Communication

The process of transmitting and receiving information such that there is a shared understanding of its meaning and significance.

Communication of one sort or another is absolutely vital so that people know what is expected of them and how they are doing. Unfortunately communication as a concept is so fundamental and so all-embracing that, while it is popular to attribute every misunderstanding to ‘poor communication’, it doesn’t get you very far. Clearly good communication is entirely laudable, but what in practice does it mean? That the receiver of a piece of information understands it exactly as the transmitter intended? That everyone knows everything they need to know? Or that, in addition, everyone knows everything it is nice to know?

Communication is a classic example of the need to be more specific and to break the behaviours involved down into categories. This is not to deny its importance, merely to bemoan the fact that communication is meaningless until some behaviours are pinpointed.