Effective Communication - The ICI Method & The Four Rs of Message Composition

Mr. H was in love. He was in love with a beautiful girl who, accompanied by her mom, visited the gardens every afternoon. Now Mr. H was an inwards curling artist, who read a lot and led most of his life in the undusted but pathetically crowded and confused attic of his mind. Mr. H’s most important problem in his youth was his attitude that through the power of his mind, he could make this pretty woman fall in love with him…so he would follow her at a safe distance, watch her every move, and let his heart smoke like a bunch of burning wet leaves, when he saw other men court her. Yet he never spoke to her. Then when she went away, his bitterness exacerbated. Some say that the world would’ve been a lot different if he’d have communicated with that pretty young woman and married her.

Mr. H or Adolf Hitler, one of the best orators of the world, wasn’t even an average communicator in his youth. Though Hitler turned his capabilities against humanity, what none can deny is the fact that he could move the masses! Thus, communicating well is capability that can be learned – however, it requires technique and practice.

Communication may have various purposes, and one of the purposes of course, is to send your message across to the intended recipient clearly. Quite frankly good communication isn’t just “sending” clear messages, it’s also about “receiving”, “processing”, and “composing” messages “clearly” and “effectively.” Let’s see an example of unclear and ineffective communication first.

Here’s the situation. Peter accosts his boss Jack near the coffee machine because he needs an off tomorrow, so that he may attend his daughter’s PTM. Following conversation ensues.

Peter: Hey Jack, I need to go for my daughter’s parents-teachers meeting.
Boss (Jack): Hi Peter, children can be quite a handful…right?
Peter: Jack, I just wanted to say that the meeting is tomorrow.
Boss (Jack): Tomorrow? Have you prepared the PowerPoint Presentation?
Peter: Which one? Oh yes…that one. I’ve completed it and left it at your desk.
Boss (Jack): Great Job. Then you need not worry.
Peter: Thanks Jack!

The result: Ouch! Peter doesn’t turn up the next day, the Boss assumes that Peter referred to a meeting that was planned to happen in the near future, doesn’t find the Presentation for it on his table, and spends his entire night working on the presentation. The next day he realizes that Peter too didn’t turn up. He calls Peter and gets mad at him, while Peter wonders what went wrong!

The cause: Poor communication. Both Peter and Jack didn’t communicate well! Peter doesn’t know how to compose the right messages nor does he know how to listen well. Ditto for Jack, but being the boss, he can at least let his steam off!

Let’s review the conversation.
Peter didn’t bother to activate Jack’s schema by first establishing the intent. Next, he composed an incomplete message (he didn’t say what he expected from the Boss.)
Jack on the other hand, was probably processing some other information, when Peter launched his attack, and so he just made some small talk about kids being a handful. Because the first statement that Peter made had not really settled in Jack’s mind, Peter’s second message too missed its mark and hit Peter’s Schema of official meetings instead!

I am sure that you can process the remaining conversation and see why it turned disastrous.

The ICI Method
With the belief that all that is simple is easy to implement, I divide the entire process of communication into three fundamental steps. They are:

• Intention – Establish the Intent
• Composition - Compose the Message
• Interpretation - Interpret the Message

Intention - Establish the Intent:
A fairly simple technique, it can be easily used in most situations. You establish the intent of your communication by stating it. Thus, had the communication started as follows, it would’ve had better chances of being effective.

Peter: Hi Jack. If you have a moment, I’d like to talk to you about my schedule tomorrow.

What kind of response you’d expect from Jack now? As Jack has to answer a question (I agree that the question is implicit and not explicit,) he needs to process what Peter has said. His cognitive processing would ensure that “Peter’s Schedule Tomorrow” becomes the context of the conversation that follows.

Remember that general statements similar to the ones that follow, don’t establish the intent.

• “Could I speak to you for a moment?”
• “Can we talk?”
• “If you are not busy, can we talk for a minute?”

They don’t tell the listeners why they should spend their precious moments engaged in a conversation. The relevance of the communication has to be established!

Composition - Compose the Message – The Four Rs
Though the three steps that we listed above are equally important, the most difficult of all steps is the one where you compose your message. For ease of recall, I like to view this activity as a four stage process, which I call the Four Rs of Effective Message Composition. Let’s look at these four Rs.

• Rouser
• Reason
• Requirement
• Result

Let us try to understand each of these four through Peter’s situation.

The rouser in Peter’s situation is the Parents-Teachers Meeting. Had there been no meeting, the need for this communication wouldn’t have arisen.

The reason for the communication is Peter’s need for an official leave. Had he not needed leave (let’s say, Peter were self-employed) there was not reason for him to hold the conversation with his day dreaming boss.

