If You Don’t Communicate, You Don’t….

…exist. This statement struck me when I heard it on a conference call this week. It’s so simple and powerful that it stayed with me since then. I keep on coming back to it in various situations and the more I think about it, the more I’m amazed by its universal relevance.

Communication is what makes us human. It’s not only the sheer existence of some sort of communication that matters. It’s the what (content), the how (way), the when (timing) of our messages that shape human connections. Every piece of communication has the potential to bring us closer to a desired state through building trust, forming perceptions or changing opinions. Or to allow us to avoid misunderstandings or resolve conflicts.

Author: Oliver Tacke; CC BY 2.0 license

The questions we ask, the answer we give, the time and effort we put into creating our communication – they all influence the outcome of what we do and how we are perceived more than we sometimes imagine. Overthinking each and every word or sentence we say is not the way to go, but we shouldn’t underestimate their importance either. Everyhing we communicate is part of a puzzle, of our life puzzle. You choose how your puzzle will look like. Choose wisely.