This document summarizes a training session on effective communication. The session covered:
- Guidelines for participation and cell phone use
- Objectives to understand the communication process, barriers, modes, importance of listening and paraphrasing
- Definitions and processes of communication, barriers to communication, and verbal and non-verbal modes
- Techniques for effective listening like making eye contact, asking questions, staying on topic, and controlling emotions
- The importance of asking questions and paraphrasing as communication skills
- Activities to practice listening, paraphrasing, and public speaking
- Tips for making a strong first impression, being a powerful speaker, and setting goals to improve communication behaviors.
2. Session Guidelines
Be attentive and
participate
actively
Put cell phones
on silent or
meeting mode
Return from
breaks on time
Ask questions
Have fun
4. Session Objectives
By the end of this session, you will be able to understand:
▪ The process of communication
▪ Communication barriers
▪ How to effectively use various modes of communication
▪ Understand Verbal
▪ The importance of listening in communication
▪ How to paraphrase
7. Communication Barriers
Barriers to communication are the aspects or conditions which interfere with effective
exchange of ideas.
There are various barriers to communication:
Physical Semantic and
Language
Socio-
Psychological
Organizational Cross-cultural
16. Listening
Listening is the process of receiving, constructing meaning from,
and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages.
Attributes of a good Listener
Looks At
Speaker
Asks
Questions
When
Necessary
Responds
Regularly
And
Frequently
Stays On
Subject
Emotions
Under
Control
Never
Interrupts
21. Asking Questions
One of the most important communication skills is asking thoughtful
questions
▪ Questioning Skills
The right questions provide structure to a conversation
Ask Only one question at a time
Always use simple and easy words
Keep the questions as brief as possible
Use open questions in preference to closed questions
Avoid using jargons
Always paraphrase
23. Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is a fundamental listening skill. To paraphrase is to include the ideas or information
from an original source by rephrasing those ideas or information in your own words.
Use your own words to say what you think the speaker said.
Use roughly the same number of words when you paraphrase it.
If the speaker's statement is many sentences long, summarize it.
Use the cue - “It sounds like what you're saying is... “
25. Creating First Impression
DID YOU KNOW ??
▪ To Make a first impression – 4
SECONDS
▪ To Make a lasting impression – 4
MINUTES
Getting off to a good start
Be on Time
Be at Ease and be yourself
Carry a winning smile
Present yourself appropriately
29. Start , Stop and Continue
START
State one behaviour
that you will start
doing
STOP
State one behaviour
that you will stop
doing
CONTINUE
State one behaviour
that you will
continue doing
Facilitator Notes:
Welcome the participants to the course on effective communication.
Ask the participants what they expect to take away from this session.
Facilitator Notes:
Inform the participants that these are the guidelines for the session that have been called out and it would great if all the participants follow these guidelines to make the session a success.
Creating first impression – More than what they do, who they are ?
A-B, B-A … At the end ask the individual members about what did they feel about the feedback they have received.
Play a music : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qycqF1CWcXg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbVjEjqeW8Y
Facilitator Notes:
Facilitator Notes:
Ask the participants what they think communication is. Collate the answers on the white board.
Now, describe what communication is.
The Communication Process
The goal of communication is to convey information—and the understanding of that information—from one person or group to another person or group. This communication process is divided into three basic components: A sender transmits a message through a channel to the receiver. (Figure shows a more elaborate model.) The sender first develops an idea, which is composed into a message and then transmitted to the other party, who interprets the message and receives meaning. Information theorists have added somewhat more complicated language. Developing a message is known as encoding. Interpreting the message is referred to as decoding
Facilitator Notes:
Physical Barriers
An example of a physical barrier to communication is geographic distance between the sender and receiver(s).
Communication is generally easier over shorter distances as more communication channels are available and less technology is required. Although modern technology often serves to reduce the impact of physical barriers, the advantages and disadvantages of each communication channel should be understood so that an appropriate channel can be used to overcome the physical barriers.
Semantic and Language Barriers
Language and linguistic ability may act as a barrier to communication.
However, even when communicating in the same language, the terminology used in a message may act as a barrier if it is not fully understood by the receiver(s). For example, a message that includes a lot of specialist jargon and abbreviations will not be understood by a receiver who is not familiar with the terminology used.
Regional colloquialisms and expressions may be misinterpreted or even considered offensive.
Psychological Barriers
The psychological state of the communicators will influence how the message is sent, received and perceived.
For example, if someone is stressed they may be preoccupied by personal concerns and not as receptive to the message as if they were not stressed.
Organizational Barriers
Poor structure to the communication, A weak delivery, The use of the wrong medium to deliver the communication, A mixed message
The message is delivered to the wrong audience, A distracting environment are reasons for organizational barriers to communication.
