SHARMAS COMMUNICATION SKILLS-Some DOs of Effective Communication

Some DOs of Effective Communication

1. Analyze the issue at hand thoroughly before developing a plan: Find answers
to the following questions (within constraints of planning & budget):
• What is the character and extent of the issue?
• What are the causes of the issue? Try to distinguish technical from human
factors.
• What are the targets of the policy?
• What are the possible solutions?

2. Identify the role of communication in an early stage: In many cases this role is
regarded after plans are made, thereby, reducing the potential benefits of
communication greatly. Even though often communication alone cannot solve the
problem, it can be a supporting instrument in most situations when integrated in the
strategy during initial planning.

3. Know the target groups and stakeholders: Effective communication requires
knowledge of the parties involved. Find out the target groups and stakeholders and
study their knowledge, attitude, behavior and interests in the issue at hand. Experience
shows that if you don’t know the ones you want to reach, chances are high that
communication will fail to have the desired effects.

SHARMAS COMMUNICATION SKILLS-Actions for Effective Communication

Actions for Effective Communication

Action6. Express more appreciation. To build more satisfying relationships with the people
around you, express more appreciation, delight, affirmation, encouragement and gratitude.
Because life continually requires us to attend to problems and breakdowns, it gets very
easy to see in life only what is broken and needs fixing. But satisfying relationships (and a
happy life) require us to notice and respond to what is delightful, excellent, and enjoyable,
to work well done, to food well cooked, etc. It is appreciation that makes a relationship
strong enough to accommodate differences and disagreements. Thinkers and researchers
in several different fields have reached similar conclusions about this: healthy relationships
need a core of mutual appreciation.

Action7. Make better communication an important part of your everyday life. In order to
have your new communication skills available in a wide variety of situations, you will need
to practice them in as wide a variety of situations as possible, until, like driving or bicycling,
they become “second nature.” The seventh action is to practice your evolving
communication skills in everyday life, solving problems together, giving emotional support
to the important people in your life, and enjoying how you are becoming a positive influence
in your world. This action includes learning to see each conversation as an opportunity to
grow in skill and awareness, each encounter as an opportunity to express more
appreciation, each argument as an opportunity to translate your complaints into requests,
and so on.

One deeper level of this seventh step concerns learning to separate yourself from the
current culture of hatred, animosity and violence, and learning how to create little islands of
cooperation and mutuality.

SHARMAS COMMUNICATION SKILLS-Actions for Effective Communication

Actions for Effective Communication

Action 4. 

Translate your (and other people’s) complaints and criticisms into specific

requests, and explain your requests. In order to get more cooperation from others, whenever
possible ask for what you want by using specific, action-oriented, positive language rather
than by using generalizations, “why’s,” “don’ts” or “somebody should’s.” Help your listeners
comply by explaining your requests with a “so that...”, “it would help me to... if you would...”
or “in order to... .” Also, when you are receiving criticism and complaints from others,
translate and restate the complaints as action requests. ....”).

Action 5.
Ask questions more “open-endedly” and more creatively. “Open-endedly...”: In
order to coordinate our life and work with the lives and work of other people, we all need to
know more of what other people are feeling and thinking, wanting and planning. But our
usual “yes/ no” questions actually tend to shut people up rather than opening them up. In
order to encourage your conversation partners to share more of their thoughts and feelings,
ask “open-ended” rather than “yes/ no” questions. Open-ended questions allow for a wide
range of responses. For example, asking “How did you like that food/ movie/ speech/
doctor etc.?” will evoke a more detailed response than “Did you like it?” which could be
answered with a simple “yes” or “no”.

SHARMAS COMMUNICATION SKILLS-Actions for Effective Communication

Actions for Effective Communication

Action3.

 Express yourself more clearly and completely. Slow down and give your
listeners more information about what you are experiencing by using a wide range of
“I-statements.” One way to help get more of your listener’s empathy is to express more
of the five basic dimensions of your experience At anytime when one person sincerely listens to another, a very creative process starts on in which the listener mentally reconstructs the speaker’s experience. The more facets or dimensions of your experience you share with easy-to-grasp “I statements,” the easier it will be for your conversation partner to reconstruct your experience accurately and understand what you are feeling. This is equally worthwhile whether you are trying to solve a problem with someone or trying to express appreciation for him/ her. Expressing yourself
this carefully might appear to take longer than your usual quick style of communication. But
if you include all the time it takes to unscramble everyday misunderstandings, and to work
through the feelings that usually accompany not being understood, expressing yourself
more completely can actually take a lot less time.

SHARMAS COMMUNICATION SKILLS-Actions for Effective Communication

Actions for Effective Communication

Action1. Listen more carefully and responsively. Listen first and acknowledge what
you hear, even if you don’t agree with it, before expressing your experience or point of
view. In order to get more of your conversation partner’s attention in tense situations,
pay attention first; listen and give a brief restatement of what you have heard (especially
feelings) before you express your own needs or position. The kind of listening
recommended here separates acknowledging from approving or agreeing.
Acknowledging another person’s thoughts and feelings does not have to mean that
you approve of or agree with that person’s actions or way of experiencing, or that
you will do whatever someone asks.

Action2. Explain your conversational intent and invite consent. You can help your
conversation partners cooperate with you and reduce possible misunderstandings by
starting important conversations with a stated invitation to join you in the specific kind
of conversation you want to have. The more the conversation is going to mean to you,
the more important it is for your conversation partner to understand the big picture.
Most conversations express one or another of about thirty basic intentions, which imply
different kinds of cooperation from your conversation partners. They can play their role
in specific conversations much better if you clarify for yourself, and then identify for
them, the role you are asking for, rather than leaving them to guess what you want.
When you need to have a long, complex, or emotion-laden conversation with someone,
it can make a GIANT difference if you briefly explain your conversational intention first
and then invite their consent. Many successful communicators begin special
conversations with a preface that goes something like: “I would like to talk with you for
a few minutes about [subject matter]. When would it be a good time?” The exercise
for this step will encourage you to expand your list of possible conversations and to
practice starting a wide variety of them.

SHARMAS COMMUNICATION SKILLS-communication competence-Appropriateness

communication competence-Appropriateness

A fundamental criterion for determining communication competence, appropriateness is the ability to uphold the expectations of a given situation. Individuals typically use their own expectations and scripts to approach an interaction scene. They also formulate their impressions of a competent communicator on the basis of their perceptions of the other’s verbal and nonverbal behaviors in the
particular interaction setting.

To understand whether appropriate communication has
been perceived, it is vital to obtain competence evaluations from the standpoint of
both communicators and interested observers. It is also critical to obtain both selfperception
and other-perception data. Appropriate communication behaviors can be
assessed through understanding the underlying values, norms, social roles,
expectations, and scripts that govern the interaction episode.

SHARMAS COMMUNICATION SKILLS-Communication Competence-Effectiveness

Communication Competence-Effectiveness

 Effectiveness refers to the degree to which communicators achieve
mutually shared meaning and integrative goal-related outcomes. Effective encoding
and decoding processes lead to mutually shared meanings. Mutually shared meanings
lead to perceived intercultural understanding. Interaction effectiveness has been
achieved when multiple meanings are attended to with accuracy and when mutually
desired interaction goals have been reached. Interaction ineffectiveness occurs when
content or relational meanings are mismatched and intercultural noises and clashes
jam the communication channels. Communication effectiveness can improve task
productivity.