Friends, subscribers, fellow humans, We’ve reached a pause. One year. What a year. I came up with this idea for sharing weekly content in late summer/early fall of 2019. I didn’t see anyone talking about communication as I was envisioning and I was looking for an outlet. I wanted to write…
Artwork: Hope II by Heather C. Sweeney. Emotions are important to communication. But where to start? There’s about a million possible directions, mountains of research from many fields, hundreds of books (some of them even good!), and tons of advice out there about communication and emotion…
A true measure of person is whether they can apologize or not. If someone genuinely has wronged you — or acted like an asshole — and they can’t or don’t apologize, beware. It’s a giant, swaying red flag. Everyone has to apologize from time to time. (Or likely should apologize,…
Good Communication | Improving Communication | Relationships
What is common ground when it comes to communicating? It seems to me that common ground is as much an act of “seeking” as it is an established thing two people or parties might possess. It also seems to me that common ground is fairly essential to good communication, but that’s debatable…
Communication is a process. This process, at any given point in time, has one interaction point populated by two (or more) people. I’m talking at a microscopically individual level, but when you consider everyone, at larger scales, communication is everywhere. We’re all communicating…
Good Communication | Improving Communication | Process
I believe in the possibility of communication. But communication can’t solve all of your problems. You don’t have to look far online to find someone saying “Communication is key” “you need to communicate” or some other trite advice to fix the problems ailing you.…
Communication is full of paradoxes. Two opposites, somehow connected to form a larger whole. Paradoxes, you know. “You gotta be cruel to be kind” as Nick Lowe teaches us, or the Ship of Theseus, or the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Paradoxes, two things that despite their apparent oppositeness…
Communication | Good Communication | Relationships
One of things that many people fail to realize about communication is that it’s not just about you. It’s not just about you getting your message across. It’s about the other person too. They get a say. They are part of the process. If you want to communicate well, you have…
A unique challenge of communication is that you have to communicate about communication to get better at communication. Think about that for a second. It’s communication all the way down. Inescapable. Communication is a process that’s ongoing, everywhere, all around us. It’s not a…
Skills | Good Communication | Improving Communication
Critical thinking and communication are closely related. If you aren’t able to think critically about problems, information, and obstacles as they relate to your relationships, the media you consume, and the conversations you have, you are set up to fail. If you can’t think critically, communication…
Skills | Good Communication | Improving Communication
Giving feedback is communication we think of as communication. That is, while every conversation is communication, giving someone feedback — it could be on anything: something at work, life advice, or just a normal part of everyday interaction (“Hey, what did you think of my chili?”…
Being able to ask good questions is essential to being a good communicator. Why is asking good questions important? Hey, good question! And how can we ask good questions? Look at that, another one! How are question-asking and listening related? What’s important to keep in mind when we want to…
Communication always involves other people, but making communication better begins with you. Self-assessment is essential to improving your communication. If you can self-assess better, you’ll more easily adapt to the situations you find yourself in. Self-assessment, when it comes to communication,…
Big Picture | Communication | Good Communication | Relationships
People want good communication. Things are better when communication is good. There are lots of ways to improve communication. But first, we have to consider what “good communication” is: “How do we get to good communication?” is one question. “What is good communication?”…
