Communication tips

When I landed my first communications job, I quickly realized real-world communication was nothing like what I had learned in school. I felt unprepared, especially when tasked with packaging content for different audiences.

Historically, gossip wasn’t always negative. In early England, the term gossip referred to companions at childbirth — women who attended births to support the mother and midwife. The verb “to gossip” appeared in Shakespeare’s works to describe light conversation during these waiting periods.

Back in 1974, Jerry Harvey, a management professor at George Washington University, took a road trip with his family in the sweltering Texas heat. They drove 170 km to Abilene for lunch. After returning, they realized none of them wanted to go. Each person had agreed to the trip only because they thought the others wanted to go as well. That experience led Harvey to coin the Abilene Paradox, a situation in which people make decisions as a group that contradict their true thoughts or feelings. He found that up to 80% of employees experience this in organizations.