Communication as Strategy: Taking

Ownership of Your Communication Choices

Kari Whittenberger-Keith, PhD

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Overview

People

Patterns

Connecting

Difference

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People

“Audience” is key

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People

Communication as transactional

Watzlawick, Beavin Bavelas, and Jackson. 1967. Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies, and Paradoxes.

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People

Everyone does NOT know what you know

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Patterns

One cannot not communicate

WBB 1967

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Patterns

Communication has two aspects: content and relationship

WBB 1967

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Patterns

Structure matters

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Patterns

Pattern matters

WBB, 1967

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Connecting

Be fully present

Turkle, Sherry. 2015. Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in the Digital Age.

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Difference

Embrace conflict

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Difference

Act as if…1

Corollary: Trust but verify2

1 Martin as Miss Manners

2 Russian proverb via Ronald Reagan

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Develop Habits

Stop: Thinking just about content and focus on people

Look: For patterns, and how/whether they work

Listen: To people, face to face when you can

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Follow-up

Kari Whittenberger-Keith, PhD

Proposal Development Services

Office of Sponsored Programs

Co-Director, Responsible Conduct of Research

Office of Research

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

kariwk@uwm.edu

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