What Is the Most Effective Type of Communication?

Since the title of this article is slightly ambiguous, let me elaborate.  If your question is, “What’s the best way to win an argument – loud angry shouting, or calm reasoned discourse?” then I can answer that right now.  Do the latter.  Problem solved.

But what we’re talking about here is the method by which you communicate with others.  And there are really only four options – text, email, phone (which includes video calls) and in-person.  These are pretty much the only four ways that you are likely to communicate with anyone, unless you are in the habit of making major announcements using interpretive dance.

So let’s start off with the least intensive form of communication – texting.  Texting comes with a lot of benefits (so many emojis to choose from!!!!), but texting is also basically terrible for addressing anything in depth.  That’s why we generally use it for short conversations or to gather specific pieces of information, and it’s why all of us get annoyed when we end up in an endless text exchange that could have been handled more efficiently some other way.

What other way?  Well, this is going to make some young people’s heads explode, but there are other ways to talk to people.

Emailing, for example.   It’s a fantastic way to communicate with multiple people at once, and it also allows for a more detailed conversation than texting.  At the same time, one recent survey found that the average person only spends 11 seconds reading any given email, a different study found that 76% of us won’t read an email longer than 3 paragraphs, and 20% won’t read one longer than one paragraph.  Which means it is possible to provide more information than your readers are willing to process.  It’s also possible to send too many emails.  A recent McKinsey study found that the average professional spends 28% of their working week reading and answering email, which is why the phrase ‘get out of email jail’ exists.

So what about phone calls?  Now primarily used by scammers and robocallers to annoy the crap out of us, the phone is still an effective tool for talking to the people we know.  In fact, phone calls are often the best medium for getting someone’s undivided attention.  Although it’s still not perfect, since we all sometimes tune out the person on the other end of the line or sign in to group calls we pay zero attention to.  Still, every type of phone call allows for real time, in-depth dialogue in a way that texting and emailing do not.  If you’re trying to persuade someone to do business with you or work out a technical problem with a colleague, a phone call is probably more effective than either of the other approaches, because you’ll have someone’s mostly undivided attention and because they are likely not receiving nearly as many phone calls as they are texts and emails.

And then of course you can up your phone game by scheduling video calls, which sadly have become more common than ordinary phone calls.  Thanks, pandemic!  Video calls take all the benefits of a phone call and add the ability to determine your conversation partner’s engagement and interest in a more comprehensive fashion.  You can mute your line on my conference call all you want, but you can only stare off into space or pretend to have video issues before I realize you’re not actually paying attention to me on a video call.  The big downside to video calls is that they require you to be stationary, which is not always feasible.  Sure, you could walk through the airport and hold your phone like this for a video call, but you’ll probably end up walking into a pillar at some point, or you’ll hold it down here and they’ll be staring up your nose the whole time.  Which begs the question – do you actually need to see the person you’re talking to, or would a regular phone call accomplish the same thing?  Video calls are perfect for sharing visuals – for example, letting people see the condition of the factory you’re inspecting – but they are also more likely to be viewed as an invasion of someone’s privacy.

And speaking of invasion of privacy, let’s turn to face-to-face communication.  The nerve of some people!  Approaching you and expecting you to talk to them?  That is, of course, the way we’ve done it for 99% of all human history, and it is hands-down the best way to get someone’s undivided attention, share detailed information, pick up on nonverbal cues, and make real-time adjustments based on immediate feedback.  It isn’t always feasible, of course, and it’s not always the best use of your time.  Sometimes a text can accomplish in 10 seconds what would take 8 minutes of polite chit-chat to get around to face-to-face.  Then again, sometimes a phone call is faster than a text exchange.  And videocalls are great when in-person meetings aren’t possible.

(explosion sounds!)

That’s it!  THERE IS NO ONE PERFECT FORM OF COMMUNICATION!  Each of them has its unique benefits and drawbacks, and you need to know what those benefits and drawbacks are if you want to communicate successfully with others.  And now you do!

I knew this article was going somewhere.  Hope you enjoyed!