Lossiness

Zentangle by Harry Yeatts

Have you heard of the concept of "lossiness"? Mandy Brown says that whenever people are communicating, some "information or context or sentiment" is lost or distorted. Maybe one person thinks the other person knows the background, so they leave it out. Or they don't talk about how they feel about it, so the feeling part is left out.

The amount of "lossiness" varies based on how much attention the speaker and listener are giving to the interaction, stress levels, assuming the other person will "get it," etc. Once you realize that "lossiness" is a thing in communication, there are things you can do about it.

Ms. Brown explains:

Once you’re aware...there are lots of habits you can adopt to reduce it:

When listening to someone else, really listen, without trying to imagine how you’ll respond or anticipating what they’ll say next. This is harder than it seems, and it takes practice—but you can do it.

When you think you’ve heard someone, reflect back what you heard and ask if you got it right.

When sharing information with someone else, prompt them to reflect back, and check to see if your message was received the way you intended it to be.

Try to slow communication down, when you can. This seems counterproductive—you’ve got things to do and so little time to do them—but lossiness increases with speed. Take your time and you can avoid time-consuming miscommunications later.

Read the whole article: All communication is lossy.