When Even A Single Hiccup Becomes A NO-NO!

 

Communications is all about being responsible.  Allow me to share EN TOTO this Quora.com post by Hussain Khan:  The pilot announced, "We're landing in half an hour."  Then he forgot to turn off the microphone. He told the co-pilot sitting next to him, "Now I'll have a hot cup of tea and then kiss the fiight attendant"  Hearing this, the air hostess ran to turn off the microphone and tripped over a child's feet, falling. The child said, "WHY you're in a hurry?  The pilot said he'll first drink a cup of tea!!!"  Funny BUT this kind of boo-boo happens to us [Oh YES, I was guilty of it a few times in the past]!@#$%?

NOT to be defensive, even as we've got anywhere between 170,000 to 1 million++ English words, that DOES NOT absolve OR even shield us in the future for any communications hiccups.  NOT even that petty BUT irresponsible oversight by that pilot in-command of that aircraft about to land.  If ever that Quora.com joke is indeed non-fiction, the mother of all ironies is that no less than a child even called the attention of the very embarassed flight attendant😡😡😡 

Surely, no needs a Comms 101 here but for brevity, maybe it's worth sharing the most obvious practices:

BE CLEAR & CONCISE - as the old cliche goes, more words, more mistake [YES that has happened to me!] BE TRANSPARENT - Be open about your intentions  BE ACCOUNTABLE - It's sheer responsibility no less BE MINDFUL of your audience - If you're a leader OR someone making a public announcement, it behooves if you check & recheck your words even ten times over

You might play devil's advocate WHY the need for all these?  It may NOT be so obvious on the surface but communication gaps/hiccups can lead to consequences and ramifications.  At the end of the day, there you are, FIREFIGHTING, instead of exerting your effort and spending your time on more bonafide day-to-day priorities.  In short, even that smallest and tiniest mistake ends up disrupting the flow of your tasks, with your attention suddenly getting randomly diverted on something WHICH should NOT have been there to 'firefight' in the first place.  Been there, been grilled, been a 'toast' many times, sometimes ending up 'thrown under the bus', NO THANKS to communications slip-ups, hiccups and with no excuse, at times before, it was my callous sense of irresponsibility WHICH I took for granted all along😡😡😡

Our takeaway:  One human frailty WHICH exists across cultures and geographies is our deep-seated and robust memory for hiccups and mistakes.  For someone WHO has done things perfectly day by day, on the next day he flops and causes a hiccup, that single exception gets etched in stone and he ends up remembered MORE for that single slip-up rather all the good things he should be credited for.  Sadly, that's HOW things are in life.  Moral of the story:  You may NOT be perfect BUT [still], aim for perfection because EVEN ONE SINGLE HICCUP BECOMES A NO-NO😀😀😀