{"id":4338,"date":"2019-07-19T16:16:47","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T16:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mdctraining.com\/?p=4338"},"modified":"2019-07-19T16:16:47","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T16:16:47","slug":"mastering-communications-the-story-behind-the-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/mdctraining.ca\/mastering-communications-the-story-behind-the-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastering Communications – The Story Behind the Book"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When you think, do you think in words or images?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In a way, this simple question started it all.<\/p>\n

It was a question we routinely asked in the early 1980s of participants who took our business-writing workshops. In other words, if I mention the word \u201cboat,\u201d can you see the image of a boat, or the actual word?<\/p>\n

Words or images? A McLuhanesque question, if I ever heard one. Which of course it was, put forward by my partner at the time, Dr. Eric McLuhan.<\/p>\n

McLuhan: The name in communication, earned by Eric\u2019s father, Dr. Marshall McLuhan, media guru, academic \u2014 and probably the world\u2019s most famous theorist on communication and media studies.<\/p>\n

Many people don\u2019t realize the McLuhans were among the first to undertake left-and right-brain research.<\/p>\n

Their research led to insights that people think in either words or images. Our preference indicated a bias in our thinking: left-brain-dominated people tend to think more in words; right-brained people tend to think more in images.<\/p>\n

This bias indicated to us how to successfully approach an audience, and how to approach communication-skills training.<\/p>\n

In those early days, our question about words or images produced an audience response of 50\/50. Today, we ask the question and few realize it\u2019s even possible to think in words at all. For many of us, images are all we can \u201csee.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, much communication has become so visual, so instant, and so non-reflective, it\u2019s easy to forget its classical roots.<\/p>\n

Those versed in classical rhetoric know communication involves three objectives: to inform, to persuade, to entertain. But how to make this relevant in today\u2019s increasingly right-brain world?<\/p>\n

The McLuhans\u2019 research showed us that the skill of writing demands what we now term a whole-brain approach. We were interested in learning more, and started to apply our right- and left-brain knowledge to the broader field of communication.<\/p>\n

What was left-brain communication? What was right-brain communication? These were the initial questions as we profiled audiences during our workshops and focus groups.<\/p>\n

We asked questions, and people like you answered. We recorded their observations. The results helped us to \u201cphotograph\u201d the communication process, and establish patterns and a model to define the ways we all communicate.<\/p>\n

Before we started our research, we thought we could easily document the analytical way of communicating (the Think! pattern). So much of how we communicate is clearly analytical or sequential: writing, spelling, the syntax (order) of the language, etc.<\/p>\n

Visual communication (Leap!) was also fairly easy to define, although not quite as obvious as we first thought.<\/p>\n

What did surprise us was that a third distinct style or pattern emerged, just as important. This was the style of what we call Relate!, involving the \u201cpeople\u201d skills in the communication process.<\/p>\n

As you will see, it\u2019s the style critical to good communication.<\/p>\n

Once we had mapped out what turned into a three-part model, we started to apply it ourselves in running a training company, in communicating with clients and staff, in marketing, in hiring. The model made me a more effective manager, salesperson, marketer, entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

For years, I used these findings, these insights, without reaching beyond our clients and our immediate circle. However, the feedback and results around me proved rewarding and encouraging.<\/p>\n