Did you ever play catch with your dad when you were a kid?

I was never a baseball or softball player, but I did play football.  My dad and I from time to time would pass the ball around.  Dad wasn’t much of a passer, but in his unique, awkward way he would get the ball across the yard and into my hands.

The goal of this interaction, or course, was to through the ball is such a fashion that it could be caught.  Sure, I would often test my dad’s mettle and put some power behind the ball to impress him with my throwing ability.  Typically he wouldn’t catch the ball and then yell something like,

“Hey, what are you trying to do?!  Slow it down!”

When I became a father I played catch with my sons as well.  We started with light and soft balls when they were toddlers.  I would gently toss the ball up in the air and let it drift down to them in order to give them the best chance of successfully catching the ball.

It was my responsibility to deliver a catchable toss.

As they grew is strength, size and their ability to catch, our games of catch progressed.  Different types and sizes of balls were utilized.  The distance between us grew and the speed of the throws increased as well.  And, we also added motion to our games of catch.

Our favourite game of catch was the classic three-man football game: quarterback, receiver and defensive back (DB).  The goal of the quarter back is to throw a catchable pass to the receiver.  The receiver’s job is to fake out the DB and catch the ball.  The DB’s job was to do everything legal to ensure the receiver doesn’t catch the ball, or to intercept the pass and catch it himself.

This game wouldn’t work if the quarterback didn’t do whatever he could to throw a catchable pass to the receiver.  If the pass was too high, or too wide, or too forceful for the receiver to be able to catch it, it wouldn’t help things for the quarterback to blame the receiver for not catching the pass.

It’s the quarterback’s responsibility to throw a pass that’s catchable.  That’s why the game is called “catch”, and not “throw”.

Communication is like the game of catch.

I’ve often heard leaders complaining that their people “didn’t get it”.  They were confident they had communicated clearly, but the results produced by their people proved that they weren’t listening.  They didn’t get it!

We need to see communication like it’s a game of verbal “catch”.  The responsibility for clear communication rests with the communicator, just like the responsibility for delivering a catchable pass rests with the passer.

If your people aren’t catching your communication then you need to honestly assess whether or not you’re throwing catchable communication.  If they “aren’t getting it” it’s more your problem than theirs.  You need to change the way you’re communicating.

The first priority in ensuring clear communication is to understand that the burden for communication rests with the communicator.

So how do you know if you’ve communicated clearly?  You ask the people you’re communicating with of course.

So what do we do?  We deliver our directions, or instructions, or whatever communication we have for our people, and we ask, “Are we clear?  Any questions?”.  And what happens?  They look at each other, or the floor, then look at us and shake their heads.

We walk away confident they got it and are then shocked when we discover they didn’t get it.

Here’s the key to overcoming that problem.  After you’ve communicated to your people, or a person, you simply ask this,

“Can you please tell me what I’ve told you so I can see if I’ve communicated clearly?”

If you’ve thrown catchable communication you will find out immediately.  If you haven’t communicated clearly, you will now need to adjust your communication strategy and throw a different communication pass.

Great communication begins with the belief that the responsibility for good communication rests with the communicator.

Like playing catch, make sure you throw catchable communication.