Cross-cultural Barriers
Effective communication with people of different cultures is especially challenging. Cultures provide people with ways of thinking--ways of seeing, hearing, and interpreting the world. Thus the same words can mean different things to people from different cultures, even when they talk the "same" language. When the languages are different, and translation has to be used to communicate, the potential for misunderstandings increases.
Indianism
Geometric Shapes in pairs
Narendra Modi, Amitabh Bachan and Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Do’s and Don'ts on verbal communication
Activity – Confusing Words Exercise
Activity –
I DIDN’T SAY HE STOLE THE MONEY
Pace – Talk about rate of speech
Facilitator Notes:
Conduct the activity below to bring out the need for listening.
1. Activity - Let the group speak when someone is presenting
2. Activity - Listening Quiz
Ask the participants to listen carefully and answer as many as they can correctly.
Is there any law against a man marrying his widow’s sister?
You go to bed at 8:00 at night. You have a wind-up alarm clock to wake you up at 9:00 the next morning. You fall asleep immediately, so how many hours of sleep would you get?
Do they have a 4th of July in England?
If you had only one match and entered a cold room that had a kerosene lamp, and oil heater and a wood stove, which would you light first for maximum heat?
The Mumbai and the Delhi teams play 5 hockey games. They each win 3 games. There were no ties or disputed games involved. How could they each win 3 games?
Debriefing
Here are the answers to the questions:
There is no law against a man marrying his widow’s sister, but if she were a widow, he would have to be dead.
You’d get one hour. Alarm clocks don’t know the difference between morning and night.
Yes, and they have a 5th, a 6th etc. They just don’t celebrate it.
First of all, you’d light the match.
The Mumbai and Delhi teams weren’t playing each other.
Facilitator Notes:
Listening is the process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages.
Looks At Speaker
Asks Questions When Necessary
Responds Regularly And Frequently
Stays On Subject
Emotions Under Control
Never Interrupts
Effective Communication
Bad Communication
Ignoring The lowest level of listening is called ignoring – not listening at all. If you are distracted by anything while talking to a user, they can get the impression that you are ignoring them. For example, while the user is speaking, you start a conversation or interject a comment with another IT support tech. You are ignoring your user.
Pretend Listening Pretend listening is most easily explained in the face-to-face conversation. You’re talking to the other person and they have that “backpacking in Brazil” look in their eyes. On the phone it happens when you say things like “I see” and “OK,” etc. while working on an unrelated email or playing a computer game. People can tell you’re distracted.
Selective Listening During selective listening we pay attention to the speaker as long as they are talking about things we like or agree with. If they move on to other things we slip down to pretend listening or ignore them altogether.
Attentive Listening Attentive listening occurs when we carefully listen to the other person, but while they are speaking we are deciding whether we agree or disagree, determining whether they are right or wrong. Instead of paying close attention to the other person, we’re formulating our response to what he or she is saying. At all four of these levels it should be evident that we are listening to our own perspective, and in most cases with the intent to respond from our experience.
The fifth level of listening is Empathic Listening Empathic listening, also known as empathetic listening is the the top level of listening. To be successful in providing IT support to end users, you must teach yourself to treat every call as though this is the first time you’ve ever heard this problem, even though you may have heard it many times before. Discipline yourself to see it through the eyes of the user. This is called empathic listening. Empathic listening is the highest level of listening, and the hardest to accomplish.
To achieve empathic listening, slow down, be patient, talk less and listen more, repeat back what was said to ensure you don’t overlook anything.
A way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding.
A way of paying attention to other people that can make them feel that you are hearing them
This type of listening is called active because it requires certain behaviors of the listener.
1. Display involvement in what the person is saying
2. Carefully observe the person speaking
3. Resist distractions
4. Try to stay focused on what is being said
5. Ask for clarification of anything that you do not fully understand
6. Delay making judgments about what is said.
The other communication skill that we must have as managers have the ability to ask thoughtful questions—questions that give us more information about the colleague and his/her work, thoughts, feelings. To be successful in reviewing, the manager must have knowledge and skills in both being a constructive listener and in asking the right questions at the appropriate time.
Questioning Skills
The right questions provide structure to the review. Keep these general guidelines in mind.
Ask only one question at a time.
Phrase the question in simple, easily understandable words and terms.
Keep the questions as brief as possible. As a general rule, questions that are more than two sentences in length are too long.
Keep your questions in a positive vein. Reframe negative questions to make them more positive.
Use open questions in preference to closed questions.
Follow up on incomplete answers by probing for more information.
The manager knows what types of questions to ask to get particular responses.
Get information
Gain consensus
Focus conversations
Begin the closing process
Solicit opinions
Ask the participants what are some good questions to have on hand for the feedback session? Capture the answers on flip chart paper. Few questions can include:
What do you think went wrong?
