Communication 101: First few things I said when I met these five influential figures

If you are a Communication student or graduate, I bet you have met many people who misinterpreted the study of communication science as the study of public speaking or of being a good presenter and successful salesperson. Well, we know that communication science is more than just that.

When people learn that I studied communication science (journalism) and strategic communication in my undergraduate and postgraduate studies, they expect me to be an expert in making friends, networking, or delivering a groundbreaking public speaking and product presentation.

What do I usually tell them?

‘I don’t see an absolute positive correlation between someone’s academic degrees with his/her communication skill, especially in face-to-face communication. Someone who studies communication or someone with three academic titles behind their names is not always the most effective communicator.’

I said that because my experience has taught me that communication skills in a conversational setting are not something I can learn from textbooks. It is actually the distillation of years of experience in doing trial and error, meeting thousands of new faces, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes. Formal education doesn’t necessarily make someone a great communicator, a good public speaker, a strategic communicator, an effective negotiator, an all-round communicator, or whatever you wish to call it.

In this article, I will share to you my five memorable conversations, which were luckily occurred during my 20s, with five distinguished persons, who by any means have made a tremendous change in their professional endeavour. I will share how I basically broke the ice when I met them for the first time. I am 30 now, and people expect me to be wiser, so yeah, I will also write down the lessons learned in the last few paragraphs.

The Hon. Mark McGowan MLA, Premier of Western Australia

The first time I met Mr McGowan is when he formally opened the 33rd Australian International Education Conference in October 2019. As the Plenary Speaker, I was invited and given a seat in VIP rows, the same with his. After his speech, I walked to him and shook his hand. I also handed him a copy of my third book, which was generally written based on my experience as an international student in Perth.

‘I really appreciate what you said during your welcoming speech that inclusivity should be the rule of life in Perth. I don’t know if you understand the Indonesian language, but I’m giving you my book just to show that I’m so grateful for having such a supportive and conducive environment for my study in Perth. Thank you for keeping Perth a safe place, Mr McGowan.’

I kept it simple and short because I had less than one minute to talk to him.

The Hon. Kim Beazley AC, Governor of Western Australia

As the StudyPerth International Student Ambassador, I’m delighted to have had a chance to meet Mr Beazley at the Government House, the place where he stays, in Perth CBD. At that formal reception, I came ten minutes earlier than the set schedule. And guess what? He personally greeted me and other guests who came earlier. He also led the house tour and showed us interesting facts about each room of the house. After the tour, I thanked him by giving him my book.

‘If you don’t mind, I would be very proud if you are willing to have my book. This is a book written by me based on my journey in the last couple of years. The stories cover my life from Western Jakarta to Western Australia.’

‘Of course, I don’t mind. Thank you for sharing. I will give you a coin.’

After that reception, I got two other opportunities to meet Mr Beazley. His warm personality is apparent when he came to me just to say, ‘Hi, I’m still having your book and I haven’t read it because I still don’t understand,’ in one of our meetings.

Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia

In June 2017, six months after I secured the LPDP scholarship from the Government of Indonesia, I attended a gathering hosted by Universitas Indonesia. Sri Mulyani was invited to give an opening speech because she is also an Universitas Indonesia’s alumnus. For your information, Sri Mulyani (Ani) is the central figure who initiated the LPDP scholarship in 2012. She is also considered a global phenomenon by winning the Best Minister of Finance in Asia Pacific Award (by FinanceAsia) in three consecutive years from 2017 to 2019.

I approached her to the VIP table and talked to her straight away.

‘Mrs Ani, my name is William and I want to thank you for initiating LPDP in 2012. I got the scholarship six months ago and will commence my study next year. What you did is very important because it will definitely change my future and the future of thousands of Indonesian students.’

‘Congratulations. What will you study and where?’

‘I’m going to study Master of Strategic Communication at the University of Western Australia.’

‘Why communication? Why not economics? I think economics is more useful than communication. What can you do to Indonesia if you study communication?’ she challenged me.

‘Well, every success story of our national development should be effectively communicated. Just this morning the Government launched ten logos for ten priority tourism destinations. I believe communication graduates could play significant roles in this instance.’

She nodded her head after listening to my answer, and at that point, I was feeling so relieved.

