“The Foundations of Communication”

Presented byLen Roberts and Sue Harrison

Bloomfield CollegeStudent Affairs Retreat

August 14, 2015

Our Goals for This Session

Discuss Some Issues that Occur with Miscommunication

Discuss How Individuals Communicate with Each Other

Practice Our Skills to Increase Our Ability to Communicate More Clearly

Listening

“Seek first to understand…

Then to be understood.”-- Dr. Stephen Covey

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Skit

“Order Two Sandwiches from

Charlie’s Sub Shop”

Skit DiscussionWhat are some of your observations about the Skit?

What was and what was not communicated?

The Three Levels of Communication

Item Activity Percentage

1 Vocabulary 7 %

2 Voice Inflections 38 %

3 Nonverbal Behavior

55 %

100%

From Peter R. Garberin

50 Communications Activities, Icebreakers, and Exercises

Listening & Communication Exercise

“I know that you believe you

understand…”

Listening & Communication Exercise

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant!”

Quote from a U.S. Government Official

Listening

How Many Levels of Listening are There?

ListeningThere are Seven

Levels of Listening!From Peter R. Garber

In50 Communications Activities,

Icebreakers, and Exercises

Level 1 ListeningNot Listening: Not paying attention to or ignoring the other person’s communications.

Level 2 ListeningPretend Listening: Acting like or giving the impression that you are paying attention to another person’s communications, but in actuality not really paying attention to that individual.

Level 3 ListeningPartially Listening:

Only focusing on part of the other person’s communication or only giving it your divided attention.

Level 4 ListeningFocused Listening:

Giving the other person your undivided attention to his or her communication.

Level 5 ListeningInterpretive Listening:

Going beyond just paying attention but really trying to understand what the other person is communicating.

Level 6 ListeningInteractive listening:

Being involved in the communications by asking clarifying questions or acknowledging understanding of the communication.

Level 7 ListeningEngaged listening: Being fully engaged in communications involves listening to the other person’s views, feelings, interpretations, values, etc., concerning the communication and sharing yours as well with the other person(s). In engaged listening, both parties are given the opportunity to fully express their views, feelings, and ideas.

Reasons for Poor Listening Hearing problems Physical noise Effort: listening is hard; it is not natural Message overload Rapid thought Psychological noise Faulty assumptions Cultural differences