this Is The Sign Of The Times

Communication is all around us. We're bombarded with information all day, every day. We can filter it out, drift out of conversations, make sense of messages that don't look quite right, ignore things that we assume are not important. We're skilled at communicating, especially with people and in settings which we feel comfortable. 

I'm spending a lot of time thinking about my own communication at the moment. I'm working with SASLI - The Scottish Association of Sign Language Interpreters - on an organisational review. It's a really interesting piece of work, with a passionate, skilled and proud group of professionals, who all have clear communication as their aim. 

It's a return to the world of sign language for me too, having spent eight years learning to communicate differently (for me) when I worked for a Deaf organisation, and then nine years re-training my brain that I didn't (always) need to use my hands to have a discussion. We adapt. I'm adapting back again. 

For this project, there are so many different levels of communication involved. Information about the review, discussion about the purpose, views about the future, recommendations about what next. I'm collecting information and presenting information back. Communication needs to be unambiguous. 

Communication with a range of people in a variety of settings with differing agendas is not always easy. I'm excited about the challenge, and confident I can find a way to balance the communication successfully. The measure of my success will be in my own communication. If communication isn't going as well as it could be within your own project, organisation or partnership, maybe I can help you.