Write-ups on Communication

Communication is Communical in Latin which means to share.

Communications is what life is about. There is no other greater skill then to communicate effectively with people around us. We can never learn enough to communicate effectively, which is by watching, listening and exchanging of ideas with others.

In our normal life, apart from talking to people, we are also talking to ourselves and this is called 'Internal Dialog'. This may sound absurd for some people, but if you care to give it a thought, this is what we have been doing most of the time. Our mind can think very much faster through this Internal Dialog. A very simple and common example is..............

When a man sees a beautiful girl he will say to himself "Oh.... what a beautiful girl she is"

As communications play a vital role in our everyday lives, thus we must ensure that each time we communicate effectively. Effective communication is all about conveying our messages to other people clearly and unambiguously. It's also about receiving information that others are sending to you with as little distortion as possible. However, during this process error might arise, with messages muddled by the sender, or misinterpreted by the recipient. When this isn't detected, it can cause tremendous confusion, wasted effort and missed opportunity.

In fact, communication is only successful when both the sender and the receiver understand the same information as a result of the communication. By successfully getting our message across, we convey our thoughts and ideas effectively. When not successful, the thoughts and ideas that we actually send do not necessarily reflect what we think, causing a communications breakdown and creating roadblocks that stand in the way of our goals/intentions.

The following elements will help to form a good and effective communication:-
(1) Active Listening (to get the correct message across)

- There are 3 formula for active listening
(i) listen for what is said
(ii) listen for what is unsaid
(iii) listen for what the other person would like to say but needs help to say

(2) Asking questions (can tell whether they understand clearly what we've said)

(3) Reading Body Language - through body language we enforce the message

(4) Dealing with feelings - In this way we can see whether the person is interested or not. It can be judge through voice tone, facial expressions, etc.

(5) Speaking and responding assertively and positively