Like speaking a different language…
Effective communication is the ability to deliver the right message in a clear and concise manner to the people who need to know it. My experience in the Army and as an ESL teacher sometimes required me to adopt unconventional communication mechanisms in order to deliver my message most efficiently to the audience I needed to communicate with. From nonverbal communication as an English teacher, to broadening my vocabulary to match the environment, my experiences have taught me to adapt my method of communication in order to convey my message most effectively, sometimes at the expense of oversimplifying a complex topic. Even when methods of communication are simplified, my experiences have promoted a practice of conveying messages as simply as possible to encourage widespread understanding.
The Language Gap
Teaching English as a second language was my most difficult communication challenge for several reasons. Not only was I teaching children in an after-school program when they had already reached their attentive capacity, but I also needed to instruct them entirely in English, the target language. The children had limited English skills, making this a daunting task considering I was not allowed to speak their native language. I sought out different techniques to convey the same message when the children were unable to understand my verbal instruction, including through pictures and body language. This experience was challenging not only for the children to learn English, but it was also challenging for me as the instructor trying to understand what the children needed, since the children were only allowed to communicate in English as well. Adapting methods to find ways to communicate when we could not via a common language is a perspective I brought to my courses at the Bush School as well, explaining concepts in more common terms or through nonverbal means.
Alphabet Soup
There were times early in my military career where even as a native English-speaker, I had trouble keeping up with the conversation due to the overwhelming number of acronyms and abbreviations used in everyday activities. AAR, LES, MOS, PCS, the list goes on and on. Actively learning, adopting, and integrating these acronyms into my lexicon was critical to effectively communicating in a military environment. For example,
“After the BN FTX AAR last month, the SCO met with the FRG to go over some personal PCCs and PCIs that their SMs will need to be prepared for prior to the BDE TDY to an OCONUS AO.”
This sentence at first glance makes little sense to someone who is not familiar with these acronyms, especially since almost every acronym in the sentence is spoken as written, shedding little light on the situation through speech rather than writing. Basic combat training serves as a schoolhouse for many of these widely used terms, translating the previous statement into terms a lay person can more easily understand:
“After the Battalion Field Training Exercise After-Action Review last month, the Squadron Commander met with the Family Readiness Group to go over some personal pre-combat checks and pre-combat inspections that their Service Members will need to be prepared for prior to the Brigade Temporary Duty to an Overseas Area of Operations.”
It is easy to see that the use of these acronyms allow faster communication; therefore, it was incumbent upon each individual soldier to continually learn the meaning of these and new acronyms so that communication between soldiers is swift and effective.
Clarity over Complexity
One key component of military operations is the Operations Order, or OPORD, that is distributed from key leadership down to the lowest ranking soldier. Higher-ranking officers disperse the written order that needs to be distilled into a verbal order at the lower levels. Maintaining comprehension of the mission from those higher levels down to the lowest soldier requires clear and simple communication that leaves no room for misinterpretation of the Commander’s Intent. As a result of an understanding of the Commander’s Intent, soldiers at all levels have a common understanding of how their smaller mission contributes to the wider one. Rather than demonstrating proficiency in English syntax and complex sentence structures as I had done in my undergraduate studies, I needed to adapt my writing to simple statements that reflect the higher orders while fostering comprehension among all members of subordinate teams, enabling them to perform their part of complex missions. This practice extends to my time at the Bush School, where the writing department encourages us to deliver our bottom line up front, and proceed to support our points afterward in order to convey our message most effectively to readers.
Overcoming communication difficulties requires a sense of innovation and a commitment to equipping oneself to communicate in the most effective ways possible. When a language barrier exists, finding ways to communicate through nonverbal means can foster a sense of understanding at the expense of complex explanations, while the jargon that accompanies certain environments requires a deeper knowledge in order to communicate more efficiently to complete a common task. My experience as an English teacher taught me how to communicate more effectively in a nonverbal way while my military experience required me to adapt my communication skills by integrating a new vocabulary in order to communicate effectively with my fellow soldiers.