IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 45, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2002 291 The Three Laws of Professional Communication Index Terms—Asimov, audience, laws, noise, principles, redundancy, Interface robots, signal. —Feature by constituents to explain complex antasy stories, whether magic EAN LUC OUMONT, F phenomena is, of course, at J - D tales, science fiction, or others, the heart of science: physical SENIOR MEMBER, IEEE are often strikingly inconsistent: chemists have established wizards, aliens, and other three laws of thermodynamics marvelous or monstrous creatures (Fig. 2); physicists are looking seem to be endowed with largely Manuscript received May 9, 2002; for elementary particles and ad hoc powers. Even celebrated revised July 23, 2002. for fundamental interactions epics such as Lord of the Rings, The author is with between these particles, etc. The JL Consulting, best selling novels such as Harry scientific slant in Asimov’s literary B-1950 Kraainem, Belgium Potter, or famous television serials (email: [email protected]). contribution should come as no such as Star Trek leave the critical IEEE DOI 10.1109/TPC.2002.805164 surprise: Asimov was an Associate reader or viewer with an uneasy Professor of Biochemistry at the Isaac Asimov, sense of illogic: “Well, if he has the University of Boston School of The Complete Robot. power to do that, why didn’t he Medicine before retiring to full-time London, U.K.: HarperCollins, 1983. use it in this other case?” authorship. In turn, the number of laws, three, is no surprise either: One science-fiction author, the shaping of knowledge into however, stands out for the logic of axioms and principles is but a his narrative and, especially, the construction of the mind, and a consistency of his robot stories. set of three simply communicates Isaac Asimov’s robots indeed well [2]. have “positronic brains” that are governed entirely by three “laws of The search for fundamental laws, robotics” (Fig. 1). These three laws unfortunately, has seldom, if are enough to explain the behavior ever, been applied to professional of any robot at any time in any of communication. Most how-to Asimov’s novels or short stories. books on the subject seem content Far from restricting the possible with long lists of phenomenological plots, they are the building blocks principles. Useful as each of these of rich, complex, varied scenarios. might be, a long list of them will always be hard to assimilate, at The search for simple, least without some perception of fundamental, “atomic” a simpler underlying logic. Even Fig. 1. Isaac Asimov’s famous “three laws of robotics” appeared explicitly for the first time in his short story “Runaround,” first published in estounding iene pition, March 1942 [1]. 0361-1434/02$17.00 © 2002 IEEE 292 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 45, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2002 acclaimed guides such as Strunk written document. It also suggests Effective communication can and White’s Elements of Style [3] that we get our audience to thus be seen as an instance of offer no less than 11 rules of usage understand something. While optimization under constraints and 11 principles of composition, understanding is usually central (Fig. 3). We try to maximize, not globally numbered from 1 to 22. to communication, it is but one what we write, say, or draw, but Such a succession of 22 items component of the process. To how much our audience gets out not otherwise structured into a ensure understanding, we first of our documents, presentations, hierarchy is hard to comprehend need to get our audience to pay and graphs, in quantity or in and hard to remember. attention to our content. In turn, quality—all this with a specific the audience’s understanding purpose in mind and under This article, then, proposes three is usually but a means to an specific constraints. Because of fundamental “laws of professional end: we may want our audience these constraints, we cannot communication,” on the model of to remember the content, to be be perfect. We can, however, be Asimov’s three laws of robotics. It convinced of it, or, ultimately, to optimal. motivates them on the basis of a act or at least to be able to act on simple premise, illustrates them the basis of it. The notion of optimization under with examples of oral, written, and constraints applies, of course, graphical communication, and Similarly, a message can be to any professional activity. discusses their precedence and seen as differing from raw In a sense, its application to their subordination to a zeroth law. information in that it presents professional communication is intelligent added value, that is, already self-evident. Even so, it is something to understand about the premise on the basis of which GETTING MESSAGES ACROSS the information. A message the three laws can be established Communicating professionals and interprets the information for a and motivated. professional communicators alike specific audience and for a specific rather readily