You can never learn enough about your audience

The stakes are high. Spend lots of time getting to know your audience. Don't ever stop, because they keep changing. What worked yesterday won't work tomorrow. And, as a refresher for us all, I'll share a couple more nuggets from my cross-cultural communication conference notes.

• "The essence of effective cross-cultural communication has more to do with releasing the right responses rather than sending the right messages.
• The right message assumes that you and the other person will respond to the message in the same way.
• Learning about your target culture can help you predict how people will respond to your messages.

I've been getting emails and comments inquiring about my silence in the blogosphere lately [this is my first post in over a month]. Ironically enough, it seems as if I unknowingly stopped learning about one of my audiences. What I believed to be one thing turns out to be another.

So where have I been? I've been spending time with my 17-year old daughter, Erin. Recent events have revealed to us that we've been sending the wrong messages at times. This past month has been an intense boot camp of learning who Erin is so we can release the right responses. It's a tumultuous season and the future is uncertain. It's eye-opening, heart-breaking and overwhelming.

But, you know what? It's a perfect example of an answer to a dangerous prayer. Since the Leadership Summit this year, my personal prayer has been "Jesus, please don't let the fire in my mission die. Keep me close to the flames and keep me bothered. Don't let me lose touch with real life and real people. Show me people's hearts and pain so I remember the stakes are high."

Man, He was listening.

Comments

[Kem Meyer]

Dave,

Thanks for the encouragement and the truth.

[Dave Davis]

Welcome Back! The cool thing about an audience is that they are drawn to sincere, authentic communicators who can genuinely convey their love. That reality never changes...even when are related to our audience.

Dave Davis
http://davedavis.typepad.com/dave_davis_whats_the_poin/