When do you expect the work to be completed?
Where do you see this heading?
How would you do the work?
What steps would you suggest?
Help me understand…
Explain what you mean by…
Can you tell me…?
Say: Be very careful about “why” questions. All too often these questions sound like accusations, and the listener immediately becomes defensive.
Steps
Divide the class into groups. Groups of three work very well but larger or smaller groups can be used.
Tell the students that you will write a sentence on the board. They will get five mins (base the time on the difficulty of the sentence) to write as many different paraphrases of the sentence as they can. The group with the most correct paraphrases wins.
The rules for scoring should be explained. If it is one of the first times the students are playing this game, go through an example as you explain the marking. Elicit possible changes. I. Each paraphrase must be accurate i.e. i.e. same tenses and meaning. Original: This shirt is too big for her. -> She was too big for the shirt. Both the meaning and tenses have changed in the example. II. Each paraphrase has to have more than one change. For example: Original: This shirt is too big for her. -> This shirt is too large for her -> This blouse is too big for her. -> This shirt is excessively big for her. None of these are good paraphrases.
At this point, the students should be ready to begin. Write one of the provided sentences on the board or use one of your own creations. Sentences that include someone in your class/school/town/country doing something funny or strange makes this a more interesting activity. For example: A paparazzi has just taken a picture of Madonna eating dog food with Lady Gaga.
After 3 mins, review the various sentences, writing the best on the board. Point out what makes the best paraphrases exceptional and then give points.
Paraphrasing is a fundamental listening skill. To paraphrase is to include the ideas or information from an original source by rephrasing those ideas or information in your own words.
The key to successful paraphrasing is to use as few words as possible from the original text--be mindful not to change the meaning that you are trying to convey as you rephrase--and to cite your paraphrase.
Paraphrasing has both a calming effect and a clarifying effect. It reassures the speaker that his or her ideas are worth listening to. And it provides the speaker with a chance to hear how his/her ideas are being heard by others.
Paraphrasing is especially useful on occasions when a speaker's statements are convoluted or confusing. At such times, the paraphrase will help the speaker gauge how well his/her ideas are getting across.
In sum, paraphrasing is the tool of choice for supporting people to think out loud.
How:
Use your own words to say what you think the speaker said.
If the speaker's statement is one or two sentences, use roughly the same number of words when you paraphrase it.
If the speaker's statement is many sentences long, summarize it.
Preface your paraphrase with a comment like one of these:
“It sounds like what you're saying is... “
“This is what I'm hearing you say ... “
“Let me see if I understand you... “
When you have completed the paraphrase, look for the speaker's reaction. Say something like, "Did I get it?" Verbally or nonverbally, s/he will indicate whether or not s/he feels understood. If not, keep asking for clarification until you understand what s/he meant.
Amy Cuddy – Body Language shapes who you are ??
Your Bucket List
Your Inspiration
Your Favorite Bollywood personality
Your Best Friend
Where do you want to see yourself in the next 10 years ?
1. Passion: Use Your Head to Reach Their Heart Passion can help you convey your story. with added emotion that expresses power and exceptional confidence. You can become a passionate speaker by combining your enthusiasm and energy.
2. Inspiration: They often tell personal stories that connect with listeners at the emotional level and inspire them.
3. Preparation: Being prepared is the best way to establish a rapport with your audience. The best speakers make presentations look effortless, although they rely on extensive preparation. Rehearsal is also important. Top communicators review their notes, visit the hall where the presentation will be delivered, and examine the seating and lighting.
4. Start Strong: Don’t Bury the Lead To focus on getting your most salient points into a 30-second opening segment, answer these questions: 1. What does my company provide, do or advocate? 2. How does my company solve customers’ problems? 3. What makes my company different? 4. What can my company do for you?
5. Clarity: Lose the Jargon or Lose Your Audience The message has to be simple and readily understandable. Once you eliminate jargon from your speeches, use analogies, anecdotes, endorsements, examples, statistics and testimonials to enhance your presentation.
6. Brevity: Keep It Short. Period Today, a sound bite takes about six seconds. A business presentation should be no longer than 15 minutes.
7. Say It with Style Broadcast industry research shows that the “ideal” voice should be clear, have an average volume and not have any distracting flaws. A pleasing voice is even an important factor in being well liked.
8. Command Presence Establishing a rapport with the audience includes having good eye contact, controlled hand gestures and an erect posture. Your body language affects your credibility.
9. Wear It Well: Image Is Almost Everything Dressing professionally and being well groomed pay a compliment to your audience. Good grooming shows you care enough to make a special effort.
10. Reinvention: stay relevant To remain fresh, stay topical and don’t repeat yourself. Exceptional communication is the key to reinventing yourself and your company.
