When we first started this magazine, we had several masthead designs. One of these took the "o" in "Proud" and made it a state outline. No matter how many times I looked at that masthead, I only saw one thing, “Ag Pr#ud.” Prud? What’s Prud? Then, I’d tell myself it is Ag Proud, and it was fine, but my eyes wouldn’t believe me. All I saw was Pr#ud. I couldn’t unsee it.
A researcher once tapped out the rhythm of 120 songs. Listeners guessed only 2.5% of the songs correctly (three out of 120). Try it. Ask someone to guess which song you’re tapping out on the table or pickup dashboard. Even if it’s "Jingle Bells" and you do this in December, the likelihood of that person guessing correctly is low.
The "tappers" in this study predicted they would get their message across one time in two. Their actual average was one time in 40. And they couldn’t believe it. Isn’t the song obvious? How could you be so stupid? But to listeners, it just sounded like bizarre Morse code. Because the tappers knew what the song was, they couldn't imagine what it was like to lack that knowledge.
And this, in a nutshell, is the communication dilemma on farms and ranches. We’ve experienced this personally – when the person in charge of the cattle drive yells something indiscernible from 300 yards away, accompanied by frantic hand/arm motions (given that rotator cuff injury he’s been ignoring), everyone is supposed to know exactly what he means. Isn’t it obvious?
Well, no, it turns out it’s not obvious to anyone who isn’t inside the yeller’s head. Remember, listeners only correctly identified one song in 40 from the tappers. You add a horse or two, some upset mama cows, some bawling calves, a trailer with a flat tire and a 40-mph wind, and you can begin to appreciate how low the success rate of good communication will be.
It’s not just moving cows at stake here. The scenario is reenacted every day throughout the agricultural world. Every day there is “a tune” running through a manager’s head that employees can’t hear.
What should we do? Here are some suggested ways to tap that song out a little more clearly:
- Make the message simple. Get to the essence and communicate the intent behind the directive. That way, if something goes wrong, they’ll know how to act to achieve the intended result.
- Include the unexpected. To get someone’s attention, break a pattern. Don’t let your directions become “white noise” (i.e., he always yells and waves his hat). What if you went out today with only a handheld whiteboard and only wrote messages? What if today you only spoke with a face mask on? What if today you related everything to your favorite rifle or shotgun? Our brains are designed to be keenly aware of change. We pay more attention when things are different.
- Make the directive concrete. If you could be in “critical danger” using some chemical, what would your first thought be? Mine would be, “Critical to who? Critical by whose standards? Critical to all of me, or just my eyes? I need a little more information here." Tell others exactly what you mean.
I’ve run out of room here, so I can’t give you the other key points, but you can read about them in the Harvard Business Review if you search for “the curse of knowledge.” I’m certain it will be helpful to the readers of Ag Pr#ud.
