Even when we think we know what we are saying, our words can still be ambiguous.  For instance:

When you yourself says the word ‘always’, what percentage of time does that event occur? Does ‘always’ occur 100% of the time?  Or does ‘always’ occur under 90% of the time?

When you yourself says the word ‘never’, what percentage of time does that event occur? Does ‘never’ occur 0% of the time?

I ask these questions, along with about a dozen other words, when I give my Behavioral Leadership or Communications seminars.  My survey shows that the average percentage of time ‘always’ occurs is 82% …. And the average percentage of time ‘never’ occurs is 18%!

Could this be a contributing factor to mis-communications?

It’s not what you said, it’s what they think they heard

Tags: always, communication, emotional intelligence techniques, emotional mind, intention, leadership, meaning, never

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at 10:04 am and is filed under communication, emotional intelligence techniques, human factors, intention, interpretation, leadership, listening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.