Transcript Communication Skills
Communication Skills
What are the most common ways we communicate?
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Written Word
70 % of our communication efforts are: misunderstood, misinterpreted, rejected, disliked, distorted, or not heard (in the same language, same culture)!
Goals of Communication:
To change behavior To get and give Information To get action
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To persuade To ensure understanding
Communication is the process of sending and receiving information among people…
Feedback
receiver
SENDER
sender
RECEIVER
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What causes distortion or the barriers to understanding/listening?
Attitude Language Semantics Personal Interests Emotions
Environment – noise Preconceived notions/expectations Wordiness Attention span Physical hearing problem
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How can we improve our listening skills?
Eliminate distractions Concentrate Focus on the speaker Maintain an open mind Look for nonverbal cues Do not react to emotive words Ask questions Sit so you can see & hear Avoid prejudices Take notes Ask for clarification
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Listening
…the other side of communication
Too many people see communication as merely speaking.
Messages must be received as well as sent.
A good question to ask yourself is, are you really listening or simply waiting for your turn to talk? If you are thinking about your reply before the other person has finished, then you are not listening!
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How can we improve our listening & facilitation skills
as trainers
?
PARAPHRASING Restating what another has said in your own words SUMMARIZIN G Pulling together the main points of a speaker QUESTIONING Challenging participants to tackle & solve problems
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Summarizing
…try it out!
Try out these summarizing phrases: “If I understand you correctly, your main concerns are…” “These seem to be the key ideas you have expressed…”
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Summarizing pulls important ideas, facts or data together to establish a basis for further discussion and/or review progress. The person summarizing must listen carefully in order to organize the information systematically. It is useful for emphasizing key points.
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Practice your questioning skills…
Rephrase the following closed questions to make them open-ended: 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Are you feeling tired now?
Isn’t today a nice day?
Was the last activity useful?
Is there anything bothering you?
So everything is fine, then?
(Compare your answers with those in the notes below)
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Other questioning techniques include:
Direct questions
: asked of a particular individual – allows you to initiate control – good for re-directing discussion from excessive talkers.
Return questions
: puts the question back to the questioner or group – “What do you think about that?”
General overview questions
respond to the situation?” : used to initiate a discussion or set up a thoughtful exercise – “How would you
Hypothetical questions
: tests the responder’s problem solving ability by posing a hypothetical situation – “If you had an unlimited budget, what would you fund?” 14 July 23, 2003
Other helpful techniques to foster communication (both verbal and non-verbal)…
Maintain eye contact Nod Your Head Repeat the last word or two of the prior speaker Keep an open body position Make encouraging statements Repeat a sentence or part of one
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Ask yourself…
Which of the skills covered in this module was most useful as you think about conducting a training event?
Which was the easiest to employ?
Which was the most difficult for you?
Write down three things you want to do to improve your communication skills… and practice them prior to your next training event
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