PHA-Exchange> Innovative ideas and how to express them

[Claudio]

Adapted from: "Peter Burgess" <Profitinafrica at aol.com>

> Communications is important. I am not so sure about
> innovative ideas. It seems to me that many really good ideas
> were had a long time ago, and what we think of as new ideas often are
>  rehashed old ideas that have merely been repainted at
> inordinate expense by experts and consultants (especially in develpment
work). Of course applying technology can change some things, but human
nature is slow and difficult to change, and that is the bit that we
sometimes seem to forget.
>
> In communication, two old simple ideas seem to be in order.
> (1) KISS should be much more widely applied. Keep It Short and
> Simple.
> (2) Know who you are communicating with, and make sure what you
> are communicating is understandable for the other party.
>
> For the English-speaking university educated, and especially those with
advanced degrees and PhDs, it should be remembered  that a lot of the people
who should be getting messages have not had the benefit of much education,
may not read or write, and  almost certainly do not have English as their
first language
.
> Report over 2 pages long should be reviewed for
> relevance in the official relief and development assistanc arena.
>
> A good check of how clearly one is communicating is to do the
> simple test of having the message translated into another lan-
> guage, and then have another translator translate it back to the
> first language. This can be a wake-up call for the message
> originator.

Furhte, many technical words do not translate very well.