The power of words

From a humor site comes this story: A woman called our airline customer-service desk to ask if she could take her dog on board.

“Sure,” I said, “as long as you provide your own kennel.” I further explained that the kennel needs to be large enough for the dog to stand up, sit down, turn around, and roll over.

The customer was flummoxed:?“I’ll never be able to teach him all of that by tomorrow!”

You can be sure that there is a communication breakdown in this case.

Effective communication is short in supply. Even the great playwright George Bernard Shaw says: “The problem with communications is the illusion that it has taken place.”

I have been in the communications business for many years and I am surprised to see how many young people today use words loosely and do not care for the context in which they are used.

I have kept this collection of what is called “Reworded Old Sayings” and the instruction for this material is to challenge you if you can translate the following into the familiar sayings, we’ve all heard. (Then you can see the answers below)
1. Scintillate, scintillate, exiguous luminous celestial object.
2. Members of an avian species of identical plumage congregate.

3. Cogitation should precede salutations.

4. Pulchritude possesses solely cutaneous profundity.

5. It is fruitless to become lachrymose over precipitately departed lacteal fluid.

6. Freedom from incrustations of grime is contiguous to rectitude.

7. The stylus is more potent than the claymore.

8. It is fruitless to attempt to indoctrinate a superannuated canine with innovative maneuvers.

9. Eschew the implement of correction and vitiate the scion.

10. The temperature of the aqueous content of an unremittingly ogled saucepan does not does reach 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

11. All articles that coruscate with resplendence are not truly auriferous.

12. Where there are visible vapors in ignited carbonaceous material, there is conflagration.

Here are the answers:

1. Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

2. Birds of a feather, flock together.

3. Think before you speak.

4. Beauty is skin deep.

5. Don’t cry over spilled milk.

6. Cleanliness is next to godliness.

7. The pen is mightier than the sword.

8. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

9. Spare the rod and spoil the child.

10. A watched pot doesn’t boil.

11. All that glitters is not gold.

12. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

Through this we can see that there are many words that are not in usage anymore.

St. Thomas Aquinas says that when it comes to language; there are three approaches to understanding it:

1. Univocal - The word used has been used for the same reasons. Means the same thing. When I say, “I love my mom and my brother says he loves his mom too, it may refer to almost the same thing.” This term has only one meaning.

2. Equivocal - Applying the same word to two different meanings. This means the language used may seem to be the same, yet they are most definitely not equal. For example, I may be seated in a plane and my seat mate asks, “Francis I heard that you used to play basketball for your varsity team in high school?’ I say yes.” Equivocal means you do not happen to see Le Bron James in the same flight and go to him and say, “Hey Le Bron are you a good basketball player and he says he is and then you say: Hey Le Bron, you must play against Francis Kong because he is also good at it.”

3. Analogical – This refers to a term that is supposed to convey one or additional similar characteristics that exist between two ideas. In this particular area, the context must be considered.

The space is too limited. The time is too short, but what is all these talk about? The long and short of it is that effective communication skills is a required skill in order to do business and achieve career success. Every HR should include effective communications training in their academy and involve their people to develop their communications skills. As I say in my leadership seminars, “Effective communications is the lubricant to execution.”

The author, speaker and apologist Ravi Zacharias gave an example of an analogy. “When I say, I love you and you do not love me back, I hurt because there is something that I lost. When God loves me and I do not love Him back, God hurts too because I lose something. He gave this as an example of an analogy. It’s so beautiful isn’t it?

(Attend POWER UP! WORLD OF CX as international speaker Krish Dhanam together with industry experts and practitioners AJ Rocero, Ralph Layosa, Josh Supan and Francis Kong share winning ideas on delivering excellent customer service in the digital economy. Happening on Oct. 2 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Samsung Hall SM Aura BGC. For registration or inquiries contact April at 0928-559-17-98; CJ at 0917-629-9401 or register online at www.powerup.ph)