Patterns of communication that minimize potential misunderstanding

Question

I often observe misunderstandings in communication and I think it really hampers mutual understanding, trust, connection but also efficiency (in a work context).I am wondering, what are examples of environments where there is very little misunderstanding? What are patterns that might enable that? What can we learn for human interaction?One example: I heard that the military sometimes has the requirement that a given command shall be repeated verbatim by the person who received the command in order to make sure that it was understood correctly.Another example might be the HTTP protocol which ACK(nowledges) requests. The protocol is interesting because it aims to achieve robust, mutual understanding in a high-failure environment because messages can easily get lost.

dvtrn · Accepted Answer

I heard that the military sometimes has the requirement that a given command shall be repeated verbatim by the person who received the command in order to make sure that it was understood correctly.Air Traffic control as well, though not a requirement I think it's often at the controller's discretion to ensure there's no pilot deviation, but in general ATC communication is something I find strangely....therapeutic just tuning into a stream and listening to while I work.