Communication – why we’re worse at it than ever!

We’re not communicating very well. Information overload, diversity and a globalised workplace mean that effective communication skills are more important than ever before because strong relationships are the only currency we have and they are also our competitive advantage. Everything else can be copied and even the skills and knowledge we work so hard to attain at university and through professional development are easily replicated.

We’re getting worse – Because we are operating in such a fast-moving environment we have become more prone to not working well and to communicating less effectively. This has an impact on how our brains process information and how we interpret cues from our environment. How we communicate has changed a lot even in the last 3 – 5 years and will continue to change as the pace of information and technology becomes faster and faster.

There is now a body of research that supports the view that we are getting worse at processing information and interpreting environmental cues. Quite often we’re just not aware of these factors and our automated response mechanisms, which means we are not able to override initial reactions, and responses resulting in sub optimal communication skills both in our personal and our work lives. One way to better communication is having a stronger awareness and understanding of how our brain works, how it processes and interprets information and how to rise above our inbuilt automated responses and truly activate our brains⁠ for the better. Making complex decisions and solving problems effectively require a lot of brain energy and so doing this is difficult for any length of time. We need to understand some of the real biological limits on our brain because understanding these is one of the best ways to improve mental performance.

We need to be far more aware of how technology can impede effective communication and how to manage our use of technology so that it enables us to communicate better. We are inundated with information overload⁠ in an unprecedented way. We now live in a world where we are constantly faced with more and more information, on a daily basis, than we can possibly process. It is an over-communicated environment. There are so many unwanted messages bombarding us, that often the ones we want or that are actually important get lost in the noise. The average person can now communicate faster, with more people—without thinking—than ever before and this is only set to increase. Information has become disposable. Much of this information comes at us online but increasingly it is simply everywhere whether at home or at work and whether we are working or wanting to and needing to relax or reflect.

The key? Get to know how our brains work. Understand how to override our automated responses and how to manage our environment. Work smarter and overcome distraction better. It’s the subject of a new book I’m writing!