How to Prevent Miscommunications - Help Wanted

Summary

Podcast Summary: Help Wanted – "How to Prevent Miscommunications"

Release Date: February 13, 2025

In the episode titled "How to Prevent Miscommunications," hosts Jason Feifer, Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur magazine, and money expert Nicole Lapin delve into the pervasive issue of miscommunication in the workplace. Through personal anecdotes, practical exercises, and insightful analysis, they equip listeners with the tools to enhance clarity in their professional interactions.

A Personal Miscommunication Mishap

The episode opens with Jason sharing a relatable scenario: [00:28] feeling misunderstood by someone after sharing an idea or information. He emphasizes that miscommunications often stem from starting conversations in the wrong place.

Jason recounts a recent experience where a reader named Pam mistakenly believed his newsletter was written by ChatGPT. [04:10] This misunderstanding caused him to panic, leading him to dissect the root cause of the confusion.

Unraveling the Root Cause

Jason explains that his newsletter included an AI-generated image accompanied by the caption "made with ChatGPT" beneath it. [02:00] To him, this was merely a standard image attribution, a habit ingrained from his experience in traditional media. However, Pam interpreted this caption as an indication that the entire newsletter was AI-generated, not just the image. This misinterpretation highlighted a crucial gap between Jason's intentions and the reader's perception.

Understanding Why We’re Misunderstood

Delving deeper, Jason discusses why miscommunications occur so frequently. He posits that [05:30] "Everything that you do makes sense to you," because actions are driven by personal experiences, training, and context. However, others lack the same background, leading to misunderstandings. This fundamental disconnect underscores the importance of considering the audience's perspective.

A Two-Step Exercise to Enhance Clarity

To address miscommunications, Jason introduces a powerful two-step exercise:

Identify the Influences: [06:15] "What experiences or knowledge of mine shaped my actions now?" Reflecting on personal motivations and backgrounds helps in understanding why certain actions or decisions were made.
Assess External Perception: [07:00] "Do my actions make sense to someone else if they don't know the backstory?" This question forces individuals to evaluate whether their actions are clear to others without the same context.

By consistently applying these questions, one can uncover and rectify potential areas of confusion before they lead to misunderstandings.

Applying the Exercise: Jason’s Newsletter Example

Using his own newsletter as a case study, Jason demonstrates the effectiveness of the two-step exercise. [07:45] After recognizing the miscommunication with Pam, he questioned the necessity of the AI-generated image at the top of his newsletter. Seeking clarity, he surveyed his readers and discovered that the majority found the image unhelpful, with some even skipping the article because of it.

As a result, Jason removed the illustrations entirely, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive—no complaints followed. This adjustment not only resolved the initial misunderstanding but also improved the overall reader experience.

The Role of Cultural Context in Communication

Expanding on the theme of misunderstanding, Jason introduces the concept of high and low context cultures from anthropology. [08:30] He explains that:

Low-Context Cultures (e.g., American, British): Emphasize explicit communication where words are taken at face value.
High-Context Cultures (e.g., Japanese, Arabic): Rely on unspoken understanding and shared cultural expectations.

Jason theorizes that daily interactions operate on a spectrum between these extremes. [09:00] Striking a balance between explicit clarity and inherent understanding can minimize miscommunications. He urges listeners to avoid assumptions of shared knowledge and to communicate with intentional clarity.

Final Takeaways

Jason concludes by reiterating the importance of:

Rigorous Self-Reflection: Continuously evaluating one's communication methods through the two-step exercise.
Empathy and Understanding: Appreciating others' perspectives and contexts to foster better communication.

By adopting these practices, individuals can significantly reduce misunderstandings, leading to more effective and harmonious workplace relationships.

Notable Quotes:

Jason Feifer [00:28]: "Someone is misunderstanding you right now, right?"
Jason Feifer [04:10]: "I have made a classic mistake."
Jason Feifer [06:15]: "What experiences or knowledge of mine shaped my actions now?"
Jason Feifer [07:00]: "Do my actions make sense to someone else if they don't know the backstory?"
Jason Feifer [09:00]: "We want to communicate clearly and explicitly, but we also expect to be understood."

By sharing his personal experiences and offering actionable strategies, Jason Feifer and Nicole Lapin provide listeners with valuable insights into preventing miscommunications, thereby enhancing both personal and professional relationships.

Transcript

A (0:06)

This is Help Wanted, the show that makes your work work for you. I'm Jason Pfeiffer, editor in chief of.

B (0:12)

Entrepreneur magazine, and I'm money expert Nicole Lapin. On Tuesdays, Jason and I answer the helpline and help callers solve their work problems.

A (0:20)

And on Thursdays, I give you one way to improve your work and build a career or company you love.

B (0:25)

And it starts now.

A (0:28)

