You pull up in front of a school and the sign out front advertises an upcoming event as follows: Leteracy Night Dec 8th at 5:00 Would you question their teaching effectiveness? Misspelling is a common form of miscommunication. It is unintentional and therefore leads to unintended consequences. A major negative impact is leaving an impression of carelessness. The credibility of the communicator suffers. A misspelling on an application or a resume may prevent getting a job. A

Miscommunication is the failure to communicate adequately. It occurs in a multitude of ways, including communication that is confusing, unclear, uses words or examples receivers don’t understand, or contains mistakes. Miscommunication can result in frustration, broken relationships, and errors that can be costly or even deadly. Everyone deals with miscommunication. No one is immune. We can all benefit from identifying the miscommunication challenges we face most often and the

Meet Miss Perception, also known as “did I hear or read that correctly?” Miss Perception is another contestant in my “Mis-Communication” Competition. You can meet all of the contestants in this post: https://www.nutritioncommunicator.com/single-post/2019/04/05/Miss-Communication-conquers-miscommunication You’ve encountered Miss Perception if you’ve ever received a text or an email and you weren’t quite sure how to take it. Or, if you’ve ever gotten “in trouble” for sending a

Recently, my husband had a medical test in which the result read: “The trachea bronchial tree and esophagus are grossly unremarkable.” In doctor-speak that means he has nothing to worry about. What? Aren’t “grossly” and “unremarkable” opposites – with the first implying something extreme and unacceptable, and the second something small and not worthy of notice? Who decided they made sense when put together? We use the word oxymoron to describe a phrase using seemingly contrad

Who is Mr. E and why shouldn’t I be him? Good question. He is the guest contestant in the “Miss Communication” pageant. In this pageant, 10 “contestants” vie for the title of Mis-Communication, including Miss Understanding and Miss Aligned, who have been featured in previous posts. Read about the other contestants and the Miss Communication pageant in these posts: https://www.nutritioncommunicator.com/single-post/2017/08/11/Sew-many-virgins-of-Miss-Communication https://www.n

Communicating effectively is a challenge. Miscommunication is rampant – we misunderstand, misinterpret, misspell, mispronounce, and more. You can meet the 10 “faces” of miscommunication in this blog post. Can the formidable foe of miscommunication be conquered? Yes. We can beat miscommunication when we craft “words that work.” I propose “words that work” have these 10 characteristics: Audience-centered Speak your audience’s language. Address their needs. Meet them where they

Have you ever been misunderstood? Or misinterpreted? Have you ever relayed a message with a mistake or a misprint? Have you ever mispronounced or misspelled a word? Oh, my! There are SO many ways we can miscommunicate! Consider the harmful effects of miscommunication: Miscommunication is responsible for one-third of all project failures according to a study conducted by the Project Management Institute. (1) Miscommunication is one of the top reasons for all relationship failu

Meet Miss Aligned, also known as “not speaking the same language, even when it is all English.” She is another contestant in the Mis(s) Communication Competition. If you missed meeting Miss Understanding, you can read about her here: https://www.nutritioncommunicator.com/single-post/2019/01/18/Would-you-like-to-conquer-miscommunication When does Miss Aligned show up? When we use “insider” language – also known as jargon. Let’s face it, professionals in almost any field are no

When I was young, a favorite feature in newspapers and magazines was “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” fun fact cartoon. It was fascinating to read about strange facts almost too odd, too unbelievable, to be true. Fast forward 50 years – today’s World Wide Web feels like one big Ripley’s Believe It or Not. How can you know what is true on the internet? The internet has become our library, our dictionary, our encyclopedia… it has made finding answers to just about any question fast

Have your messages ever been misunderstood or misinterpreted? Have you ever received a text or an email and you weren’t quite sure how to take it? What causes miscommunication? To answer that question I have put “faces” on 10 of the most common ways we miscommunicate. In my signature speech, these “contestants” vie for the title of “Mis-Communication.” Personalizing miscommunication gives us a concrete villain who may be easier to defeat than an abstract concept. Allow me to

Admonitions to “measure twice and cut once” or to “proofread before hitting send” are likely based on learning from painful, yet avoidable, mistakes. Careful, accurate documentation is obviously essential in medicine, law, and business; but I suggest it is essential in everything we write. This past week I took a trip with my husband to southern Indiana where the Mayfield family first settled in the early 1800’s. We were in search of his great-great grandfather’s parents. The

Where are you, Sherlock Holmes? I would like to enlist your help in solving the mystery of the unsupported data. It appears that the internet perpetuates the proliferation of statistics without proper referencing. People! Don’t cite data without supporting research! I have heard that 80% of all statistics are made up. I am beginning to think that is a conservative estimate. What is truly scary is that once a number is reported it gets repeated, and repeated, and repeated agai

This week at my local Toastmasters meeting I stepped way outside my comfort zone… I gave my first ever humorous speech. I shared the topic in last week’s blog – 10 contestants vying for the title of “Miss Communication.” Not only did my fellow Toastmasters laugh, and vote for the “winner,” they gave me a standing ovation (something we generally only do after “Ice Breaker” speeches), and made me promise to compete in a future humorous speech contest. Who would have thought!? I

Let’s meet 10 of them: Starting with Miss Understanding, when what you said and what I thought you said are NOT the same. Much like the classic Abbott and Costello “Who’s on First” routine. Or, Miss Perception, that pesky one that happens when a text or email message is not received in the way it was intended… you know what I mean? Have you heard of Miss Conception? AKA “contagious falsehoods” because they are so common. Like “sugar causes hyperactivity.” Nope. Miss Informati