messages, omissions, spin, innuendo, distortions, dismissals, misrepresentations, confabulations, wishful thinking, grin fakes, or plausible deniability. Veracity requires accurate, complete, and representative facts combined with valid logic and presented in accurate context. Ensure congruence of your word and your intent. Accurate communications avoid distortions and are realistic rather than optimistic or pessimistic. Veracity requires full understanding, acknowledgement, and acceptance of what isthe world as it really exists, not as we wish it was. This is essential for building trust.DeficitsCommunications often lack one or more of these elements. The omissions may be known and deliberate, or the results of an inevitable oversight. These forms of deficient communications decrease trust in relationships. These incomplete communications fall primarily into one of these six major categories:Insult lacks respect. Synonyms include: attacks, crude language, offense, disrespect, affront, cheap shot, incivility, mockery, put-down, slander, slight, and snub.Decrees lack the equality and balance of power that characterizes peer relationships. Examples include dogma, dismissals, delegations, pronouncements, diatribe and other forms of indoctrination and posturing. Main stream media reports are another example of power-based communications because the choice of topic, content, attention, and editing is controlled by a few powerful people and the communication is essentially one-way. The superior posture of condescension is not peer based and causes distortions.Cryptic communications may be well thought out, but lack clear expression. Synonyms include opaque, incoherent, inchoate, Fed speak, vague, nebulous, muddled, garbled, inaudible, illegible, rambling, obscure, disorganized, indirect, inconsistent, baffling, indecipherable, and hazy.Blather is talking without thinking. Synonyms include gossip and bullshit. Examples include small talk, vamping, bloviating, obscurity, and impulsive or hot headed comments. Please get to the point, and if you don't have a point, stay silent until you do.Dry communications lack emotional content. This may also be described as bland or sterile. Examples include most technical writing, legal opinions, reference manuals, and much scholarly writing. Lies lack veracity. This includes any misrepresentation or distortion of reality. There are many examples including fibs, half-truths, misrepresentations, pandering, fabrications, confabulation, falsification, exaggeration, being out-of-touch, avoidance, invalidation, hoax, prevarication, grin-fake, bogus issues, red-herrings, irrelevancies, feigned ignorance, discounting, denial, dismissal, distractions, fantasy, hidden agendas, and sidestepping important issues.Several forms of communication lack more than one element. These are described in the following chart where the missing elements are absent from the corresponding rows. The six elements: Peer Respect Thinking Feeling Clarity Veracity Obfuscationintentionally obscuring the messagelacks clarity and veracity. Peer Respect Thinking Feeling Clarity Veracity Pitchingadvocating a single point of view to promote a special interestlacks veracity, feeling, and respect. Withholding, misrepresenting, or distorting important alternative viewpoints is dishonest. Often insincere emotions such as joy and excitement are displayed, while doubt is dismissed. The style of communication, inherent distortions, and lack of consideration for more important needs of the audience are often disrespectful. Other examples include evangelizing, persuading, selling, advertising, advocating, fear mongering, lobbying, and charming. Peer Respect Thinking Feeling Clarity Veracity Fawningappeasing someone because they hold power over youlacks peer equality, veracity, feeling, and thinking. It is a failure to speak truth to power. Appeasement, yessing, insincere flattery, false praise, kissing up and other failures