There are days when communication feels harder than it should. You speak thoughtfully, you reach out with the best intentions, yet the message lands short or gets lost. If it seems like no one is listening, remember that communication isn’t about what we say. It’s about what they trust to be true. And so the question becomes, “Why should they listen to you?”
If a person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient.
It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.
— A.A. Milne
Watch "Silent Timber: Becoming More than a Noise Maker" on the Educators Among Us Podcast
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?Philosophers have long argued over if sound exists without it being perceived.
Silence is often what we long for, but not when trying to get the attention of students, parents, or colleagues. We need our message to get through to them.
If we send an email, post an exciting video, or share the latest accomplishments but few read it, hear it, and/or act on it … did communication actually happen?
The way you communicate reveals
everything about you. Words are
the clothes your thoughts wear.
― Amanda Patterson
Sound is vibration traveling through a medium governed by the wave equation. Communication is meaning traveling through a relationship that is cultivated.
If the medium gets clogged by noise, distrust, overload, fear, or bureaucracy, the vibration fades out long before it reaches the intended hearts and minds.
We have more ways to talk than ever before in the history of the world, and yet it's so hard to communicate because we haven't learned to adjust our methods.
Communication is the only task
you cannot delegate.
― Roberto Goizueta
Curiosity drives us to consider how we might change our voice, our timing, our cues, so they will invest the time to listen and believe us in crucial moments.
We aren't effective by making more noise―our success is tied to listening more than we talk, being genuinely interested in people, and caring about their goals. The best educators develop greater trust with others through habits that are formed in wise study and practice. That's an investment that pays quite well!
Be more than a noise maker. Make the investment in relationship, mastering those habits of communication that get through the fluff.
Listen to "Silent Timber: Becoming More than a Noise Maker" on the Educators Among Us Podcast
