Communication is something that is all around us, something that we use every day over a vast spectrum of mediums. These include carrying out a normal conversation, sending an email to a friend or fellow colleague, as well as writing business letters, just to list a few. Although it is something that we use every day, so much that it becomes second nature, its importance is often undermined or overlooked. Communicating is one thing, but how to do it effectively is another. Sad to say most of us are rather poor when it comes to communicating effectively.
Having effective communication skills allow us to be clearly understood, thus avoiding potential disputes or conflicts that may arise due to misunderstanding. Among family members or close friends, poor communication skills may cause a complete breakdown in communication. It can potentially make or sever long forged friendships. On an even broader perspective, effective communication skills are not only a stepping stone to a successful career, but also the foundation for a satisfying life.
We more often than not have the wrong perceptions of how communication actually works. Take into account a simple scenario where we have two people are having a conversation. In this case, it may seem very intuitive to us that there is a sender (who is the one speaking) and a receiver (who is the one listening to what is being said) and that they take turns sending and receiving through the course of the conversation. However, what is often overlooked is the non-verbal aspect of conversation that more often than not distorts the information that is being sent and received, better known to most as body language. Body language can communicate agreement, disagreement, hurt feelings or anger. This can effectively distort the information that we are sending across to the other person, and it takes place constantly through the course of the conversation. As such the art of effective communication is more complex than we actually believe it to be!
Effective conversation in business letters, emails and good/bad new letters are also very important especially in the workplace as the wrong choice of word or tone used can result in huge misunderstanding. In the IT age that we are in today, knowing how to communicate using wikis and blogs (like what I’m doing now =P) is also very essential.
As such, we can see that communication involves every aspect of our life. Being effective in it can give us an edge in practically everything we do and ES2007s is extremely useful in helping make us more complete people!
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I couldn't agree with you more Bryan. Communication is definitely something not to be overlooked! I especially like the example about friends. There is a Chinese saying but i can't really remember how it goes but it means something like-- takes years to forge a friendship but only a moment to destroy it... something like that. Clearly we can see that how we present how ideas is very important. You'll never know when a casual remark can be interpreted as an insult. I don't know whether you have experience this before but have you ever made a casual remark and the other party's facial expression changed totally?! Then you start to think "what did i say? Did i offend him?" I have encountered such situations many times and i have also been warned by good friends to be more careful when i speak.
ReplyDeleteClearly we can see that choice of words are extremely important. If under those situation i was talking to my business partners, colleagues or worst still--girlfriend, the situation would have gone downhill from there.
Well i hope you know what i mean. tend to be long-winded.
Bryan, thank you for this detailed sharing. The examples you shared are clearly illustrative of the importance of effective communication, especially the section on the communication model and how it actually can be so much more complex.
ReplyDeleteI especially like your mention of how it is important to be able to communicate using the various online tools available today, like blogs and vods and Wikis. Indeed, apart from the traditional oral and written channels of communication, there is now a 'third powerful channel' - that of electronic communication. Look at the worldwide reactions generated after a recent blog post published by Google!
Anyway, I'm digressing.
I noticed a few errors in your post, here's one:
1. "Take into account a simple scenario where we have two people are having a conversation"
Other than that, this is a good first post.
Ms. Lim
Hey Bryan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. I liked the part when you mentioned communication is a stepping stone to a satisfying life; I would even say fulfilling life. I feel it's so easy to hear but not listen, speak but not convey in today's world. We tend to overlook the basic requirement of a fulfilling life sometimes, that of relationships, when we do not take our communication seriously.
Cheers
Benedict
Hey,
ReplyDeleteWhen you raise the point about communication being something around us, it makes me realised how much we use them , to an extend that it is so integrated into our lives that at times we take it for granted and forgot about the importance of it.
The point about it being useful in a workplace, it reminds me of days when I was in the army, when my job requires me to send emails to all kinds of people. To friends, it may not matter so much, but you would definitely want to be tactful when you send the emails to your superiors.
Wells, communication is definitely very important to every one of us in a way or two. Hope we can all learn more about it!
xoxo,
Student A