Thoughts on Teaching Communication

Thomas J. C. Raymond, professor emeritus of business administration at Harvard Business School, joined the CSS Program in 1980, the first year of its existence. He has been the instructor or co-instructor of CSS E-500 Effective Written Communication since that time. In 1989 he was the recipient of the JoAnn Fussa Distinguished Teaching Award for outstanding teaching in the CSS Program.

Thomas J. C. Raymond

You retired from the Harvard Business School in 1979 after a 39-year career. Did you have any idea at the time that you would have another 25-year career in the Extension School?

Not at all. I thought I'd just pack up my marbles and go off someplace and retire.

How did you feel about being part of the Extension School?

At first it was a part of Harvard I didn't know about. When I got to know about it, however, I was very excited by the students, the faculty, the administration--the whole mission of the school. I especially liked the enthusiasm of the students. They are there because they want to be, not because they are being forced.

You have been teaching now for nearly 65 years. Why do you think you like teaching so much?

I think it's a wonderful way to extend yourself, to have an influence that goes beyond you. You never know in what ways you affect people, and sometimes it comes back to you in funny ways. I hear from students years after they have taken my course. At last count I think I have had 18,000 students in my teaching career. Although in my mind I can't remember them all, I think in my heart I do.

What do you like to impart to students in your course?

I want to bring them to a very simple point: that it is imperative as an individual to explain yourself clearly to other people. Sometimes people have no idea what it means to communicate clearly. They take an awful lot of things for granted. I remember once a big fracas in a faculty meeting about what we were going to do in Antigua. Everyone seemed to be talking at cross-purposes until finally we realized, "Hey, we're not talking about the same place." There are two Antiguas, one a lush resort, the other a poor island. The ultimate goal of my course is to plant the seeds for students to start thinking sharply, thoughtfully, and clearly about communication.

When you are communicating with other people, what do you think is important to consider?

You have to know how to size up your audience. You can't start too far back, you can't start too far ahead. You have to start where the audience is. Sometimes it's a simple word, sometimes a gesture, sometimes a reference to an incident that can attract their interest. In other words, where do the prongs fit into the outlet?

Why do you think being a manager is so demanding?

A manager is often trying to get people to do things that they are not already doing. This means changing behavior or at least keeping people on the right track in their behavior. It takes a lot of street smarts to know how to communicate this to people. One good way to see if you are being understood is to ask others to state in their own words what you have said. That's the acid test. You'd be surprised how far the results can be from what you said.

What do you think the purpose of business is anyway?

I don't think it's about making money. It's more about acting as the custodian of the world's resources, both human and natural, and making sure those resources are put to work in such ways that they are useful for the survival of the human race. You've got to take the resources that are here and make the most of them. It you're making anything, a backscratcher or a pound of butter, you're making it for someone else's welfare. If you don't do that, you might as well fold up the tent and go away.

But so many business students today seem to gravitate to the money on Wall Street.

Unfortunately, it's true. I am hopeful that many of those students are starting to realize that all the money they are making is a function of something being done at another level. It's not just a question of price/earnings ratios. Money is just a symbol of what you are adding to society.

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