The single biggest problem with communication

“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

George Bernard Shaw

Earlier this week I had a wonderful “virtual walk and talk” with Katie Elliott of Little Challenges. It was the first time we had spoken and, on reflection, it truly felt like we were communicating. Listening, curious, caring, understanding, present. All of these were to the fore and, out of that, somehow, talking to someone I had never met before, I had a major personal realisation. Now, the elements to our communication I listed are all seemingly simple, yet all too often we communicate at a surface level in so many conversations (and yes, I do that too on occasion).

My thoughts on this today are on a viscerally current topic here in London, the level to which Men truly understand the fear that Women have walking alone on quiet streets and dark places in cities and how open are we to really understanding them and so receiving what they seek to communicate to us. tl;dr Men don’t do this well, including me.

Later the same day as my conversation with Katie, I saw on the news that a man (and a serving police officer!) had been arrested for the murder of a young woman who had gone missing while walking home in central London a few days prior. That woman had walked close to where I used…