Someone is misunderstanding you right now, right? Somewhere in the world, someone is misunderstanding you. You shared a great idea with them, or you made something wonderful, or you just told them something and they are confused, they are unimpressed, maybe they are even annoyed. And now you are annoyed. You know, you're upset, you're thinking, why don't they just understand what I am saying to them? But here's the problem. You started in the wrong place. I fall victim to this all the time. So today I'm going to share some of my own stumbles and a powerful two step exercise that will help you make your intentions and ideas clearer so that everyone understands you. Ready? Okay. First, let me tell you about a recent mistake that I made. So I write this newsletter. It's called One thing better each week. One way to be more successful and satisfied. Build a career company that you love. Maybe you know this because I always read these newsletters, including this one right now on Help Wanted. This thing that you're hearing right now originated as a newsletter. Anyway, okay, point is, I write this newsletter. It comes out every week. And a few weeks ago, I got an alarming email from a reader named Pam. She thought that my newsletter was written by ChatGPT. I was hoping it was written by you. She wrote me, I'm out. When I read this, I froze. I thought, why would she think that? Why would she think it's written by ChatGPT? It's not written by ChatGPT. It's written by me, my own human hands and brain. And then I realized the answer. I realized why she thought my newsletter was made by ChatGPT. And as soon as I did, I started to panic. So here's the explanation and why I was panicking. For more than a year, my newsletter would begin with this AI generated image. I always asked AI to make a kind of simple black and white drawing of something that was related to the thing that I had written about. And then underneath I had written made with ChatGPT. I just wrote it underneath the image. So if you open my newsletter, you'd see the headline and then you would see the image, and then you would see made with chatgpt underneath the image. And then my newsletter would start. And to me, made with ChatGPT was just a basic photo caption. You know, it was just the information that you put underneath an image. But to Pam, the phrase made with ChatGPT wasn't related to the image. It was actually the very start of the newsletter. You know what I mean? Like, it was teeing up the entire newsletter as if I had announced, everything that follows is made with ChatGPT. Which, again, is not true. And this is why I panicked, because I wondered, if Pam thinks this, do other people think this too? Now that I see what she was seeing, I can understand how it kind of looks like. My newsletter starts by saying, what follows is made by ChatGPT. And then I realized, ugh, I have made a classic mistake. So let's talk about why we are so misunderstood. Everything that you do makes sense to you. I know that sounds kind of stupid, but it's true, right? Everything you do makes sense to you. Your actions are the product of your training and your context and your experiences and desires. And so the output of all that makes perfect sense. But the problem is that the world, everybody in the world, everyone you interact with, does not have the same training, context, experiences, and desires. So we are often blind to what other people don't know. No, good news, though. We can solve this problem and even avoid it. The next time that you are being misunderstood or you want to communicate more clearly, just ask yourself these two questions. Number one, what experiences or knowledge of mine shaped my actions now and right, like, just be conscious of what drove the reason that you took whatever action you took or made any decision. And then question number two. Do my actions make sense to someone else if they don't know the backstory? As soon as you think this, as soon as you run your actions through these two questions, you will start to see breakdowns, Places where something makes sense to you but appears weird and arbitrary to others. Now that we know that, let's apply what I just said to my mistake with my newsletter. I had written made with chatgpt underneath the image, and Pam misunderstood me. Why was that? Well, let's take the first question. What experiences or knowledge of mine shaped my action? Here's the answer. I've spent my career working in magazines where I was trained to write captions and attributions for all images, right? Any image that appears in a magazine or on a traditional media website has some kind of attribution for the image. It says where it came from. You know, Getty Images or whatever. To me, this is just natural and expected. So it was just what I did in my newsletter too. You know, image came from ChatGPT. I said it came from ChatGPT. Now let's ask the second question. Does my action make sense to someone else if they don't know the backstory? The answer here is maybe, but not definitely. Pam is a copywriter and she told me that she opposes AI writing. So she was primed to interpret my caption the way that she did. And she wasn't thinking about photo captions. Maybe nobody else thinks about photo captions. Maybe that's not something anybody notices in the world anymore. Maybe it's something nobody ever noticed. So no wonder we miscommunicated. Now, now that you have heard this, you can start doing this proactively. You don't have to wait for misunderstandings to arise. You can ask my two questions all the time and improve your work as a result. For example, once I cleared up this confusion with Pam, I started to wonder, why do I even have an AI image at the top of my newsletter? Again, the answer to that, the answer to why I made that decision goes back to my media background. At magazines, words are basically always accompanied by some image. So when I started a newsletter, it seemed improper to hit publish without some visual at the top. But does that make sense to other people? Do people need or expect that? No, I don't know. So I wondered, do I really need it? And here's how I decided to answer that question. A few weeks ago, I asked readers of my newsletter, I said, do you like the illustration at the top? Responses flooded in. It was fascinating. Some did like the illustration, but the vast majority did not. They did not like this AI created thing that I was putting at the top of every newsletter. One person even said, when I don't care for that particular image, I am prompted to skip your article. That's terrible. So I decided to stop running the illustrations altogether. And you know what happened after I did? After I stopped? Nothing. No complaints at all. What this all comes down to, in one way or another, is context. So let's zoom out for a moment and ask one final question. How much context do we actually need to understand each other? I don't know if you've ever heard this, but it's fascinating. In anthropology, there is a fascinating concept called high and low context cultures. Some cultures, like American and British cultures, are defined as low context, meaning that we must communicate explicitly with each other. We are understood through the literal definition of our words. But other cultures like Japanese and Arabic cultures are defined as high context, meaning that a lot of communication is unspoken and cultural expectations are shared and understood. Here is my theory. After thinking about that in our day to day lives, as we just kind of move through the world, we are operating somewhere between high and low. We want to communicate clearly and explicitly, but we also expect to be understood. And as a result we have these blind spots for when we're being unclear. The truth is, we cannot assume a shared understanding. We cannot leave things unsaid. Instead, we must rigorously, rigorously consider what we know and what other people don't know. Because when we do that, we will appreciate them more, empathize with their viewpoint more, and most importantly, we will be understood. And as I had mentioned earlier, I always read my newsletter here on Help Wanted every Thursday and that came from my newsletter. If you want to subscribe, you can do so @OneThingBetter. Email. That is a web address. Plug it into a browser. One thing better email I say to you very explicitly, with all the high context, so that you know I'm not misunderstood. Help Wanted is a production of Money News Network. Help Wanted is hosted by me, Jason.