K atie c ouric

The Psychology of Communication
Many times the content that you share isn’t as important as the context you
wrap it in. To get the most out of your content, you need to be a great
communicator. Social media was designed as a form of two-way
communication. And the goal of communication is always to reach the
person you’re communicating with. Jeff King, an expert in the Process
Communication Model (PCM), a behaviorial observation tool that allows
you to communicate more effectively, has been highly influential in the way
I, and many major corporations in the world, create content and
communicate with others. The PCM was founded by Taibi Kahler in the

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1970s and has been used by very successful and influential people ranging
from President Bill Clinton to NASA astronaut selection officials to
producers at Pixar Animation Studios.
King explains that when he gives seminars on the PCM he always starts
off by stating that communication isn’t about you (pointing to himself), it’s
about 
you
(pointing to a person in the audience). Communication’s true use
is getting information to the people you want to reach. And to effectively
reach someone, you need to speak a language they understand. The PCM
can be extremely helpful because it helps you assess the communication
style of the person you’re commmunicating with. Doing so allows you to
better tailor your message so the person who needs to receive it can hear it
easily and clearly. King’s experience has shown him that we are often very
selfish in the way we communicate; we usually think more about our need
to express than the person who is listening on the other end—and this is a
mistake. If we want others to hear us clearly (and in turn share our message
further), we need to step outside ourselves and truly connect with the other
person. The PCM is a tool that helps us do this.
The biggest mistake I see people make, and that I help correct when
working with clients, is creating content through the lens of how they
perceive the world and failing to recognize that much of the population
perceives the world in a different way. Thus, their messages don’t get across
clearly. When developing content for an audience, make sure you’re not just
creating it for yourself. You need to look at your content from the
perspective of your audience. Spend time thinking about how your audience
might perceive that piece of content or message. This is where the PCM
comes in handy.
King explains that content has to connect with people before they’re
going to share it with others. And different people connect in different
ways. People who perceive the world through feelings are going to share
content that makes them feel good, whereas others may perceive the world
through logic and respond well to content that speaks to their reason.
Whatever content resonates with them the most will be the content they
choose to share.
In the PCM there are six personality types: Thinkers, Persisters,
Harmonizers, Imaginers, Rebels, and Promoters. Each personality type
experiences the world in different ways. Thinkers perceive the world

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through thoughts, and 
logic
is their currency. Persisters perceive the world
through opinions, and 
value
is their currency. Harmonizers perceive the
world through emotions, and 
compassion
is their currency. Imaginers
perceive the world through inactions, and 
imagination
is their currency.
Rebels perceive the world through reactions, and 
humor
is their currency.
And last, but certainly not least, since they are often very powerful people,
Promoters perceive the world through actions, and 
charm
is their currency.
All the personality types are in each of us, but we have a base personality
type that we’re born with and that doesn’t change over the course of our
lives.
Let’s try an exercise of creating copy to advertise a car. Using the PCM,
King explains how he would construct the content to make sure that he
communicated the clearest message about the car, wrapping it in a way that
makes sense for each of the personality types. King suggests writing
something like this:
Think of a car. This car model gets fifty miles per gallon. The car’s
miles per gallon are at the highest rate compared to other models in
its class. We believe that this car provides more value to our
customer in regard to what you’re going to pay for. Bottom line—
it’s the best car on the market. It feels good, it looks nice, and you’re
going to be so comfortable driving this car. All your friends are
finally
going to want to hang with you because this car’s awesome.
Now let’s break this down to which personality type each sentence speaks
to:
• This sentence uses 
LOGIC
and speaks to Thinkers: “Think of a car.
This car model gets fifty miles per gallon. The car’s miles per gallon
are at the highest rate compared to other models in its class.”
• This sentence uses 
VALUE
and speaks to Persisters: “We believe
that this car provides more value to our customer in regard to what
you’re going to pay for.”
• This sentence uses 
CHARM
and speaks to Promoters: “Bottom line
—it’s the best car on the market.”

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• This sentence uses