When I was a teacher at a small business college in Nebraska, one of my favorite exercises I did with my public speaking class was to play “The Telephone Game.” I would begin by having my class sit in a circle, then I would whisper a message into someone’s ear. In turn, that person would whisper the message in to the next person’s ear, and so on. On almost every occasion, the message that came back to me as the circle was completed was not the one I initiated at the beginning of the game. In fact, very often I would hear the 3rd of 4th person’s version of the message, and it was very close to my version but not quite the same. As the message progressed around the circle, the message got a little more distorted each time.
The result of this game had several good teaching points, but the main idea is this: when we don’t communicate effectively with others it can cause misunderstanding. Sometimes the net result of that misunderstanding is nominal, but sometimes it can be significant:
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
