The problem of ineffective communication happens at all levels. In the workplace, what the manager speaks and what the employee perceives can be very different. Using the announcement of the job offer in the Saudi Arabia, perhaps the idea the manager wanted to convey was that the opportunity to work in Saudi Arabia is great and he has chosen the employee among others as the best candidate with a great chance of promotion when he returns. But if he had communicated in a dull and solemn manner, the employee might perceive the same message as something otherwise. In school, when we work in groups, there are times when we feel that we have a good idea to put across, but if we convey the idea ineffectively, the good idea will most likely be rejected due to poor clarity and things like that. At a personal level, ineffective communication may lead to shouting matches with your friends or loved ones making everyone angry with each other. Therefore developing our communication skills can help us convey our ideas effectively in many situations.
In my opinion, talking is different from speaking and hearing is different from listening. Engaging in effective communication is not just talking about your ideas and hearing what the other party has to say. Speaking involves a process to clarify the idea in your mind before conveying it to the concerned party while listening involves an effort to register in your mind what the speaker has to say. For example in lectures, I can hear 100% of what lecturer has to say but only listened up to 10% . How then can we speak effectively and listened attentively? Maybe the answer is in “The Science of Effective Communication in the Workplace”. J
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Hey swee guan, looks like you are advertising for the textbook!!!How much commission will you be receiving?Haha!!!I agreed with you about the lecture example, maybe for my case is 5% into my right ear, 95% out of my left ear!
ReplyDeleteHi Swee Guan,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with what you cause I believe that different tone and words used can caused the other party misunderstandings. Something that may be positive may be misinterpret as something negative. Therefore, we have to be careful in the words that we used. That is the reason we choose this course, which is to learn how to speak appropriately.
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ReplyDeleteHey Swee Guan,
ReplyDeleteEffective communication definitely plays an important role be it at group or personal levels. And i thought you brought up a very important point regarding the listener because communication is a two-way thing. A person can communicate effectively but alot depends on the receiving end too. This is what i want to emphasize regarding the marriage issue i mentioned in my post. No wonder there is a chinese saying,"对牛弹琴"!!! Cheers!
Hi, Swee Guan！
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing out that communication is a two way process. Before read your entry, I only though of how I can diliver what I mean to the other party effectively, but forgot about the listener party. Yes, given a listener who only hears but not listen, I belive no one can communicate with he/she effectively. But it seems there's nothing much we can do to the other party. So maybe we develop ourselves into effective listener first~ ^_~
You remind me the practice about making the announcement of job offer in Saudi Arabia at class. Acting as the manager, I did a bad job. Honestly, I was not prepared for the speech. Yes, I do agree that tone played an important role in communication too.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of differentiating between talking and speaking, hearing and listening. But I feel that those words can be used interchangeably. For instance, hearing can also means that the person is making an effort to understand what the speaker is talking about.
Nevertheless, I understand the points you intended to convey. I guess the answer to speaking effectively and listening attentively is to practice and can make an effort to improve our way of communicating daily?
I like your entry, short and sweet. :)