The Speed of Communication: Is Faster Always Better?

The article, “Road Warrior” by Joshua Hammer in the June 2009 Smithsonian, describes the efforts of a French amateur archaeologist who is working to preserve a neglected 2,000-year old Roman highway in southern France. What does this have to do with communication and culture (in other words, why am I talking about it on my blog)?

Beyond the engineering expertise of their construction, the carefully planned and maintained Roman highways played a vital role in governance, the economy, socio-cultural exchange, and the spread of ideas. While the roads were developed to improve overland travel for troops and public couriers, the Roman highway system also helped speed the movement of goods, ideas, customs and languages among culturally diverse populations, fostering the incorporation of these new elements into the way of life. In those times, communication with the citizenry was challenging, to say the least. When a message had to be relayed across thousands of miles through a process that took months (or years depending on the distance) and depended on multiple communicators, the original party was, naturally, concerned about whether the message would be received, and how much of the message would be received as intended. When water cooler conversations (the real kind, not virtual) served as an important yet informal communication vehicle within companies, gossip and rumor spread more quickly (and probably with more enthusiasm) than accurate information. Fast forward to today’s high-speed communication world in which there is a tendency to equate speed with accuracy and to equate frequency of citation (via online or other outlets) of specific content with validity/authority. Some now place a greater value on being first to communicate something, rather than the accuracy of the content. They count on the ability to ‘correct’ miscommunication later, but as we all know, that’s a dangerous assumption that can have serious, negative consequences on a business’ reputation and ultimate performance.

Bottom line: Even though technology enables you to simultaneously send the same written (or spoken) words to multiple individuals, you still need to ask the essential question: Did you understand what I meant to tell you? It’s only through dialogue that you can measure your communication’s success.

What does your business do to ensure its messages are understood across the miles (down the hall, down the road, across the globe, or in virtual space)?

Stephanie Leibowitz, MA, Anthropologist At Work