The Art of Communication

Authors: Jim Stovall, Ray H. Hull

Those who communicate well have a competitive advantage in their personal and professional lives. Everyone communicates, of course; even if we try not to, we still somehow communicate. Even the "silent treatment" we give to someone else is, despite everything, a form of communication. While it might mean, for example, that we might not be on good terms with the other party, or that we no longer have anything more to say on the matter, it also means that we are certainly still communicating with them. Communication manifests in countless forms, but whether we intend to communicate or not, we still do. As we, the authors, say in this book, communication is irreversible; that is, we cannot take back words after they are spoken, no matter how much we wish we hadn't said them, we cannot retrieve them. We can feel bad for having uttered those words, but we cannot erase them or the offense we may have caused. The best we can do is apologize. We titled this book "The Art of Communication" for a reason: communication is an art when done well. It is an art that can be continuously refined throughout our lives, but the problem is that we often communicate without much thought. Like any art form, it can be seen or heard as sophisticated and appealing, or it can make one wonder how or why that art is displayed in public! In anticipation of the possibility that you might be experiencing the latter in your communication situations, we have divided this book into two parts. Dr. Ray H. Hull has authored half of the chapters, which are dedicated to presenting the technical aspects of communication—or, rather, the informational aspects—while Jim Stovall beautifully explains in the remaining chapters how communication manifests in our daily lives. We hope you enjoy this book and "The Art of Communication" that we share with you, as it will give you a competitive advantage in your personal and professional life if you read it carefully and completely. As Aristotle once said, "The successful person is one who communicates well."