Word-Fumbles

There was a story in the press several years ago about a trainer for the terrorist group ISIS who was demonstrating to a class of wanna-be terrorists how an explosive vest works. No doubt he figured what better way to share this information then to bring in an actual explosive vest and walk the class through how it works. At this point, if you have guessed that during the "lecture" the instructor triggered the explosive vest and blew up himself and the students, then you go the head of my class today. (I cannot help but wonder if that teacher's final words were, "Class dismissed.")

I am not going to pretend to feel sorry for anyone in that class as obviously none of them, from the perspective of humanity, were good people. Still, what happened provides us with a perfect and even colorful example of how efforts to communicate do not always go as well as intended. All of us have times when we are trying to impart something to another and either end up mangling our words or end up not saying what we set out to say. When that happens to me, it ends up frustrating me even more than it does the person to whom I am speaking. It is case of our words not matching our thoughts. At these moment, as is the case when any misstep or fumble occurs, the challenge for all of us is what to do about it. How do we handle it?

Even if one is speaking to a large audience, the best thing to do is acknowledge that you just misspoke. It may be a little embarrassing at that moment, but to either pretend that you did not misspeak or to just keep speaking puts one on a dangerous path that in all likelihood will either lead to greater confusion among the audience or damage your credibility as a communicator. Those outcomes are far worse then a simple word-fumble. No one expects perfection from a speaker simply because occasional word-fumbles is something all of us experience. When it comes to communicating, being understood is the bottom-line goal.