Hi Everyone
Thank you to those who responded to my discussion posting on 'How well do you communicate and listen effectively'. I really appreciate your candid responses and value the time you took to complete the quiz and share your feedback. Some interesting points were raised, for example we wear many different hats in life undertaking many roles and how one communicates and listens may vary according to the particular role you are currently undertaking. For instance at work do you actively listen and communicate effectively because you have to, does your role require professionalism at all times and hence your skills are exercised constantly. In comparison to the home environment when one might feel more relaxed and as a result may not pay immediate attention to listening or communicating effectively? Secondly, social variables were raised as factors that may impact ones communication and listening skills. For example, the environment i.e. a tutorial or the audience (captive listeners and fellow students) may contribute to a persons low self esteem in terms of impeding ones ability to articulate their thoughts on a subject matter. These variables may compound the situation and make it extremely difficult for one to actively convey their real thoughts and ideas on a subject. Next, anticipating what someone is going to say or interupting their conversation by finishing off their sentence can be perceived as not respecting the individual by not affording them the opportunity to finish what they're saying. It is so easy to fall into this trap, I use to to do this when my brother in law spoke to me because he spoke quite slowly and I always wanted to hurry the sentence up. However, it took me a while to think I wouldn't like someone to do that to me so I would nod accordingly and smile to indicate that I knew where he was going with the conversation and sometimes this was enough for him to wrap things up. This leads me to non verbal cues, one of the comments highlighted that this area is something they would like to improve in. I think we could all improve in this area. I would like to discuss the gender and cultural differences of communicating and listening effectively in my essay. We all need to be cognisant of the nuances and non verbal cues that are demonstrated by those around us. By doing so we can begin to actively engage in a conversation and navigate around conflict by employing effective listening skills, displaying empathy, recognising non verbal cues respecting cultural or social norms and being cognisant of these factors. It sounds exhaustive however, if we pay attention to the way we currently communicate with others we can begin to notice the way we communicate. That is, do we go about explaining things in a roundabout way, are we to the point and do we explain ourselves in a clear manner. Does the recipient respond in a way that answers the question posed or do they fail to listen effectively to your question. An interesting exercise to undertake to look at our own skills (because we all think we communicate well) until someone pulls us up for something. The news reader technique always pulls me up when I think I'm digressing on a conversation i.e. (tell me what you're going to tell me, then tell me, then tell me what you just told me)..pretty much like an essay (intro, body, conclusion). These three points often steer me back on track. What are your thoughts on the topic?
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Discussion Posting 21/9/07
I have chosen to do the topic of 'Communication Skills' looking at
'Interpersonal Conflict'. I would be really interested to get your
thoughts on the quizzes I have downloaded on my blog
http://michelle-socialpsychology.blogspot.com/
If you have a minute to complete these I'd be interested to hear your
thoughts on the topic. I did a unit last year on Alternative Dispute
Resolution and just like Social Psychology I learnt so much about my
self in the process. So I'm looking forward to undertaking this task
and if you have any info you wish to share please post a comment.
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Thank you
Michelle
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