“You cannot not communicate. Every behavior is a kind of
communication. Because behavior does not have a counterpart (there is no anti-behavior),
it is not possible not to communicate.” Paul Watzlawick’s First Axiom of
Communication
Nice… really nice. that is the essence of my job. It’s to
explain to people that this is it. I keep telling people what you wear or don’t
wear is also a communication. You shave or don’t shave, you speak or don’t speak.
Everything is sending signals. Over a period of time people read these signals
and decide on your behavior. They figure out something about you and they are
right in whatever they think. You can’t then protest, that is not me, and
people have misunderstood me. Yes of course people will misunderstand you but
then that is your doing. You can’t complain about it, but you can merely take
responsibility about it. Then it’s easy. Sure… he thinks of me that way. Part of
it is the clouding in his mind, but the stimulus is my behavior. No complains –
only acceptance.
Once you accept that you will realize that marketing is
nothing but this. You take one single point of communication that you want the
consumer to get across and relentlessly take it across every touch point. Of course
your ads, your PR, your offices, your policies, your décor, your loo, your
staff, hiring every bloody thing. Because at any touch point, if you choose not
to communicate then you are communicating that you don’t want to communicate.
Is that what you want to communicate?
Now apply the same in your life, in your house, in your behavior
with your child. What is the message you are constantly sending and what is the
message that the person is constantly getting. Add to that the complexity of
the recipients pre fed prejudices. Manage it and take responsibility for it. And
don’t complain. Smile shrug your shoulders and learn. Because there is no such
thing such as ‘not communicate’.
So Jispa – if you don’t want to tell me stuff, then remember
you are not “not telling” me stuff. You are telling me that you don’t want to
tell me stuff. Hehe… same goes from me to you.
