Paper: Effective Communications

The ability and capacity for people to communicate with one another effectively is perhaps one of the most pressing needs in today's complicated world. The written word tends to lost its meaning in a sea of gobbledygook. That in itself seriously limits people's capacity to communicate. But there are more subtle problems that affect every type of communication, including written and oral. These problems can be classified loosely under three headings: 1) jumping to conclusions; 2) closed minds; and 3) listening only to words. Everyone tends to fall victim of these shortcomings from time to time and to varying degrees in each situation. Communications suffer accordingly. It would be less than realistic to expect to correct all these problems in everyone. However, there is hope for improvement by making people more aware that these problems exist and helping them become more sensitive to them.