The 5 Reasons Good Communication is Like Good Haiku

Anyone who’s looked through my twitter feed can tell that I enjoy writing haiku. The ancient Japanese form is deceivingly simple – you can only have 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the last line. That’s it. You get 17 syllables to express a scene, a feeling, a landscape.

And so, in haiku form, here are the 5 reasons that good communication is like good haiku.

FOCUS

Because of their length

Haiku must have laser sharp

Focus on topic.

ESSENTIALS ONLY

There is zero fluff

No unnecessary words –

Only essentials.

DISCIPLINE

Disciplined in form

But flexible enough for

Creativity.

UNIQUENESS

Form is similar

But the images and words

Are never the same.

BREVITY

Short sweet and pointed –

For who has time to wade through

Lengthy paragraphs?

And those are the 5 reasons I believe good haiku is like good communication.