Download Communication Skills

Communication Skills
What are the most common ways
we communicate?
Written Word
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70 % of our communication efforts are:
misunderstood, misinterpreted, rejected,
disliked, distorted, or not heard (in the
same language, same culture)!
Goals of Communication:
To change behavior
To get and give
Information
To persuade
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To get action
To ensure understanding
Communication is the process of sending
and receiving information among people…
Feedback
receiver
SENDER
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sender
RECEIVER
What causes distortion or the barriers
to understanding/listening?





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Attitude
Language
Semantics
Personal Interests
Emotions
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 Environment – noise
 Preconceived
notions/expectations
 Wordiness
 Attention span
 Physical hearing
problem
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
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Listening…the other side of communication
Too many people see communication as merely speaking.
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!
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How can we improve our listening
& facilitation skills as trainers?
PARAPHRASING
SUMMARIZIN
G
Restating what
another has said
in your own
words
Pulling together
the main points
of a speaker
QUESTIONING
Challenging
participants to
tackle & solve
problems
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Summarizing…try it out!
Summarizing pulls
important ideas, facts or
data together to establish
a basis for further
discussion and/or review
progress.
Try out these summarizing phrases:
“If I understand you correctly,
your main concerns are…”
“These seem to be the key
ideas you have expressed…”
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The person summarizing
must listen carefully in
order to organize the
information
systematically.
It is useful for
emphasizing key points.
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Practice your questioning skills…
Rephrase the following closed questions to
make them open-ended:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Are you feeling tired now?
Isn’t today a nice day?
Was the last activity useful?
Is there anything bothering you?
So everything is fine, then?
(Compare your answers with those in the notes below)
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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 problemsolving ability by posing a hypothetical situation – “If you
had an unlimited budget, what would you fund?”
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Other helpful techniques to foster
communication (both verbal and non-verbal)…
Nod Your Head
Maintain eye
contact
Keep an open
body position
Make encouraging
statements
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Repeat the last
word or two of the
prior speaker
Repeat a sentence
or part of one
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?
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Write down three things
you want to do to improve
your communication skills…
and practice them
prior to your next training event