The Key to Success: Talking

Today in lecture, we were pleasured to hear from Brittney about different attributes of Great Communicators. Brittney mentioned seven different types of how to become better at communicating. These include: building integrity and trust, involving others, making the message apply to the audience, taking initiative, being able to analyze situations, be able to innovate new ways to communicate, and have a positive outlook.

Luckily for me, I had the opportunity to see a real life application of the importance of communication. The bad news was that it was not a good example of communication and thus it didn't turn out so good. At work, I was assigned to pull weeds on the North side of the football stadium with Landon. We decided to "divide and conquer" in order to tackle this great task. We each took a side of the garden bed and began to work towards the middle. When we met in the middle we realized that our sides looked different. What went wrong? We had started with the same goal in mind and we both worked hard to fulfill our side of the deal, but we had failed to communicate. We forgot to define what a "weed" was. This small little detail resulted in a difference in scenery from one side to the other. He had pulled a plant that I would have defined as a flower, while I had pulled some grassy plant that he had left because it looked like a decoration.

Another example of the importance of communications can be found in the book of Mosiah from the Book of Mormon. In chapter twenty, some of the Lamanite daughters had been kidnapped by the priests of Noah. The Lamanites assumed that it was the people of Limhi that had taken their daughters. Without any reasoning as of why the war was being waged, the people of Limhi were attacked. So they took up arms and began to fight for their lives. It wasn't until after much destruction and death, that the Lamanite leader and King Limhi were able to meet together and talk about the cause of the war. It becomes evident that this lack of communication and of quick action is the cause of great death.

It is not very likely that a lack of communication in today's society will cause such great destruction and death that it did 2,150 years ago in this Book of Mormon story. However, this does not mean that communication looses it's importance. In roles of leadership, communication really is key to success. Without it, there would be no purpose for a leader, there would just be a bunch of people working by themselves trying to reach similar goals without achieving them. What a sad world that would be...