I love writing. It’s my go-to.
Others feel better when they’re verbalising.
Whether you’re a ‘writer’ or a ‘talker’ is something of a faultline in business. Proponents of the former tend to suit more operational arenas, whereas the latter occupy commercial and front line realms.
Except, it isn’t quite that simple.
Effective communicators of any arena are those who’ve mastered both written and verbal mediums, and can adeptly shift between the two. As with all communications, it’s all about identifying the medium that will help hit your message home hardest.
In the coronavirus lockdown, our options for communications have been drastically cut down. It’s made “written” communications the default (emails, WhatsApps, ‘memos’, blogs) and given us “verbal” tools which imperfectly substitute the real thing (Zoom, phone calls, webinars).
Crucially, lockdown has deprived us of the instant feedback that makes face-to-face communication so effective. Verbal interactions are now grossly one-way, with stilted interruptions and minimal opportunities for “reading the room”.
We have to be more careful than ever to choose between writing and talking, or risk drowning ourselves in a meaningless hubbub of words.
WRITE FOR…
TALK FOR
OR, JUST ABSORB