agree that effective purpose. It conveys the “so what,” communication is about “getting when the information merely FIRST LAW: messages across.” This robust conveys the “what.” It thus differs ADAPT TO YOUR AUDIENCE starting point nevertheless leaves from information the way that A straightforward embodiment of us in need of two definitions: what conclusions differ from results in the idea of getting messages across does “getting across” mean and, a research paper. As an example, is a Shannon-like communication especially, what is a “message”? the statement “our sales dropped model (Fig. 4), displaying me, by 15%” is information, perhaps my audience, and the channel The expression “getting across” the result of a bookkeeping (or possibly the coding) between necessarily implies an audience, consolidation exercise; it conveys the two. The model, clearly, is an “other person”—a statement no message. By contrast, the simplistic; for example, it suggests of the obvious that we too easily conclusion “we should advertise one-way communication, with forget when this audience is more” is a message: it clarifies no feedback from my audience out of sight, as when we draft a what a sales drop of 15% means to me. Yet it satisfactorily for the marketing department. For describes at least part of the a different audience or purpose, Fig. 2. The three laws of communication process. In thermodynamics can be expressed the same information can lead synchronous processes, such as in many different ways; here is a to a different (if compatible) public speaking, it matches formal simple one. message, for example “we should improve our product” to the design engineers. Fig. 3. The three laws of professional communication can be established on the basis of a Getting a simple message across simple premise: optimization under is hardly a challenge. Difficulties constraints. begin when the messages to convey are either numerous (quantity) or complex (quality), especially when the situation moreover carries numerous or severe constraints. Among such constraints are space (a 150-word limit on an abstract), time (a 15-minute limit on an oral presentation), and audience (background, motivation, language, culture, etc.). IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 45, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2002 293 presentations, when the speaker not understand what I said, merely documents, it can come from the speaks and the audience does repeating is unlikely to help: I text (inconsistent paragraphs, not interrupt. In asynchronous must rephrase. As the saying goes, complicated sentences, faulty processes, such as written or if I always do what I always did, I spelling), from the page layout graphical communication, it will always get what I always got. (unclear structure, inconsistent describes the designing and typography, unusual fonts), or drafting (or drawing) part, before The first law may seem instinctive. from the illustrations (too many any audience feedback. With Spontaneously, for example, details on a schematics, too many all its limitations, it still allows we do not address children rules in a table, too many tick one to derive useful principles the way we address adults: we marks on a graph). that engineers, among other adapt. Yet failures to adapt are professionals, can easily relate to. amazingly frequent: teachers Noise can be a major impediment who stick to what they had to communication. In oral The first law of professional rehearsed—no matter whether presentations, numerous filler communication, ADAPT TO YOUR students pay attention, no matter words such as “um,” “er,” “you AUDIENCE, is one of empowerment: whether students understand, no know,” “I mean,” or “like” can it states that I should take matter whether students develop take the audience’s attention responsibility for the success of my skills—are simply not adapting to entirely away from the messages: acts of communication. Indeed, to their audience. as students, many of us tallied our optimize under constraints, I must professors’ filler words rather than identify what is and what is not ECOND AW AXIMIZE THE listening to the content of their under my control, and, of course, S L :M SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO lectures. In written documents, concentrate on what is. As a language mistakes can be just as consequence, if I want to optimize The model used so far (Fig. 4) is distracting. Those of us who value the communication, I am the one ideal: it suggests that information correct language may quickly find who should adapt, simply because sent from one side reaches the themselves on the lookout for adapting to my audience is an other side intact. In practice, the next mistake rather than for action under my control whereas however, information falls victim the next message. In graphical their adapting to me is not. Taken to interferences, perturbations, communication (visual aids, to an extreme, this first principle atmospherics—in a word, noise page layouts, graphs), noise can implies that, if the audience does (Fig.