Communication Triage by Steve Adubato, Ph.D.

I recently had a conversation with Dr. Rick Scott, Vice President of Clinical Effectiveness/Medical Affairs at Riverview Medical Center, about an interesting concept we coined “communication triage,” which refers to the prioritizing of messages. It’s a fascinating approach to looking at how we prioritize what we say and why we say it. It’s as if in the emergency room there is a woman with a broken arm and a man with a serious heart attack. Clearly, the heart attack patient requires immediate attention. It is not that the woman with the broken arm isn’t important; it is just a question of priority.

The same thing is true when it comes to how we communicate. If you look at a meeting agenda and there are seven items, you may have a desire to offer input on five, if not all of them. But that’s not a particularly effective approach. The problem is that there is a point of diminishing returns. After the third or fourth agenda item that you comment on, what you say starts to have less value and impact on your audience. You become less persuasive. They’ve heard you before. A subtle message is sent that “everything is important to this guy.”

A good example of “communication triage” is the old commercial exclaiming; “When EF Hutton talks, people listen.” This is because EF Hutton didn’t talk that much, so when he did, it was perceived that it was something important. The same thing was true for Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. He didn’t speak that much, but when he did, Wall Street reacted. If he had made pronouncements every week, he would have had a lot less impact.

The point here is that you have to prioritize and decide what is important, so that what you say will have the greatest impact on your desired audience. With this in mind, consider the following questions to help you more effectively embrace the concept of “communication triage.”

Q—If I have A LOT of important things to communicate to my audience, how do I decide what is MOST important?

Q—How can “communication triage” be used in other situations, such as filtering out one question to answer when you are asked a multi-part question?

Q—What about electronic communication, such as e-mail or voicemail?

Dr. Steve Adubato coaches and speaks on the subjects of communication and leadership and is the author of the book "Speak from the Heart." Write to him at The Star-Ledger, 1 Star-Ledger Plaza, Newark, NJ 07102, or click here to contact him through this web site.