It’s easy to fall into the communication trap of only reporting on the headlines. Big stories catch the audience’s attention and have meat to them. It’s easy to fill a meeting with chatter about these headline items. Many meetings seem to be focused on simply filling the slot with stuff.
Real communication is about the things between the headlines. Nuance and uncertainty are the heart of real understanding. Headlines are usually heavily fact-based. Facts are nice but they are also immutable. Once something has happened, it cannot unhappen. The real question is “what happens next?”
Communication involves making sure that the speaker relays the information that a receiver requires. Sometimes the receiver only needs to know the facts about the past with no commentary about what comes next. This is a quick process. But most often, the receiver needs to understand how those facts impact the future. The future is fickle and can be influenced in any number of ways based on little things that fall through the cracks during headline reporting.