Good communication or effective communication: which do you have?

Good communication occurs when the receiver's understanding matches the meaning intended by the sender. Understanding is the goal. 

Effective communication occurs when the receiver acts in the way intended by the sender. Influence is the goal. 

Are there any situations in business where you would be happy with just good communication? There may be, but they would be few and far between. 

Most of the time you write to influence behaviour: to get customers to buy, to get employees to work in a particular way, to get authorities to act in your favour. 

Effective communication requires good communication. But it requires much more. One of the keys to effective communication is to know your reader well. It's useful to visualise them across the desk from you as you write, or to visualise them reading your final document.

Know your reader 
These questions may help. 

Subject-matter questions 

• What is the reader's existing knowledge of the subject matter? 
• How did the reader learn about this? on-the-job training? formal education? 
• Does the reader have personal interests outside of the work environment that might help them understand the subject matter?
• What are the consequences if the reader does not fully understand the document? 

Attitude questions 

• Is the reader enthusiastic? curious? worried? hostile? afraid? about this document?
• Is the reader motivated to read it? 
• In general, is the reader open to new ideas? 
• Are there others in the reader's environment that may influence the reader’s reaction? 
• What is the impact on the reader's job? 

Personal Characteristics  What is the reader's level of schooling and reading level?  What is the reader's experience in reading similar material?  Do the readers fall into a particular socio-economic class or culture that may affect how they react?

Language questions 

• Is the reader a native speaker of the language used in the document? If not, what degree of difficulty does the reader have with the language? 
• Does the reader know the specialised terminology used in the document? 
• Does the reader learn better from text or graphics? 
• What is the reader's familiarity with using reference tools, such as indexes, headers and footers, tables of contents, online search systems?

Why the RTA’s new advertisement doesn’t work.

With much media attention the new 'shock' road safety advertisement was released by the Roads & Traffic Authority and screened over the Christmas /New Year period. It showed a family packing the car and enjoying a pleasant drive through the country with the dulcet tones of Cliff Richard's 'Summer Holiday' playing in the background. But it all ends suddenly in a crash, and a child slowly dies.

But what behaviour is it trying to change? It seems that this family was just unlucky. We are not shown the cause of the crash - did someone fall asleep at the wheel? was the driver speeding? were they under the influence of alcohol? The ad gives no information about how to avoid a crash, it does not tell us anything about the behaviour that puts us at risk on the roads. At best we get a general message that the roads are dangerous so take care. 

‘Take care’ works fine as a greeting but is hardly good safety information. I need information about the danger before I can take care to protect against it.

A good question to ask when developing any sort of communication is “What do I expect the audience to do in response to this? What behaviour do I want to impact?” What is this ad really trying to do?

Contrast this ad with the previous one - the ad where the Kombi van drives into the side of a truck. The driver is clearly shown dozing off immediately before impact. It is clear that falling asleep at the wheel is the cause of the crash. The behaviour the RTA wished to change was people driving for long periods without a break. And it was well backed up with 'Stop, Revive, Survive' signs across the state.

I don’t have a statistical analysis on the effectiveness of each ad, but on the surface it seems the most recent ad has been a waste. Think-write has been saying for many years "Communication that does not influence behaviour has failed, no matter how flashy it is."

A little misunderstanding of language can lead to some bizarre ideas! 
Here are some quotes from 11 year olds' science exams. (source unknown)

Water is composed of two gins, Oxygin and Hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin and water. 
When you breathe, you inspire. When you do not breathe, you expire. 
To collect fumes of sulphur, hold down a deacon over a flame in a test tube. 
When you smell an odorless gas, it is probably carbon monoxide 
Three kinds of blood vessels are arteries, vanes, and caterpillars. 
The moon is a planet just like the earth, only it is even deader 
Artificial insemination is when the farmer does it to the cow instead of the bull. 
A super-saturated solution is one that holds more than it can hold. 
Mushrooms always grow in damp places and so they look like umbrellas. 
The body consists of three parts - the brainium, the borax and the abominable cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abominable cavity contains the bowels, of which there are five - a, e, i, o and u. 
Planet: A body of earth surrounded by sky. 
Vacuum: A large, empty space where the pope lives. 
To remove dust from the eye, pull the eye down over the nose. 
For drowning: climb on top of the person and move up and down to make Artificial Perspiration. 
For headcold: use an agonizer to spray the nose until it drops in your throat. 
To keep milk from turning sour: keep it in the cow. 
A fossil is an extinct animal. The older it is, the more extinct it is. 
Equator: A managerie lion running around the Earth through Africa. 
Liter: A nest of young puppies. 
Dew is formed on leaves when the sun shines down on them and makes them perspire. 
Magnet: Something you find crawling all over a dead cat