Perhaps it was with your spouse, child or other family member. Was it with a team member at work, a client or supplier? What were the points of communication breakdown? What were the results of those failures to communicate? How did you resolve the problem? Are you still wondering how to fix it?
Sometimes the intended message doesn’t get through. Sometimes the communication breaks down, and they don’t receive the message you intended. Maybe they heard a different interpretation of your intended message. Was it the words you used or another factor? Maybe they heard the real message that your words masked but your emotions revealed.
Let’s explore a graphic illustration of failed communication in the classic movie, Cool Hand Luke.
That statement is from the movie, Cool Hand Luke, staring Paul Newman as Cool Hand Luke, a rebellious inmate in a southern USA chain gang prison during the early 1950s. You might not relate to life in a chain gang prison, yet you might still relate to the communication challenges in this movie.
That statement appeared at two significant events during the movie. The first time is when the captain of the prison camp proudly presented Luke as the recaptured prize after Luke’s first attempted escape.
As the captain of the prison camp, the only message he wanted the prisoners to receive was “don’t mess with me”. Yet, he didn’t say that. Instead, it seems he craved respect and appreciation from the prisoners that he threatened and dominated.
After Luke was captured and presented to the rest of the prison gang, additional shackles were attached to his feet. The captain announced that the shackles were for Luke’s own good. Or were the shackles punishment?
Luke defiantly responded with sarcasm, “I wish you would stop being so good to me, Captain.” Luke would have been more productive if he said, “Please take these shackles off me because I’ve learned my lesson.”
Too late. At that point, the angry captain responded with, “Don’t you ever talk to me that way”, then he beat Luke viciously with his whip. After Luke is lying on the ground, the captain speaks to the group and utters the phrase,
“What we have hear is a failure to communicate.”
Why did he say that? Curious that he didn’t admit that he failed to communicate. Instead, he suggested that the failure to communicate fell upon the receiver. In other words, “It’s your problem that you didn’t understand my message, not me. How many times have we stated our message and blamed the receiver for misunderstanding?
There were many failures to communicate in this movie, and I believe that was the point. The movie followed Luke on his journey as a rebel. It was easy to admire him as the rebel and then you need to sit back and ask. “Luke, what’s your point?” What are you trying to accomplish? Why are you being so self-destructive? What’s your purpose and your intended message?
I believe that Luke didn’t figure that out for himself and that might be the lesson for us. What’s your point? What do you want to accomplish? What’s your intended message?
What we have here is a failure to communicate.
In the final scene, Luke escaped prison again and is surrounded by the prison authorities led by the captain.
Luke in his bold and continued rebellious way appears at the window in his refuge and mocks the captain by repeating the captain’s phrase, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
That might seem like a poignant summary of this movie until the captain grabs a rifle and puts a bullet in Luke’s head.
That was a sad and shocking end to this movie because I was rooting for Luke the rebel. Perhaps it was meant to reinforce the failure to communicate.
Perhaps the movie was a reinforcement of the difference between what people meant to say with their emotions and what they said with their words and then with their actions.
Early in the movie when Luke boosted, “I can eat 50 eggs” what was he really trying to say? Maybe he was trying to say, “I’m different”, “I want your respect”, “I will break your rules”.
When the captain announced, “What we have here is a failure to communicate”, was he admitting his own failure to communicate or was he suggesting that it’s your problem that you didn’t understand my message?
That’s an easy mindset in a prison. I wonder how many executives and managers think the same way. You’re my prisoners. It’s your job to understand, not my job to understand.
When Luke repeated that phrase at the end of the movie, he was right. You are not communicating with me and I’m not communicating with you. That was his dying statement because the bullet in his head delivered the final message from the captain.
I imagine that you will experience many failures to communicate in your workplace. How will you recognize them? How might you resolve them?
In this movie communication failed because of emotions.
Effective communication starts with you understanding your audience and how they might be receiving your message.
Avoid the failure to communicate when you understand and deliver your intended message.