The Theory of Bridges
The effective communicator would do well to study bridges. After all, bridges are about getting from where you are, across the void, to where you need to be. Communication is simply about transporting meaning from your heart and mind to the heart and mind of the listener.
The degree of sophistication of a bridge will depend on the challenges encountered by the bridge-builder– distance, water depth, traffic volume, substrata, budget, urgency, etc.
Sometimes a log across a stream is sufficient. But if you need to move thousands of vehicles a day over a chasm of deep sea water, you need more than a log. And you need to build it right: when it was built in 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was the third longest suspension bridge in the world. Just four months after opening, it self-destructed in moderate winds. You don’t want that to happen to your communication!
No bridge builder would stick a shovel in the ground until his engineers had told him everything he needed to know about the issues he would face: foundations, approaches on each side, the integrity of the structure and the suitability to existing and future traffic flow– and dozens of other issues.
Communication is just like bridge-building. If it’s just yik-yak about last weekend’s football game, a log across the stream will do. But if your communication is about the future of your company, an argument at the Court of Appeal, the biggest proposal your company has ever put forward, or your doctoral thesis, you can’t just throw a log across a stream and hope for the best. You need to plan carefully about how you will get your listeners from where they are to where you want them to be. You need expert help.
Tacoma Narrows Bridge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFzu6CNtqec
My blogs (http://www.purposeful.ca/blog)