Osmo Wiio is a Finnish researcher of human communication. He has studied, among other things, readability of texts, organizations and communication within them, and the general theory of communication. His laws of communication are the human communications equivalent of Murphy’s Laws.
- If communication can fail, it will.
- If a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in just that way which does the most harm.
- There is always somebody who knows better than you what you meant by your message.
- The more communication there is, the more difficult it is for communication to succeed.
And I particularly like his observation that anytime there are two people conversing, there are actually six people in the conversation:
- Who you think you are
- Who you think the other person is
- Who you think the other person thinks you are
- Who the other person thinks he/she is
- Who the other person thinks you are
- Who the other person thinks you think he/she is
If you find this interesting, you can read more about Osmo and his theories on communication.
Don Schenck
on 22 Apr 08Wha..?
Don Schenck
on 22 Apr 08Seriously, I told my dear bride this just last night! I was explaining the value and difficulty of good communication.
I have a client who does not communicate. He yells, but doesn’t say anything. Wind and fury signifying nothing.
Good stuff, Jason.
Marc Tiedemann
on 22 Apr 08Indeed, I’ve seen communication as one of mankind’s greatest challenges for a longer time now. But it’s worth it: if you manage to truly communicate, your relation with whoever this person is, will become greatly propelled. Takes some time though…i guess first you’ll have to knock out them other four persons in the conversation…
Paul M. Watson
on 22 Apr 08Typical. More 37signals KISS-washing. You guys just can’t leave it alone. Simplify this, simplify that, everything should be simplified. Well you can take your Osmo Wiio and…
(Just demonstrating the second tenant there; If a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in just that way which does the most harm. ;) )
hendrik
on 22 Apr 08Another interesseting communication theorist is Paul Watzlawick [1].
One of is axioms is:
“One Cannot Not Communicate”
This means anything you do and equally important don’t do is an act of communication. This should be applied to customer service as users might interpret any unanswered email as a non-verbal affront.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Watzlawick
Ankur Jalota
on 22 Apr 08Good one Paul. lol
Johan
on 22 Apr 08What do you mean, “was”? Osmo’s still very much alive. :) (or is this the second law at work again…)
Pekka
on 22 Apr 08Thank you for bringing the legendary Wiio I forward! My favourite quote :)
CM
on 22 Apr 08Surely you jest. 99% of human communication is quite successful. It’s just so seamless you don’t notice it when it works, but you do notice when it fails.
Paul
on 22 Apr 08I like books with pictures.
Mimo
on 22 Apr 08A) This is why woman talk much :-)
B) I think the theory is crap because it is counterproductive. If you truly believe it you will think that the things you say will be missunderstood in any way, so why say it?
Anonymous Coward
on 22 Apr 08Interesting. I’d add there are also two other people: who you really are and who the other person really is, ending in eight people in a two people conversation.
Jarkko
on 23 Apr 08Those “laws” are parody of course but I don’t like this one: “The more communication there is, the more difficult it is for communication to succeed.”
What’s the definition of success?
Besides, communication is not the goal – we communicate to understand, solve problems, reach consensus, fuel creativity etc. These goals do require a lot of communication.
seedf
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Roland Hesz
on 24 Apr 08The last observation (about the 6 people) is an old one. It was in my old “Communication technology” book from 1996, and in one of the books of Béla Halassy, from the mid 80s.
And yes, it seems like a really, really accurate observation.
And just experience all these observation each day. Maybe that’s why our managers does not believe in communication at all. :)
BJ Vicks
on 24 Apr 08Tangentially related would be Grice’s Conversational Maxims
This discussion is closed.