Ironically, I struggled to come up with a good way to begin this essay, so it has been in my drafts for a while. Well, as is customary, I chose to start with a story.
I took a course on effective listening a while ago and set out on a personal mission to first understand effective communication. Most of the time, communication comes before listening. A thought came to mind on how to successfully illustrate the value of communication while creating connections and products. For this study, I chose the developer specialty. I contacted some developer friends who were willing to help me. I chose five developers from different tribes for my task. We sat down on the first day of our meeting and talked about a variety of topics, making connections with people we had just met for the first time. My task was straightforward: they were to create a fully responsive website using basic front-end languages while communicating only in their native language. With over 500 languages spoken, Nigeria is one of the world's most linguistically diverse countries. English is the official language, but it is not widely spoken. Normally, this would not have been a task for senior developers like them if they were using a language that everyone understood (English), but with everyone speaking their native language, productivity was greatly reduced. The inability of the team leader to delegate tasks was a major issue. Finally, everyone had to do what they thought they were supposed to do, resulting in complete chaos.
Emedi o, esit mi anem eti eti ke eme ba mi
These words mean "welcome, I am glad you are here”. If you are unfamiliar with southern Nigerian culture, you are unlikely to have correctly understood the language or meaning. The message is not incorrect in any manner, but it is clearly not the most appropriate for my audience. We subconsciously distance ourselves from people when we cannot effectively communicate. On the other hand, when we communicate effectively with others, we not only help them understand who we are, but also invite others to do the same. This process improves trust and strengthens relationships.
“Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.” - Brian Tracy
Communication is simply the transfer of information from a sender to another person or group of people. Communication could be one-way or two-way. One-way communication takes place when a message solely goes from sender to receiver and generates no feedback. Radio and television programs are a few instances of one-way communication. Two-way communication is a complete communication process because messages flow from a sender to a receiver and back to the sender. Two-way communication is far more effective and likely accurate than one-way communication and, when done correctly, serves to inform or obtain feedback.
“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” - Anthony Robbins
Effective communication is the process of exchanging ideas, thoughts, opinions, knowledge, and data so that the message is received and understood with clarity and purpose. When we communicate effectively, both the sender and receiver feel satisfied. Effective Communication involves the sender, the message, and the receiver. Without either of these components, the process is not complete. Effective communication extends beyond the exchange process to include reactions and feedback, as well as body language in some cases.
In web3, communication is just as crucial as it is in any other industry. Miscommunication can cause trust levels to decline at an incredible rate. Community managers act as a company's official representatives. In general, they are in charge of overseeing and administering all forms of communication. Community managers are involved in a range of tasks including PR, social media, events, and content creation. Community managers are frequently asked to create mails, event invitations, blog pieces, and collaboration proposals in addition to actively engaging with your community on various platforms. As a result, effective communication is a crucial skill for community managers. It extends beyond having productive conversations with team members during meetings to actual interactions with the community. Here are some pointers for effective communication:
Understand your target audience In order to respond to fundamental questions like why, who, and what, you must first understand your audience. These parameters determine the words that are used, including any jargon. One of the biggest mistakes Community Managers make is the habit of speaking with their community as if it were an editorial piece or news release. Relate with your community members as though they were your closest friends.
Listen more
Communication is two-way; failing to provide an expected and necessary response may result in the end of a conversation. More listening is the best way to meet these expectations. Listening more allows you to pick up on the tone of the conversation from previous responses.
“The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.” - Peter Drucker
Medium
A communication medium is a channel through which information can be transmitted. Knowing the best medium to convey your message can aid in clear communication. Choosing an appropriate communication medium allows the receiver to clearly understand the message. For example, referencing announcements in your general chat could allow community members to ask detailed questions for more clarity.
Experiment and reflect
You could communicate with the community more effectively in a variety of settings if you are aware of their mood. Work on creating multiple communication strategies for a number of contexts. Analyze the responses and comments to your various strategies. Perhaps an announcement upset your community. Do you see how it might have been misinterpreted? What would you alter if you could? Similar to this, think about whether you made your expectations clear if a conversation with a teammate did not result in the outcomes you intended.
Seek feedback
Your perception of yourself and that of others can both be improved with feedback. The ability to alter specific behaviors and provide the other person a genuine assessment of his actions are the two things that give effective feedback its strength. Always remember to handle criticism with grace.
Utilize the 7Cs of communication
The 7 Cs of Communication are:
Clear
Concise
Concrete
Correct
Coherent
Complete
Courteous
Every community may have a completely different communication style, and some have unique ways of interacting. In order to communicate more efficiently, I made a checklist that includes new letters, mail, announcements, texts, voicemails, and video communications.
Roots - Why, who, and what. |
Good headline |
Clear |
Timely |
Real and relatable |
Helpful |
Short and simple |
Visually appealing |
Easy to share |
Fun and lighthearted |
Compassionate |
Highlights relevant and valuable information |
Call to action - Interactive content, triggers a response |
We live busy lives in today's society, attempting to balance work, school, hobbies, self-care, and other obligations. Communicating effectively and cultivating an effective communication culture can help your members connect and strike that balance while maintaining a positive relationship. It is not an easy task, but it is definitely a bonus. We will connect the world one piece at a time by effectively communicating our strategies. Thank you for reading. Here are some more resources on effective communication.
Have you read or written anything important this week? Please share it with others -
Signing off,
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