Key & Peele – When what you write or say is misinterpreted, and you temporarily realise the enormous shortcomings of communication.

Personal parables are like regular parables, but they come from modern media and tend to be oddly specific to yourself. See my whole collection.

The amount this comes to mind seems to have fooled me into thinking I’d already shared it.

It’s the perfect expression of something we all experience. The times we’ve sent a message, only to realise later it was drastically misinterpreted. Or in conversation, when the words we use, the expressions we pull, or gesticulations we make are completely misread.

And yet, directly after witnessing this issue, and experiencing its negative repercussions, we seem to forget that this happens. An interesting example of the knowing-doing gap. Fuelled I think by the pull of our naive realism.

It’s as if we can’t resist reverting to the belief that our interpretation of what we read and hear is correct. That our communication and intent is clear and obvious. It must be that the cognitive load of constantly reading between the lines and considering precisely how every individual might react, is just too heavy.

Still, I can’t help thinking of methods that might help groups and teams to lessen the impact of the issue. Introductions and kick-offs that include genuinely thoughtful and engaging ‘ways of working’ sessions. Communication reviews in stand ups or retros, where prizes could go to the ‘best’ misinterpretation of the week. Or more simply encouraging leaders to model more empathetic communication methods themselves. Asking for more clarification, repeating their understanding of what’s being said, and advertising themselves as translator when needed.

Someone has to take the cognitive load, or whatever, I don’t care.