~EDITORIAL\ \ x tDITORIAL\ Good communication: How it can be achieved La communication efficace, un objectif a atteindre Veterinarians, as a rule, are not good communicators in my experience. Perhaps this is why we are veterinarians, because, generally speaking, we are more comfortable interacting with animals than with people! However, the ability to communicate effectively is a skill that all veterinarians should try to develop, be they in practice, public service, teaching, research, or industry. Having developed the skill, the important part is to remember to use it. The most successful practitioners are those who communicate well, not only with their clients, but also with their staff and other persons or groups with whom they have to interact, such as diagnostic laboratory personnel. Teachers should obviously be good communicators, but unfortunately some are not. Just as politicians qualify to run the affairs of countries without any formal training, so teachers at the university level qualify to instruct without any formal training in teaching! An individual's success and recognition in other fields of the profession are also largely dependent on his ability to communicate effectively. Effective communication depends on a few basic ingredients combined with the motivation to succeed. Verbal communicaton, oral and written, clearly requires a knowledge of language, vocabulary, grammar, syntax, etc., but effective verbal communication requires more than this. The communicator has to care about getting his message across, has to care that the facts, thoughts, or feelings that he is trying to express are being received and interpreted in the way that is intended. Honesty and sincerity are important ingredients of good communication. How you say something may be more important than what you say! People rapidly stop listening to someone who comes across as being insincere or careless with facts. If you are in the presence of the person with whom you are interacting, you can usually tell if your message is getting through by studying the person's eyes and facial expressions. However, don't be misled by a nodding of the head or sounds of agreement: some people do this out of habit, while their thoughts are miles away and they aren't taking in anything that is being said. Talking on the telephone is a useful means of communication, but it has the disadvantage that you can't observe the person at the other end and judge his Can Vet J Volume 32, October 1991 M on experience m'a amene 'a la conclusion que, regle generale, les medecins veterinaires ne sont pas de bons communicateurs. C'est peut-etre la raison de notre choix de carriere; nous sommes plus 'a l'aise quand il s'agit de communiquer avec les ani_m maux! Quelque soit la situation, tout medecin veterinaire se doit d'acquerir des talents en communication, soit-il en pratique priv'e ou publique, enseignant, dans le secteur de la recherche ou en industrie. Une fois le talent acquis, il faut aussi se souvenir de l'utiliser. Les praticiens qui connaissent le plus de succes sont parmi ceux qui savent communiquer avec leurs clients, bien stur, mais aussi avec leurs employes et tous ceux et celles avec qui ils entrent en interaction tel le personnel des laboratoires. Les enseignants devraient etre de bons communicateurs, il en va de soi, mais tous ne le sont pas. Tout comme les politiciens se voient confier la tache de diriger les affaires d'un pays sans formation prealable, les enseignants sont aussi confrontes Li la tache de l'enseignement souvent sans y avoir ete prepare. Les imperatifs de la communication s'applique tout aussi bien 'a ceux et celles qui exercent dans les autres secteurs de la profession veterinaire. La recette du succes en communication repose sur quelques ingredients de base joints 'a un desir reel de reussir. Au depart, il faut avoir certaines connaissances de la langue, du vocabulaire, de la grammaire et de la syntaxe pour bien communiquer de facon orale ou par ecrit. Mais il faut plus que cela pour que la communication ait lieu. Le sujet doit avoir une volonte de communiquer son message en exprimant les faits, sa pensee ou ses sentiments d'une faqon que l'interlocuteur puisse comprendre. Une communication efficace comporte une bonne dose de sinc6rite et d'honnetete. Le moyen utilise est souvent plus important que le message lui-meme! Les gens ne portent pas beaucoup attention La un individu qui parailt manquer de sincerite ou de volonte d'etre juste avec les faits. On peut habituellement discerner le degre d'accueil en portant attention aux yeux ou a l'expression faciale de la personne avec qui on communique. II ne faut cependant pas se laisser distraire par ces signes exterieurs qui, souvent, ne sont que des habitudes. Les communications telephoniques sont aussi des moyens de comnlunication utiles malgre les inconvenients puisqu'on ne voit pas la personne La qui on parle. 