The requirement from the communication is Jack’s comprehension of the need and the action of accepting the leave request. Had Jack not been Peter’s boss, the communication would probably happen elsewhere with some other person.

The result that is desired from the communication is that the relationship between Peter and Jack stays harmonious and that Jack has an opportunity to plan, while Peter spends a peaceful day away from work.

Check out the following message (transmitted from Peter to Jack AFTER the intent has been established.)

Peter: Jack, I have to attend my daughter’s PTM and so I won’t be coming in tomorrow. It would be great if you could approve my leave. If there’s anything that you wanted me to do tomorrow, you can let me know, and I’ll try to complete it before I leave.

Do you see the reflection of the four Rs?

Peter: Jack, I have to attend my daughter’s PTM (Rouser) and so I won’t be coming in tomorrow. (Reason) It would be great if you could approve my leave. (Requirement) If there’s anything that you wanted me to do tomorrow, you can let me know, and I’ll try to complete it before I leave. (Result)

When we design or compose our messages using the four Rs, we ensure that our messages are clear, crisp, coherent, and complete! Or the four Rs lead to the four Cs that characterize good messages! (Now how easy is that to remember?)

Interpretation - Interpret the Message:

You must’ve noticed that so far we’ve been focusing on communication from the communicator’s perspective. Successful communication also requires the listener’s engagement. The listener needs to “listen” and not just “hear.”

“What’s the difference,” is what you ask – right?

Okay, the difference is technical. Hearing is a physical phenomenon. When a sound wave hits our eardrums, we hear. Thus, we hear all the time and we hear everything including the noise in our environment. Listening, however, requires the active engagement of the brain. When you are truly listening, your mind is working hard!

Let’s check out the listener’s end in our communication sample.

Peter: Hi Jack. If you have a moment, I’d like to talk to you about my schedule tomorrow.
Jack: Okay. Tell me about your schedule.
Peter: Jack, I have to attend my daughter’s PTM and so I won’t be coming in tomorrow. It would be great if you could approve my leave. If there’s anything that you wanted me to do tomorrow, you can let me know, and I’ll try to complete it before I leave.
Jack: There were these two reports on the World Economy that I wanted by tomorrow evening. I am a bit concerned about those.
Peter: Yes Jack. I’ve completed one and the other would be done by today evening. I’ll leave them on your desk before I leave.
Jack: It would be great if I could have them by today evening. You don’t need to come in tomorrow. Enjoy the day with your family!
Peter: Thanks Jack!

Do you see how the entire conversation became completely logical and how the loopholes vanished? Now there’s no room for doubt and so both Jack and Peter can enjoy their time while their relationship stays as strong as ever!

It is also important to see that after his first statement with which Peter broached the conversation, Peter and Jack both alternate as speakers and listeners.

Let’s look at Jack’s statements.
Jack: Okay. Tell me about your schedule tomorrow.

Jack, as you can see, has restated what Peter had said. Restating the intent requires that we process the information that we “hear” and present it in our own words. Restatement helps in the following ways:

• It ensures our active involvement in the conversation.
• It tells the other person that we are interested in the conversation.
• It eliminates the possibility of misunderstanding.

Though listening may seem to be an everyday skill that each one of us has; surprisingly few of us actually listen well.

Of course, effective communication is something that engages the attention of every individual. Many have delved into it, deeper than I have. As I mentioned at the onset of this article, I believe that simplification of concepts can lead to faster and more effective learning. I feel that if we could master how to communicate by establishing the intent, composing the message through the use of the four Rs, and interpreting the message correctly; we would all become great communicators. Unfortunately, even these simple tenets aren’t easy to apply.

If you are wiggling your toe in the communication waters for the first time, the following tips could help.

• Begin your practice with one-to-one communications.
• For your initial practice, try to select conversations that are pre-planned.
• After the conversation, review it against the ICI method.
• Also review your message for the 4Rs of Message Composition.
• Identify your misses and determine their impact on the conversation.

After a while you will begin to feel more confident. Then you try the methods out on extempore conversations and one-to-many conversations.

Perfecting a skill takes time! Unfortunately before you perfect a skill, you also develop the ability to evaluate your performance – thus, perfection remains an ever-growing standard of performance.

Happy Communicating!

Note: You are free to use the terms “The ICI Method” and the “4Rs of Message Composition” for quoting in the context of communication-related content after acknowledging the author and quoting this article as the source, with a link to this article
Effective Communication - The ICI Method & The Four Rs of Message Composition (http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/communication_icimethod_and_4rs.htm)

Author: Shafali R. Anand