Repairing messages: the hidden cost of inappropriate theory

If you think about communication in the wrong way it costs money. Most of our ways of thinking about communication are based on ideas that are inappropriate to human communication. How we think about communication is not simply a matter of intellectual indulgence, something best left to academics; it determines the decisions and action we take.

Certain ideas about communication result in organisations with inefficient structures and lead to ineffective management decisions. Massive resources are routinely allocated to repairing messages before they can be used. In a society which is increasingly based on information, the efficiency with which messages flow through an organisation may turn out to be the most important measure of its productivity.

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