Post on 23-Dec-2015
Communication Skills
2 July 23, 2003
What are the most common ways we communicate?
Spoken Word
Written Word
Visual Images
Body Language
70 % of our communication efforts are:misunderstood, misinterpreted, rejected, disliked, distorted, or not heard (in the same language, same culture)!
4 July 23, 2003
Goals of Communication:
To change behavior
To get action
To ensure understandingTo persuade
To get and giveInformation
5 July 23, 2003
Communication is the process of sending and receiving information among people…
SENDER RECEIVER
Feedback
receiver sender
6 July 23, 2003
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
7 July 23, 2003
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
8 July 23, 2003
Listening…the other side of communication
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!
Too many people see communication as merely speaking.
9 July 23, 2003
How can we improve our listening & facilitation skills as trainers?How can we improve our listening & facilitation skills as trainers?
PARAPHRASINGPARAPHRASING
Restating what another has said
in your own words
PARAPHRASINGPARAPHRASING
Restating what another has said
in your own words
SUMMARIZINGSUMMARIZING
Pulling together the main points
of a speaker
SUMMARIZINGSUMMARIZING
Pulling together the main points
of a speaker
QUESTIONINGQUESTIONING
Challenging participants to tackle & solve
problems
QUESTIONINGQUESTIONING
Challenging participants to tackle & solve
problems
10 July 23, 2003
11 July 23, 2003
Summarizing…try it out!
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.
Try out these summarizing phrases:
“If I understand you correctly,your main concerns are…”
“These seem to be the key ideas you have expressed…”
12 July 23, 2003
13 July 23, 2003
Practice your questioning skills…
Rephrase the following closed questions to make them open-ended:
1. Are you feeling tired now?2. Isn’t today a nice day?3. Was the last activity useful?4. Is there anything bothering you?5. So everything is fine, then?
(Compare your answers with those in the notes below)
14 July 23, 2003
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: used to initiate a discussion or set up a thoughtful exercise – “How would you respond to the situation?”
Hypothetical questions: tests the responder’s problem-solving ability by posing a hypothetical situation – “If you had an unlimited budget, what would you fund?”
15 July 23, 2003
Other helpful techniques to foster communication (both verbal and non-verbal)…
Maintain eyecontact
Make encouragingstatements
Nod Your Head
Keep an openbody position
Repeat a sentenceor part of one
Repeat the lastword or two of the
prior speaker
16 July 23, 2003
Write down three things you want to do to improve your communication skills…
and practice them prior to your next training event
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?