Not Communicating | Avoiding communication / avoiding a topic that merits conversation. |
Disinformation | Intentionally spreading inaccurate information. |
Misinformation | Spreading inaccurate information such as rumors without any intention to deceive. |
Ad Nauseam | Repeating things until people become hostile towards your message. |
Overcommunication | Taking about things too much or taking about things that need not be discussed. |
Malinformation | Spreading accurate information with malicious intent (e.g. disclosing a coworker's mistake to many people in order to harm their career). |
Noise | Chaotic sound, visuals or environments that make communication more difficult. |
Listening | Not listening. It should be said that it is not true that people should always active listen -- filtering is essential to productivity and general sanity. |
Humorlessness | Not using the power of humor or not getting humor where it is deployed. |
Groupthink | A social environment that punishes free expression of ideas. |
Self-Censorship | Not saying what you believe for fear of social, political or economic consequences. |
Cliche | Overused phrases and ideas. |
Filter Bubble | Algorithms that show you articles that align to your opinions so that you may overestimate how much the world agrees with you. |
Information Bubble | Isolating yourself from information that conflicts with what you want to believe. |
Social Bubble | Surrounding yourself with like-minded people such that you may underestimate the intellectual diversity that exists. |
Transparency | Excessive secrecy or a lack of candor. |
Weasel Words | Citing an anonymous authority such as "The science says.." or "Experts agree.." |
Dumbing Down | Oversimplifying complex issues. |
Targeting Failure | Failing to consider the motivation, expectations and background of your audience. |
Norm Violations | Violating norms of communication (e.g. interrupting others). |
Civility | Failing to maintain a civil approach to intensive communication such as an argument. |
Body Language | Poor body language or avoiding eye contact. |
Linguistic Accuracy | Using words incorrectly. |
Linguistic Errors | Linguistic errors such as poor grammar. |
Melodrama | Being overly dramatic. Typically fails to influence. |
Mediocrity | Choosing safe words and passive phrasing in situations that demand clarity, vivid language or calls to action. |
Cultural Competence | An inability to communicate with people from different backgrounds. |
Negative Politics | Negative politics such as authoritarianism. |
Overcommunication | Inefficient communication such as long meetings that resolve nothing. |
Message Framing | Failing to frame your communication in a way that is likely to persuade. |
Sidelining | Attempting to exclude others (e.g. inside jokes that excludes one person from a group). |
Kairos | Failing to take advantage of the opportune moment to say something. |
Ethos | Ethos is the use of authority to persuade. A counterexample would be failing to establish credibility before stating your opinion. |
Pathos | Pathos is an appeal to emotion. Counterexample: being overly logical about an issue that is deeply emotional. |
Logos | Logos is the use of logic to persuade. Counterexample: appearing to be overly emotional where your opposition appears grounded and reasonable. |
Cowardly Language | Framing your words so that they are difficult to criticise as opposed to framing them to communicate. |
Assumptions | Making invalid assumptions or failing to challenge the invalid assumptions of others. |
Grit | Grit is social toughness. Counterexample: letting others emotionally influence you with minor insults. |
Presence | Issues related to personal presence. For example, appearing to be a pushover in a situation where you'd like to be tough. |
Planning Failure | Not planning your communication. For example, failing to anticipate the objections of your audience. |
Expectations | Failure to set / manage expectations. |
Failure of Imagination | Boring your audience, taking communication too seriously and other spectacular failures of creativity and imagination. |
