Naughty and Nice

Christmas is now one week away. Among other things, that means the end of another year is almost upon us. Not surprisingly, much looking back over the past 12 months is underway as people review the highs and lows of their personal lives as well as those of the country and world. From a communication standpoint, there are primarily two lists: naughty and nice. Who or what were examples of poor communication and who or what were examples of good communication? I will share my list of each in my next entry, but first I think it is important to define what I mean by poor and good communication.

I do not necessarily define poor or good by success. The act of communicating is tricky and tough. Well-thought-out, straight-forward plans do not always succeed, but nevertheless the people behind them deserve credit just the same. Similarly, poor plans, such as ones based on lies, deception and purposeful manipulation can generate success but that does not make them any less poor. Ideally, communication is an honest act but that is not to say there are those who not abuse that truism. Unfortunately, there are those who justify their shady behavior by pointing to the fact people attended their event, voted for their candidate, or bought their product as a result of misleading information. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's just say the end does not justify the means when it comes to communication. Also, there are so-called communication experts who actually give the profession a bad name just as there are politicians who give politics a bad name.

Good and effective communication is often time unseen or even unappreciated at the time it happens. Good communicators should never over shadow the message or the client they are attempting to represent. This seemed to be an unfortunate trend in 2008. But the flip side of that trend in 2008 is that communication, as a tool and profession, continued to be recognized as being vital to any effort to bring people together. There will be more to come on communication in 2008.