A failure to communicate!

Axios HQ, a global management firm, surveyed 540 executives and over a thousand employees earlier this year and estimated that the cost of ineffective business communication annually in the U.S. runs companies more than $2 trillion.

The number grows exponentially when you factor in the billions spent each year on business communications training courses with names like Communication in a Diverse and Changing Workplace; Solving Conflict Resolution; and Communicating Across Generations.

Blah, blah, blah

It’s not just business leaders who have problems communicating. There are varying estimates, but one estimate put couples counseling in 2022 at $25.6 billion. The cost is certainly not cheap. A survey by the National Directory of Marriage and Family Counseling reported the the cost of marriage and family counseling can run between $100 to $300 per session.

We have so many more communications channels nowadays at our fingertips. We don’t have to just communicate face-to-face. We can text or email, or even create a video or call via video conferencing. We can post on social media. You can even pay someone to create a song for you. The channels seem to run forever.

Despite all these financial investments, we still have communications problems, which leads me to ask a simple question: Why is it so hard for people to communicate?

Everyone’s talking, no one’s listening

We learn to talk at a young age. Babies will start to make sounds in the first three months. Most babies say their first word sometime between 12 and 18 months of age. In time we learn to read and write. Some of us learn to communicate in two or more languages, but we still have problems communicating.

Yes, a big challenge is learning to listen. Many people talk to be heard, not to listen or communicate. As writer Stephen Covey wrote, “The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.”

Listening is a problem, but it doesn’t seem like it’s the sole reason for society’s communications challenges. What else could it be? 

---

“The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.” — Peter Drucker

“Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively, with words of encouragement, or destructively, using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate, and to humble.” —Yehuda Berg

“The single biggest communication problem is the illusion that it has taken place.” —George Bernard Shaw

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” —Epictetus

“We’re often afraid of being vulnerable, but vulnerability creates genuine connection.” —Gabby Bernstein

Images by Pexels.