The Precision Model

It doesn’t take a genius to realize the power words have. Words can make people laugh, they can motivate, they can inspire, etc… But there are times when our words can hurt other people. This happens especially when opinions and judgments are stated as facts, especially to someone who feels very strongly otherwise.

Is there a way of communicating so that you never ever hurt other people? Is there a framework/model that can help us pay sufficient attention to details, without losing track of ourselves? Yes, there is: it’s called the precision model.

In order to communicate with absolute precision, the following points need to be taken care of:

1. Universals: Whenever we use words such as All, Every, Always, Never, etc. we might be generalizing too much. E.g. All kids are irritating. A statement like that could really hurt a person who loves kids. We must stop ourselves and ask whether we’re stating a fact. All kids? Really? Then we can simply correct ourselves as appropriate.

2. Restrictive words: Words like Can’t, Shouldn’t, Must, Should, etc…should always be accompanied by relevant reasons. E.g. You shouldn’t ever open up electronic devices. Corrected to: You shouldn’t open up electronic devices unless you know how the parts fit together, or at least the parts you’re removing.

3. Verbs: We can get a lot more precision with verbs by answering the question “How specifically?” E.g. The eight of us went to a hotel. à The eight of us went to a hotel on two cars- an omni and an 800, driven by their respective owners.

4. Nouns: Just like with the verbs, we can get extra precision here by simply answering “Who or what specifically?” It always pays to have that extra precision. Now for the most important part of the precision model:

5. Judgments and Opinions: Any sort of judgment: Good, Bad, This sucks, This blows, Cool, Great, etc…can really hurt people who feel strongly otherwise. E.g. The Java IDEs suck. That statement hurts people who love Java. These opinions, if you really want to avoid hurting people, must always be accompanied by who made that judgment. Always answer “According to whom?” when passing a judgment. In our example, the corrected form is: I feel that Java’s Eclipse IDE without plug-ins is very powerless. As you can see, the new corrected version is a much safer statement to make.

I’ve been hurt many times in the past by people making statements like the examples above. And unknowingly, I’ve hurt many people with such non-precise statements. You can find them even in some of my blogs. I sincerely apologize for any such statements and the effect they may have had on you.

I hope this precision model that we’ve learnt together helps us improve in our everyday communications. If you have anything to add to the precision model, please share it in the comments section. Let us always:
COMMUNICATE WITH PRECISION