Good Communicator, Poor Communicator - Talk 8 of 25

Topic: Good Communicator, Poor Communicator 

Theme: Communication 

Author: Barry Sweet

Date: January 7, 2018

Video Production by Tim & Karen Morse. Morsephotography.com

Here are my thoughts on Communication in the Community Pool and the importance of communication. I'm going to change some of the definitions that we've held for years of PC and GC. PC this definition… Poor Communicator.  GC Good Communicator. 

I went to San Antonio and visited my friend Glen Echols whom I love… and we went down to the Riverwalk and had double… note: double guacamole at Boudro’s… and the secret is they put orange… not lime. Well, I asked what I usually do (which is the McNairy question) which is “Glenn, What… have you learned?” And he said “Wow, you mean since I saw you last?” and I said “Yeah…” (which was maybe 10 years previous). He said “I've learned that I'm a Poor Communicator” And I said “No… Glenn Echols… No, not you! You're not a Poor communicator! You're one of the best communicators that I know!” And he said “Nope, Barry. I learned that I'm a Poor Communicator”. And I said “What do you mean??” He said “Well, I'm in charge of the conference center and it's beautiful grounds in the Hill Country of Texas and I would tell my staff “Go to this building and fix this part of the roof”. 

And I'd go there …and they had done it all wrong…!  And I would say ‘Go over to the barn and fix that side of the barn’  And I'd go over there and they had done it all wrong!  And it went on like this for 10 years, I kept thinking ‘Gosh these people just don't get it…’

And then one day I went and I said ‘Why didn't you fix it when I told you to fix it?’ And they said to me ‘You didn't tell us how to fix it!’ …and I went home that night and I thought about what they had said. And I realized that I was a Poor Communicator. I wasn't telling them what I wanted to get done”. 

And so I left my time with Glenn, and you know we yuked it up and talked about life and all the other things. But I went home that night and I thought to myself “Oh my gosh… Oh no… I am a Poor Communicator, like Glenn…“   You know, when… Let me put it this way… My mind and my hand are really good friends. My mind through neural synapses just goes bzzzt (to my hand) in microseconds.  My mind and my hand are good friends.  My mind tells my hand exactly what to do and my hand does it, it does it perfectly every time because they're such good friends. I say to my hand, “Go paint the Park Service vehicle. And it goes and paints it white, with a green stripe and silver rims. 

But I found that my mind and my staff are not as good friends as my mind and my hand. And if I say “Go paint the Park Service vehicle” and they come back and paint the car purple, with a blue stripe and orange rims… And I say “Oh my gosh, why didn't you paint that right?!

When in fact… I was a Poor Communicator. And in order to be a good communicator, I would have to say “Go paint the Park Service vehicle… it needs to be white with a green stripe and silver rims.” And then when I came to inspect the work, I'd find that it would be done just like I thought it would be done. The thing is… is that it is a “three minute conversation”to be the difference between a Poor Communicator and a Good Communicator. It takes three minutes. But when those three minutes are done, you have your best possibility of being a Good Communicator with your staff.  But… if your staff haven't heard this story about Glen Echols and P.C. Poor Communicator and G.C. Good Communicator… then those three minutes will be interpreted as…  micromanaging.  And they’ll say “Oh my gosh, my boss is such a micromanager!”. But when they understand the story of PC and GC they realize that's not at all your intention to be a micromanager…

It's only your intention to be a Good Communicator. 

Good Communicator takes simply three minutes of mindful reflective communication. The power of the Community Pool.