The founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos thinks "communication is horrible". It is because communication is difficult to be effective, and it will cause too much concern among the team. However, as long as someone has to communicate, communication is unavoidable in the office. But to be effective, it needs to focus on communication and consensus. 

To communicate effectively, comments must be accurate.

When doing online marketing, it is inevitable to communicate with many departments. Sometimes I get some comments on the layout, sometimes it's practical, sometimes it's not. "This image is not beautiful enough", "This picture is a bit strange", and these similar opinions are the most difficult to deal with, because I may not be able to understand the "beauty" and "weird" of the other party. 

We often use some conceptual adjectives to express how we feel about things. But these feelings are personal, and others can sometimes understand and sometimes not. Taking beauty as an example, everyone's beauty may be affected by different factors such as growth environment, artistic literacy, age, social life, etc. So even if it is a family, everyone's feelings about beauty are not the same. Therefore, what I focus on is the target audience and the intended content, rather than the individual perception of the image. Clear communication requires effective communication, so ambiguous comments are not accepted in our department. "This color is not right", "This pattern should be bigger", etc., cannot be used as a conclusion. Colleagues must verbalize complex concepts in order to clearly explain the reasons and propose corrections. 

People's mastery of concepts often relies on knowledge and experience and takes feeling as the output. For example, we often hear the opinion of "I think this will be better" or "You think about it again". Since the concept is not verbalized, it may not be possible to unify the concepts of the two parties during communication. This situation will be improved with more cooperation experience. But when it comes to more conceptual communication, such as training soft skills, failure to verbalize can be a big problem. 

To transform one's own ability from concept to theory requires the ability of language. The best training method is to write down all concepts in words, as detailed and in-depth as possible, to achieve deep thinking, and then show them to others. If others see that they can accurately grasp your key points, and can copy your thinking style and soft skills, it can be regarded as a success. 

Communication is not about persuading others, but about reaching consensus.

Another key point of communication is to reach a consensus, which is why we keep meeting on weekdays. If it is a win-win situation, it is definitely the easiest to deal with. But when there is disagreement between the two sides, there may be prolonged negotiations or even breakdowns. Therefore, for effective communication, rationality is indispensable. Now Let us talk about communicative rationality. The contemporary philosopher, Jürgen Habermas proposed that communication rationality is the basis for reconstructing the rationalization of the human life world in his book "The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity" in 1985. The first two kinds of rationality, instrumental rationality and value rationality are unidirectional. The former is based on personal calculations, while the latter is based on personal thoughts. Because of its one-way nature, they cannot communicate with each other when the interests of two subjects are inconsistent. Communication rationality is interactive. Two subjects dialogue in an institutionalized system. All claims, recognitions, assumptions, and presuppositions are carried out in the form of reflection. There is a constant discussion between the expectations of both parties to arrive at a mutually acceptable outcome. Yes, it is “acceptable” rather than “satisfactory”. In the real world, we are all pursuing a win-win situation, but it is difficult to achieve every time. Thus, in order to reach a consensus, both sides must make concessions of varying degrees. There is no right or wrong in communicating rationally. It can be done as long as it meets the conditions of both parties, so it is very suitable for the business world. If you think meeting is not efficient, you should set a discussion flow for the meeting, break down big issues into smaller ones, and discuss them one by one to reach a consensus. Sometimes one side will be more favorable, sometimes it will be unfavorable. In short, a consensus must be reached. 

However, there are drawbacks for this method. For example, if everything is to satisfy to everyone when develop new products, it is likely to create with a product that is lack focus. If you can't find a position in the market, this really leads to what Jeff Bezos refers to as "horrible communication."

Simon So

Head of Digital Marketing