At a guess, 90% of my job role at work is communications.

It might even be higher than that.

Almost everything I do at work comes down to both how well I understand what my customers are asking for, and how well I can make myself understood.

Consequently I put a lot of thought and effort into how I come across. I’m not perfect, by far, but I make a conscious effort to apply the THINK principle to my communications.

If you don’t already know, THINK stands for Thoughtful, Honest, Intelligent, Necessary, and Kind.

Ask yourself, especially in moments of stress, before you shoot your mouth off, or dash off a poorly-worded email, “Is what I’m saying Thoughtful,
Honest, Intelligent, Necessary, and Kind?”

If it isn’t, ponder over your words some more.

That’s enough self-improvement talk for today, what I really want to talk about is pointless digressions.

We all know people who can’t have a straightforward, to-the point discussion: They ramble.

It’s not just that they can’t give a simple answer to a simple question; any conversation with them wanders off into the weeds, usually with a lengthy, pointless anecdote, often about “the old days.”

I’ve had customers like that who, like humoring an elderly relative, I’ve just had to smile and nod, and gently steer them back to the matter at hand.

I don’t mean to say that with any malice. In truth, I’m the same way.

It’s said that the things we dislike in others are the things we dislike in ourselves (Oops, I said we were done with the self-help talk!).

Telling long, pointless stories is one of my own personal habits. But I’m aware of it, and do my best to keep it locked down while I’m working.

It’s not just face to face communication, either.

Email, a format that benefits from brevity often falls victim to the same lengthy digressions.

I received an email recently that was, at its heart a purchase order.

However, prefacing that purchase order was a 750-word (I checked) reminiscence about the old days of 2-way radio sales in the late 1980s.

And I had to wade through the entire story to confirm that the information I needed was there: the parts list and the purchase order number.

At least it wasn’t a hand-written fax. I’ve gotten those too at times.

The saying goes that “If you want to understood, seek first to understand.” Building on that, I’d also advise that if you want to be understood, be brief and concise.