CPA Practice Advisor - 6

FROM THE TRENCHES
Does Your Firm Have a Clear

Communication Vision?
2020 HAS BEEN such an unusual year that I did not expect to have such a pleasant Labor
Day weekend. After spending one-on-one time with my oldest daughter, we reaffirmed
something that many of you may mistakenly take for granted. Social media posts, text
messages, and email are not very good ways to communicate on a person-to-person

RANDY JOHNSTON

EVP & Partner
K2 Enterprises &
CEO of Network Management Group, Inc.
randy.johnston@cpapracticeadvisor.com
@RPJohnston

basis. And the art of conversation seems to be getting compromised.
I am most concerned about how you communicate within your family, with your friends, and with
your clients. While I do not consider it my role to
tell you what to think, I do like to learn, assimilate
the learning, and suggest outcomes based on that
learning. Sometimes those outcomes can be supported with technology solutions. One technology
that has changed most people it touches is the
mobile phone. I have been particularly mindful of
how smartphones have altered people's behavior.
Further, it seems like the isolation of the COVID19 pandemic has aggravated communications that
may have been compromised long before the onset
of the isolation of stay-at-home orders. Now that
people are circulating again, have you noted the
difficulty in discerning people's moods or expressions behind their masks? Frankly, we have had to
read behind many clients' masks for years.

SO, WHAT IS GOOD
COMMUNICATION?
Here it is wise to turn to the experts and scientists
for the best answers, but at the end of the day,
your vision of good communication may be all
that matters. Consider your own assimilation of
communication skills from your earliest memories in your family to your interactions at school
to your first job experiences to your own family
today. What have you learned along the way?
It is hard to believe it has been almost 35 years
since Robert Fulghum wrote and published All I
Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Some
reminders of the simple ideas for you to consider
include:
■ Share everything.
■ Play fair.
■ Don't hit people.
■ Put things back where you found them.
■ CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
■ Don't take things that aren't yours.

OCTOBER 2020 ■

■ Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody.
■ Wash your hands before you eat.
■ Flush.
■ Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
■ Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some
and draw some and paint some and sing and dance
and play and work some every day.
■ Take a nap every afternoon.
■ When you go out into the world, watch out for
traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
■ Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in
Aleph

First Commandment

the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the
plant goes up and nobody really knows how or
why, but we are all like that.
■ Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even
the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all
die. So do we.
■ And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and
the first word you learned - the biggest word of
all - LOOK."
But a much older piece of literature seems to
have been forgotten by many:

I am the Lord your G-d who has taken you out of the land of Egypt.

Bet

Second Commandment

You shall have no other gods but me.

Gimmel

Third Commandment

You shall not take the name of the Lord your G-d in vain.

Dalet

Fourth Commandment

You shall remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy.

Hey

Fifth Commandment

Honor your mother and father.

Vav

Sixth Commandment

You shall not murder.

Zayin

Seventh Commandment

You shall not commit adultery.

Chet

Eighth Commandment

You shall not steal.

Tet

Ninth Commandment

You shall not bear false witness.

Yod

Tenth Commandment

You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.

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