Safety Speaker John Drebinger asks, How Clear Is Your Communication?

How Clear Is Your Communication?

My newsletter this week talked about effective signage. I suggested you test your directional signs out with someone who is not familiar with your operation. In giving this further thought, I realized we should occasionally do the same with our written and oral communication.

How many times do we communicate with someone and we fully understand our message because we are familiar with it. The danger is we are making presumptions that our reader or listener may not understand. This can cause our message to miss the mark.

The way to test this is to have someone outside your safety team read or listen to the message and let you know what they thought you were trying to convey. If they get it right, good for you. If not, then you can change it and be more effective. Either way you win.