Wise Communication
Knowing how to connect as well as when.
Do you remember using a rotary phone? Or an answering machine? I still had those in my late dating days, many years ago. Unless you were born in the last century you probably don’t remember them. You never had the annoying experience of trying to reach someone who didn’t have an answering machine. I knew someone who didn’t and it was exhausting being able to connect with them — no way to leave a message for them to call me back:(
Today, we don’t have that problem — email, text, voicemail, etc. But we still seem to have communication issues. We have too many options and not everyone uses them equally or efficiently. We still haven’t learned the importance of responding well and timely, or clearly.
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A few years ago when I was a new Area Director in Toastmasters our Division Director asked each of us 6 Area Directors that reported to her to let her know what communication method worked best for us — email, text, phone. She wanted to make sure that she could get any information to us quickly and efficiently. At the time I said email, but recently I have found that I respond quicker to text. I have way too many emails and important information can get lost — especially since I have three email addresses.
For my home club email works well and we load our meeting agendas on a website — Free Toast Host. For my other club we use a group chat where we list the next two meetings role assignments so that everyone can see it quickly.
I have also learned the effectiveness of single person emails as opposed to blast emails. Especially when recruiting. Asking a group of people to volunteer tends to end up with most people not responding because they all figure someone else will say yes. If you send one on one emails it forces the recepient to give you a yes or no answer individually. Unless they ghost you -which is so annoying. I would rather someone tell me no then leave me hanging.
Even though I don’t love communicating by phone, sometimes it saves time and energy. I was recently writing a long involved email to someone and then realized it was quicker to just pick up the phone. The exchange of information and clarification of issues was much faster with no chance for miscommunication.
Also, when in doubt, ask — don’t assume. I tell people there is no such thing as a stupid question — just unasked ones. People can’t read your mind and we don’t all think the same way.
