Are You Making These 3 Communication Blunders?
How effectively do you communicate?
100% accurately is the number of one great communicator from the First World War. She is credited with delivering the communication that saved the lives of 200 men of the American 77th Division. Her name was Cher Ami, a carrier pigeon.
The 77th, also known as the Lost Battalion, had been annexed from friendly territory by the Meuse-Argonne offensive and were critically low on food and ammunition supplies. To make matters worse was the fact that they were being bombarded by their own. They needed to get communication out to their comrades.
Cher Ami was their last hope of getting the critical message through, the other two pigeons already released but shot down. Cher Ami was released into heavy enemy fire and within minutes she was shot down, but managed to take flight again in spite of devastating injuries. The bullet hit her in the breast, blinded one eye and left one leg hanging by a tendon. Her message, in tact, was delivered safely to division headquarters 25 miles away.
She is just one of many that flew exceptional distances, many while injured, others dying of exhaustion before making it home. The 100 000 carrier pigeons of WW1 had a success ratio of 95% in getting their messages through, how incredible?
Then I think of my own success ratio in my communication efforts, it’s certainly not 95%!
How do you fare?
This week after a series of communication blunders with the people I work with I decided to take a deeper look into why communication fails. What happens in those moments that allows the message to fall through the cracks and divisions to appear?
1. Not communicating from the heart
The carrier pigeon has a single purpose, which is to fly home. What is the purpose of your communication? Has it got a purpose? If you don’t know why you say the the things that cause communication break down, you need to figure it out. Your communication always comes from the motives of your heart; heart is home.
Take a look into why you are saying what you are saying. Take a look at why the other person is hearing what they are hearing. Once you have discovered where your heart lies in the matter you will gain a purpose for your communication and will be able to approach it with clear intention.
2. Witholding communication
In both WW1 and 2, the Germans developed strategies for intercepting avian messengers. They would station sharpshooters and falconers on the cliffs of Normandy to intercept pigeons flying across the English Channel. But did this stop the soldiers from sending them? No, they say that in the Prussian Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War more than one million messages were sent into the besieged city using pigeons in the short space of 4 months.
A chance of failure shouldn’t mean that you stop communicating. War time is the time where communication is most essential, the Germans knew this and that is why they did all they could to take out the messengers.
When there is potential for hurt, keep sending out pigeons until the war starts to abate. How many of us communicate just fine in times of peace, but when war breaks out we keep quiet and allow the damage to escalate? Never leave an argument unfinished, communicate until there is peace (each side has heard and understood the other side’s view).
3. Not getting perspective for good communication
A pigeon cannot fly in the correct direction immediately, it must first gain altitude and get its bearings. Once it has locked onto its bearing, it will fly directly home. Similarly when you get into a heated argument you will feel disorientated by the emotions that cloud your judgement.
You must gain perspective to communicate clearly in an emotionally charged atmosphere. When the enemy fire is heavy and you can’t tell which way next, take a time out to get your bearings so that you can communicate from the heart. This doesn’t mean a 6 month hiatus, no, just enough time to let the fog clear.
Cher Ami was given a wooden leg and honoured with an award for her bravery, she died one year later and became a celebrated war hero. Whether or not she knew she was being brave is up for debate, but what no one can deny is that, because she delivered her message, 200 soldiers lives were saved.
You might emerge from battle with some injuries, but are not our war wounds our greatest honour. No soldier is proud of being the one that hid in the bunker and survived.
There is a war hero in you, let him/her fly!
Click here for more stories about pigeons who earned their wings.
