Complete the Picture

Today, I was driving somewhere with my 8 year old daughter and we were waiting at a red light. As the light turned green, my daughter who was sitting in the back seat shared something she saw. This is what she said, "Dad, I saw a sign which said Share the Road". Good so far. She is learning something new. She continued, "It had a picture of a person sitting in a car. In front of the car, a person is sort of sitting and showing his butt to the person in the car. And the person showing the butt was doing it in between 2 balls. It is funny". Very funny indeed.

I immediately understood which sign she was referring to when she said "Share the Road". But I am sure whoever conceptualised the image would have never thought of it as my daughter did. One might argue that the sign was not meant for a 8 year old kid but then if the sign is on the road, anyone can see it and interpret it.

I learnt a very important message in communication. Sometimes, we communicate the outline of a message with the assumption that the recipient of the message will understand it in exactly the way you intend them to understand. But it is not often the case and the message tends to get misunderstood or misinterpreted. We need to make an effort to complete the picture and provide all the parts to the story when communicating the message.