Listeningactivelyasanorganisationwillmakeyoumoreinfluential

In 1948, a guy from Michigan, called Claude Shannon, developed what is now considered to be the ‘mother of all communication models’. And today, in a world saturated with different ways to communicate, Shannon’s model endures as a simple – although some would say simplistic – way to think about how we humans share information, or send messages to each other. It helps us to understand what makes successful communications.

Shannon’s ‘information theory’ was originally a post-war mathematical study into how communication by telephone could be improved. Its usefulness, however, reached beyond telephony because you could apply its simple logic as a framework for how effective we are at communicating with each other in all areas of our lives.

Theorists would later modify Shannon’s theory, incorporating other variables and saying with good reason that it was too linear, or one direction. For all its modifications by his helpful contemporaries and successors, however, his idea is still relevant and resonates in the world we live in today. It is not for nothing that the theory is referred to as the ‘blueprint for the digital age’.

This is a simplified version of the model.

Sender > Encoder > Noise > Decoder > Receiver

                                                                        < Feedback <

It is simple, linear presentation of how messages are sent and received. Much work on information theory in the years that followed built on the cyclical nature of communications.  That is, that loop of sending a message, listening to the response and then refining the message. This was the ‘Feedback’ you can see above, which was added later to Claude’s original model by the academic Norbert Wiener.

Yet, by breaking down communications into parts, Shannon’s flawed model still captured in essence the challenges we all face when we communicate. This is the key take-away from this and other similar academic ideas that analyse communication; it can be broken down into parts, and each part can be a factor in whether the exchange is successful or not.

Cutting through the noise

Subsequent models built on the earlier work of Shannon once the penny had dropped that he was onto something beyond telephony.

Whether it’s small talk to pass the time of day or a powerful oratory to rally a nation, we rarely communicate without a reason, however trivial or important. Sometimes we’re very deliberate and our words are carefully chosen. Other times, we speak off the cuff or without due consideration. Perhaps an emotional reply in a heated moment.

Whatever the circumstances surrounding the sending of our message, its impact relies on how it is received. You may have the best intentions, ‘encoding’ your information with carefully considered language. As Shannon knew only too well, however, a message has to cut through noise and be decoded or interpreted by the receiver in the way it was intended. Shannon believed that by identifying the barriers to communications, it was then possible to develop strategies to overcome them.

Shannon’s model was leading us to an inalienable truth about how we talk to each other: the power of the message we send is determined by how it is received. And, crucially, this is shaped by how well we know and understand the recipient or listener.

This is why listening is considered the most important part of communications. Without it, our conversations are one-direction and short-lived, so over time our influence wanes. Listen to the people you want to build a relationship with and use that information to inform your reply. It sounds so simple and obvious to us, but a failure to listen is so often the cause of problems with an organisation's influence. 

Indeed, it is why it is common to read about the 20:80 or 1:4 ratio in communications. That is, before you spend one hour crafting and sending a message to your target audience, spend fours hours finding out about them first. This is being an active listener. You're listening, you’re hearing and you’re acting on what you have heard.

Active listening, for example, will help you to understand the noise through which you send a message. For Shannon, this was the interference on the radio line. We can use this metaphorically, however, to refer to the many various distractions that can hinder your plans to send a message. In all communications, there is context. You do not send a message in a vacuum. Economic conditions, the particular time of year, a major global event, the weather; the recipient of a message will have a whole host of things going on in their life and perhaps preying on their mind.

By listening and getting to know your audience, you can be more successful at choosing the right channel and content, language and tone, and timing of delivery. In some situations, you hear it described it as ‘reading the room’. It comes down to caring enough about the person or people you are talking to, and what is happening in their world.

Why actively listening as an organisation matters

Active listening, as an organisation, also helps you to understand how a receiver of a message might ‘decode’ it. A poorly worded social media post, for example, may be received in completely the wrong way by the very people you want to impress.

This is why clarity and consistency are important qualities in communications,  because they help to remove doubt and uncertainty. When we talk about a message landing well, we mean we want the receiver to receive it in the way we had intended. This is not as easy as it might sound, and the history of public relations is littered with examples of a campaign doing more harm than good.

And then consider the modification of the Shannon model. Today, feedback is so common a request in marketing that it has become a cliche. Have a chat with anyone in a call handing centre and expect a survey to be winging its way into your inbox within minutes. Especially if the call went well. Cynical? Maybe. ‘We want to know how we’re doing?’ Okay, let's not discourage the listening. An organisation that invites people to comment on how it is faring will discover valuable insights to help it improve, and this includes enhancing how it communicates. 

Active listening, however, extends beyond the interactions you have with existing customers or other stakeholders. The old-fashioned saying of ‘keeping your ear to the ground’ originates, so the story goes, from the American West and attempts to detect the far-off rumbling of buffalo hooves. Metaphorically speaking, it is about listening to what people around you are saying so you know what is happening.  Curious people often make good communicators because they are informed. Being ‘worldly’, and taking an interest in current affairs, exposes you to the messages being received today through your audiences’ TV screens, radio stations, websites and social media.

Understanding the receiver

In the simplest of terms, the more we know about someone, the better chance we have of communicating with them effectively. Understanding who your message ‘receiver’ is and the world they live in gives you valuable information to design a communication that lands well with them.

In today’s hyper-connected world, in which we receive messages from so many sources and through so many channels, the influential organisation will be the one that takes the time and effort to understand the people it is talking to. By listening actively to the groups of people who matter to you – your 'publics' – the more influential you will be as an organisation, and more effective at cutting through the noise.