Author Brian Shapiro explores exceptional communication in a distracted world

To Brian Shapiro, “technology has presented many ways to supplement the medium of communication.” Emails, texts and social media can certainly enhance communication. But they can also create misinterpretation. Shapiro’s book, Exceptionally Human: Successful Communication in a Distracted World explores this subject. It also explores organizational communication. To improve communication, Shapiro says it boils down to Aristotle’s three pillars. “Aristotle uses them as the three things one needs in order to be persuasive,” Shapiro explained. “And that is: credibility, emotion and reason.”

According to Shapiro, those three pillars “always work. And they work in a way that people don’t think about.”

Today’s reliance on email, texting and social media communication in the workplace generated a lot of material for Shapiro.

“What fascinates me the most about email is the absence of context,” Shapiro explained. “The cues that we normally have had disappeared: inflection, tone. It’s hard to trust your gut in an email the same way you would in a phone conversation. You could give an email to a group of Improv performers and watch how it is interpreted in any number of ways.

“That made me think we have a much wider interpretive gap than we’ve ever had.”

Take texting for example. “It’s so instant, rapid. There’s something about how quickly people respond. There’s something about the way people are using improper spelling, grammar or shorthand,” Shapiro explained. “What unintended message might you be sending when doing this?”

The way users can manipulate social media as truth, also intrigued Shapiro.

“Donald Trump has been incredibly effective in using Tweets to get his message out. Anybody who’s reading believes it’s really coming from the mouth of Donald Trump. Now whether it is or not, it creates the sense of ‘I am close to this person. I am in their innermost thoughts.’

“The above,” Shapiro explained, “is a combination of the medium itself, the power we have placed in the medium, the way that message is crafted, and who is the intended audience. If political candidates continue to communicate in this way, it says ‘they’re open. And if they’re open, does this mean that they’re trustworthy?’

“The Trump example, what’s the most effective for him is having people who feel outraged,” Shapiro continued. “If people are mad or upset, then they’re not thinking the way they would be when they’re calm or rational. It’s much easier to deliver a message that way.”

When it comes to personal interactions, “Aristotle’s three pillars are in play whether you’re aware of them or not,” Shapiro argued.

The Communication Competence course Shapiro teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, explores extracting values from key organizational structures. “It’s looking at the three pillars of exceptional communication and asking: does my communication allow other people to trust me? What does my communication generate in others? And does my communication establish logic?”

As Shapiro explained, “key organizational interactions are those exchanges that take place that have the most impact on how that organization is perceived internally or externally. That could be employee-to-employee, employee-to-supervisor. It could be a frontline employee to a customer or caller. What are the different forms of value that can be extracted from each of those conversations?” Shapiro asked.

“There’s a very simple answer. In the morning, a supervisor asks a subordinate how things are going. The supervisor thanks the subordinate for work completed. They are very simple acts,” Shapiro explained. “But the supervisor’s credibility will go up. The subordinate will think that the supervisor cares. Logic comes in when there might be a request the supervisor has later that day. The supervisor can say, ‘Here is the work I want you to do and this is why.”

Applying Aristotle’s three pillars—to technology or in-person–remains paramount.

“As a culture,” Shapiro said, “we’re trying to move so quickly, that we may be generating negative emotions we don’t intend.”

To learn more about how to apply exceptional communication to your life, check out Shapiro’s book.

Exceptionally Human is a trade paperback, 146 pages, ISBN 978-0997284805 and retails for $14.95; Kindle format for $6.95. For more information: www.exceptionallyhuman.com, www.shapirocommunications.com