**🔤 **This Week’s ABC

Challenge: Try it!

📖 Advice: First Principles x Communication

I made a simple image a little while ago, to demonstrate the way that I see the communication problem.

Communication is hard, because it’s a game of telephone all the way down. Intent gets masked by noisy bias and subjectivity.

Ideally, you want what you think to match what they understand.

This is the ideal case.

But, in reality, you usually get this…

As I’ve written about before,

• Internal filters: Your emotions, biases, and assumptions shape what you say.
• Expression limits: Words can only capture so much of your intent.
• Listener’s filters: Their emotions, past experiences, and biases color how they hear you.
• Cognitive processing: Their brain makes meaning based on their own understanding—not necessarily yours.

In my original article, I shared the Non-Violent Communication framework as a great tool.

Many of the core concepts still applies: the idea that we’re all human, and centering conversation around observations leading to empathy and understanding with clear expression of needs and requests.

Those are first principles that work in any communication.

Though, with 1 to many communication, I find that brevity and the stickiness of your words (B = what you say) matters a lot more.

The reason is because in a 1 to many communication setting, everyone is introducing their own distortion into this game of telephone.

The more words you literally say, introduces more chances for them to misunderstand your intent**(A = what you think)**

Advice: First principles of Communication Breakthrough: 3 Simple Questions To Upgrade Your Communication

Each step introduces distortion because of:

But we were just talking about 1 on 1 communication.

What about 1 to many communication?

🚀 Breakthrough: How Great Leaders Maximize Influence ROI

Now that we understand that it’s a game of solving for minimizing distortion, let’s revisit the idea of Influence Impact vs. Cost (cost of social and political capital).

From a first principles basis, the goal of a leader is to be the green line.

Leaders must communicate well, to maximize their influence impact vs. influence cost.

Said another way:

Communicate in a way that lands and lasts—without overspending your trust, reputation, or time.

That’s the Green Line:

…with minimal distortion.

But there’s a catch.

If you want what you say to really live in their heads, then you need to be much more thoughtful and empathetic to your audience.

The #1 Distortion Multiplier?

Without empathy and listening, your ideas lose signal.

They get warped by…

• Misunderstood language
• Biases and heuristics
• Cognitive overload
• Irrelevant details

Without skills in empathy and listening, you cannot communicate well.

to maximize 100% of the intent and message converted to their understanding.

Where what you think → becomes what you say → becomes what they understand Talking without Listening.

Your good intent dies in transmission.

Because without truly understanding your audience (through empathy and listening)…

You cannot maximize the effectiveness and impact of what you say (B),