Ignasius Jonan, the Minister of Transportation of the Republic of Indonesia (2014-2016) & the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Indonesia (2016-2019)

In April 2016, my office, Indonesia Services Dialogue Council, collaborated with Universitas Indonesia and Australian National University to conduct the 10th Sadli Lecture and the International Services Summit 2016. As the Minister of Transportation of the Republic of Indonesia, we invited Mr Jonan to talk about how rideshare changes the face of transportation. My conversation with him was taken place in the VIP Room, Hotel Borobudur, Jakarta. Besides Mr Jonan, there were two ministers, two former ministers, and several business leaders in that room.

Everyone enjoyed the lunch buffet except for one person. It was Mr Jonan. He ordered a different menu and sat in the corner of the room. After finishing his lunch, Mr Jonan lighted up a cigarette. As a social smoker, I thought it was a rare opportunity to smoke with a minister.

‘Excuse me, Sir. Can you spare me a cigarette?’ I asked him politely.

‘Of course.’

After lighting up my cigarette, we started talking about traffic jam in Jakarta, how his policy affected transportation outlook in Indonesia, and the success stories during his term as the Chairman of PT Kereta Api Indonesia (a state-owned enterprise that deals with rail transportation). He is famous for overturning public perception of Indonesian rail transportation management, and I genuinely used that information to build a natural-flowing conversation with him.

Ilham Akbar Habibie, son of Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, the third President of the Republic of Indonesia

I met Ilham in February 2015 during the Indonesia Summit, an event hosted by The Economist. Honestly, I didn’t know that it was Ilham in the first place. We sat at the same roundtable and when we exchanged our business cards, I immediately noticed that he is Mr Habibie’s son. I knew his name and profile, but not his face.

‘It’s very nice to see you, Mr Ilham. How are you and how is your dad?’ asked me.

‘Nice to see you too. I am fine and so does my dad. Thank you for asking.’

‘I watched the movie about your parents’ love story and it was fascinating. Your profile was mentioned in the movie. You were born in Germany, right?’

‘Yes, it’s me in the movie,’ followed by him smiling.

‘I heard a lot about what you do in education and technology-related industry. It’s a pleasure that I finally meet you in person. At the moment, I’m working at the Indonesia Services Dialogue Council, the first and the only services council in Indonesia. Let’s have a more formal chat sometime in the future if you are interested in contributing your thoughts for the advancement of services sectors in Indonesia. Services sectors are emerging and in terms of growth and contribution to Gross Domestic Product, they are something noteworthy,’ I tried to ‘sell’ the organisation that I represented.

‘Yes, why not. I see many services sectors are intertwined with other manufacturing sectors. To say that services sectors are growing is correct as long as you also see the contribution of non-services sectors,’ said Ilham.

‘I agree with you. With the same logic, we cannot say that non-services sectors are growing without the support from services sectors.’

‘Yes. By the way, what are your organisation’s core activities?’

After explaining the Indonesia Services Dialogue Council’s activities, the board of advisors, founders, and directors, we ended our conversation by exchanging our WhatsApp numbers. I also signed and handed him my second book about education because I knew he is passionate about education.

The bottom line

What do I learn from these five conversations? And how do I replicate it in different situations?

1. Know a little bit of background of people whom I talk to. Whenever possible, I don’t want to start a conversation by asking yes/no questions. By knowing someone’s background, I can start somewhere with the ‘why’ and ‘how’ aspects. Every conversation needs a context, and this is how I find it.
2. Know myself deeply, including what I can add up to the conversation. The conversation is not similar to the formal interview. Therefore, I must know certain parts of my personal or professional life that I can share to build the interactivity with someone I talk to.
3. Show appreciation and be enthusiastic about what people say. I’m a strong believer that personal and professional communication should not be separated. Since we are communicating with people, personal touch in professional communication is important. Likewise, we can still be professional in any kind of personal communication. Communication style is not an absolute truth, so don’t be afraid to practice, make mistake, and learn.
4. Be sincere. Communication is not about tricking or manipulating others (although it happened so many times, especially in a political context). For me, communication is all about building relationships, expanding personal and strategic networks, and showing the world that we can still have faith in humanity.
5. Practice makes perfect. You can call me crazy if I stay at home all days, reluctant to go to social events, and too lazy to have a conversation with people around me, but I’m still expecting people to say that I’m an effective communicator. There is no shortcut or magic spell to improve our communication skills. It’s only practice, practice, and practice.