What needs to be done to minimize misunderstanding in communication (and thereby avoid being dragged off by homeland security)?

What needs to be done to minimize misunderstanding in communication (and thereby avoid being dragged off by homeland security)?

I'm sitting here in the Newark airport waiting for a connection to
Houston. Going through the security is always a big ball of joy. This
time was no different, except for one little transgression with the
guy ahead of me in the queue.

Security asked him a few questions pertaining to his bag. With each
question the guy got more perturbed. I think it was question number
four that sent him into ballistic mode.

I won't go into the details of security rushing the guy and dragging
him off, which gladly brought a break from the monotony of standing in
line. What I will get into is the general and abstract nature of
language. If the communication between security and ballistic-man had
been clear, concise and concrete, I believe things could have ended
more civilly.

In social exchanges, conversations tend to be organic. That is, social
conversations can lead in any direction. There is no specific outcome
that is trying to be achieved. This does not apply to professional
conversations (or to airport security checks post-911). Conversations
in professional settings have specific outcomes.

Perhaps the purpose is to give corrective/supportive feedback or to
negotiate a deal. Maybe it is to handle negative conflict and to
encourage constructive conflict. It might to run an effective group
meeting or a one2one where there needs to be a rhyme and reason to the gathering.

Whatever the nature of the professional dialogue the underlying skill
needed is the ability to move language from being abstract and general
to being concrete and specific. The more of the latter you can
communicate, the less of a chance there will be for misunderstanding
or miscommunicaton.

Corporations invest time, money and energy to build clear
organizational lines, functional tools and useful technology and so
on. Nonetheless, there is the constant challenge of poor communication
between people.

A majority of problems simply comes from having different
interpretations of what is communicated. What needs to be invested
alongside the above mentioned, is to teach people to be crystal
clear in their message. From my experience, if a team, a department,
or a company does this there huge gains to be reaped.
  
This is not a light-switch solution. That is, flick the switch and everything is honky-dory. Rather it is a process that requires constant vigilance to being as specific and concrete as possible.

Hopefully, I'll learn from my own words and won't be the next guy who
is tackled and dragged off to the dark recesses of airport security.

Cordially
Jason W Birkevold Liem
phone: (+47) 957 66 460
email: MINDtalk@email.com
web: www.MINDtalk.no
blog: www.jasonliem.blogspot.com
twitter: www.twitter.com/mindtalkcoach