Secret Signs

We drove past this wonderful sign yesterday in Essex.  The idea of a road sign to a secret installation is just too wonderful not to celebrate… it is pure Lewis Carroll.

The thing is, we are always giving off secret signs to each other; sending coded messages about what we want or need.  We usually are under the impression that we are communicating clearly, but the reality is that the other person is often blissfully unaware of hidden message contained within the text.  Things like “Do what you want..” meaning if you don’t pick the right option I won’t speak to you for a week!

We often do this as a test, or as a means of self-protection, there are as many motives as there are strategies.  The thing is that if we are going to communicate effectively we have to both avoid coding our real meanings and  also have to be aware that words might not mean what they say… I truly think that communicating clearly is one of our greatest challenges.

“The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change. Communication does not depend on syntax, or eloquence, or rhetoric, or articulation but on the emotional context in which the message is being heard. People can only hear you when they are moving toward you, and they are not likely to when your words are pursuing them. Even the choices words lose their power when they are used to overpower. Attitudes are the real figures of speech”   Edwin H. Friedman

Tags: codes, Communication, signs

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 18:53 and is filed under Communication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.