579 reaction to what you are saying. So, in this situation, it is advisable to determine how effective your communication has been by asking questions. Try putting yourself in the other person's position and asking yourself what information you would want to have and how it would need to be expressed. Remember, academically, you were probably in the top ten percentile of the population in order to have been accepted into veterinary school, so, if you are having difficulty in communicating, what must it be like for the other ninety per cent of people? If you are in practice or some other field dealing with clients or the public, err on the side of simplicity. Use commonplace language and don't try to impress by using professional terms, jargon, or posh words. Above all, don't bury what the client or public needs to know, or ought to remember, in a mound of verbiage. Be a good listener: give your full attention to what is being said to you and endeavor to make sure that you are interpreting the message correctly. When interacting with staff, remember that they have differing depths of veterinary medical knowledge. So you may not be able to communicate with your technicians in the same terms as you would with a colleague, or with your other staff members in the same terms as you would with a technician. However, the important thing is to communicate and thus avoid a "Nobody tells me anything, so why should I care attitude". A regular pay check is often not a sufficient incentive to offset working in a communication 'no-man's" land. Some of the pointers for good oral communication apply to written communications, such as using simple language without the inclusion of jargon, not using unnecessary verbiage, and ensuring, as best you can, that your writings will be interpreted as you intend. The following guidelines have been suggested for making authors' writings more "user friendly" and easier for readers to interpret (1). Place the subject whose "story" a sentence is telling at the beginning of the sentence. The sentences "Fleas bite dogs" and "Dogs are bitten by fleas" provide the same information, but with the former, the reader expects a treatise on fleas; with the latter, a treatise on dogs. Follow the grammatical subject as soon as possible with its verb. In other words, don't follow the subject with lengthy descriptive passages to the extent that readers are bewildered before they reach the verb. Also, be sure to articulate the action of each clause or sentence in its verb. "New information" that you want to be emphasized should appear at the end of the sentence, whereas appropriate "old information" should appear at the beginning of a sentence, where it can provide linkage backward and context forward. This editorial has stressed the importance of good oral and written communication and suggested some ways to make them more effective. But one shouldn't forget that there are times when a friendly smile or hand on the shoulder can convey more than a plethora of words. Doug Hare 580 Un utilisant des questions, on peut donc verifier si la personne regoit le message que l'on communique. I1 faut aussi essayer de se mettre a la place de l'autre personne en tentant de s'imaginer quelle information elle aimerait obtenir ou comment elle aimerait que ce soit exprime. I1 faut se rappeler que si nous sommes parmi les 10070 les plus doues sur le plan academique et que, malgre cela, nous avons des problemes de communication, qu'en est-il pour les autres 90%7o? En pratique privee ou en toute autre situation oiu l'on entre en interaction avec les clients et le public, il faut viser la simplicite. L'usage d'un vocabulaire courant est bien plus utile que les mots techniques ou le jargon veterinaire. Aussi, pourquoi ne pas prendre le temps d'ecouter afin de bien comprendre ce que le client tente de communiquer. II en va de meme avec les employes qui, bien qu'exposes aux termes veterinaires, ont tout de meme une comprehension limit'e de la medecine veterinaire. I1 se peut que vous ne puissiez communiquer avec un technicien de la meme faqon qu'avec un collegue, ou avec un employe de la meme faqon qu'avec un technicien. Dans toutes les situations, il faut se souvenir que la motivation est le resultat tant de la communication et de l'atmosphere au travail que du salaire. La recette du succes en communication repose sur quelques ingredients de base joints a un desir reel de reussir Les techniques de communication verbale s'appliquent souvent aux communications par l'ecriture, telles la simplicite du langage et l'effort de preciser sa pensee. Les lignes qui suivent se veulent un guide pour celui ou celle qui desire communiquer par ecrit. II faut placer le sujet au debut de la phrase. Les phrases "Les puces affectent les chiens" ou "Les chiens sont affectes par les puces" communiquent le meme message. Mais, selon la position du sujet dans la phrase, on s'attend a un traite sur les puces ou sur les chiens. Le verbe devrait suivre le sujet, autant que possible. En d'autres termes, il vaut mieux ne pas decrire le sujet en long avant d'en arriver au verbe. Toute nouvelle information devrait se retrouver A la fin de la phrase. Cet editorial a tente de signaler l'importance de la communication verbale et par ecrit tout en indiquant des suggestions pour rendre la communication plus efficace. Cela etant dit, il ne faut pas oublier qu'un sourire ou une marque d'encouragement peut en dire bien plus que les mots. Doug Hare Reference/Reference 1. Gopen GD, Swan JA. The science of scientific writing. American Scientist 1990; 78: 550-558. Can Vet J Volume 32, October 1991
