IT SHOULD always be noted that the careless and/or indiscriminate use of communication as a social instrument could plunge our leadership into dismal failure; our organization into shamble and our relationship with others in disarray. Such undesirable eventualities could still our march towards our respective personal and social goals.

When we are isolated from others and alienated from our dreams, it means that we are already living in misery.

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Communication and warfare

The Art of War, a book that tackles Sun Tzu's classic warfare strategies, has now found its application in the field of business and politics. As has been proven by actual experiences and as has been testified by many modern business and political thinkers, they are proven very effective in these particular arenas of human activity.

It is also our view that Sun Tzu's Art of War is also applicable in the arena of communication.

But before we go deeper, we wish to stress, at this juncture, that we should be very selective in applying Sun Tzu’s strategies on warfare in the arena of communication. For instance, one of Sun Tzu's war stratagems postulates: "All warfare is based on deception. A skilled general must be master of the complementary arts of simulation and dissimulation. While creating shapes to confuse and delude the enemy, he conceals his true dispositions and ultimate intent."

Clearly, making the above-mentioned theory a part of our communications art could transform us into dreadful monsters. This particular warfare stratagem may be used to advance our power and business agenda but, in all cases, it should not be used as an instrument for deceit or for outsmarting others unfairly.

We appeal to you never to do so, lest, we will soon see our integrity, leadership and organization crumbling before us. As we all know, the moment they disintegrate, especially if it resulted from deceptive causes, they cannot forever be reconstructed or reconstituted.

Particularly, the chauvinist males amongst us should not apply this particular warfare theory in communicating with their respective spouses to whom they had pledged never to conceal their “true dispositions and ultimate intent.”? Their insistence to apply the same in their dealings with their respective spouses will surely bring them to an enigma or misery.

Morality of communication is defined by honesty

Kidding aside, deception as basis for warfare is only confined in the logic of war, which only serves to benefit certain tactical moment and whose morality is exclusively defined by the victors. Communication is used to serve strategic causes and whose morality is defined by the honesty, truthfulness and integrity of the conveyors of the message and the efficacy of their intentions.

Communication has moorings on assessment of self and others

Going back, good communication has moorings on our assessment of ourselves as senders and of other people as receivers. With this, we can be assured that our message is clearly given and understood by those we communicate with and our purpose for sending such message is achieved.

Again, visiting Sun Tzu, he said: “Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.” Clearly, this theory on warfare can also be perfectly applied in communication.

A good communicator should have a precise appreciation of his/her target audience to ensure desirable results or optimize the impact of the message on the receiver. But, it is not all. To attain these objectives, the message should appear in concert with what the conveyor of the message is actually capable of giving; otherwise, he or she would appear to be a fake or a braggart.

When this happens, the credibility of the message becomes suspect. Thus, a good communicator should have adequate assessment of himself or herself and of his or her audience. (To be continued)