication is humor and humility. Obviously I wanted them to take a photo of my family, but I decided to lean into the humor at that moment and just go with it. They might have left that waterfall thinking I was so weird that I would want a photo of them with all my family, but then I wouldn’t have a fun story to tell.
But how about those times when the meeting place needs a little (or a lot of) humility? If we want to be people who are committed to creating understanding, then it’s going to take work, time, and a whole lot of humility. I find this hardest when what I’m trying to communicate is not what the other person is hearing or understanding. It can be easy to put the blame on them, because you can’t help what they hear. Right? Wrong. You can. Our intentions are not always understood because of all the things that crowd the understanding space. The only way we can move toward understanding is if we humbly dig in and commit to the process.
Because people and relationships are valuable.
