Communication's Natural Order

Let me begin by acknowledging the act of communicating with another is, at times, is enough to make any one's eyes cross. On the one hand, ideally, successful communicating results in mutual understanding and exchange between multiple publics. But on the other, the questionsof how often that happens or how easily is that attained represent major hurdles. To communicate effectively, in my view, calls upon participants to place greater emphasis on achieving a "greater good" than they would toward satisfying their own self-interest. This speaks to placing the goals of effective communication over one's specific objective.

But how realistic is that? In his wonderful autobiography, Thomas Merton observed that the natural order of man's behavior is to "...live for themselves and for their own interests and pleasure, and therefore are constantly interfering with another's aims, whether they mean it or not." (Merton's book is "The Seven Storey Mountain" and I highly recommend it.) As I agree with Merton's opinion, I readily acknowLedge the innate challenge we all face when we attempt to communicate with another. If one accepts Merton's point of view, then the matter of group interest versus individual interest comes into play.

In fact, not only is this contradictory thinking at-play, it is part of the communicate challenge. Perhaps one could even describe it as THE ultimate communication challenge. If one is going to carry out their own goal, then doing so must be done is separate steps. First comes group or mutual interest and second comes one's specific goal. Anything less than that, at best, will most likely result in less then satisfactory or effective communication. Therefore, the natural order of communicating includes efforts to address both group and individual interest. The trick now is get everyone to recognize that so that all efforts to communicate can occur much more smoothly.