EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES

The following points are useful when we want to communicate effectively - when we want to achieve good results from our communication:

Who we are actively communicating with:

This guideline requires us to understand mood, expectation, culture, previous knowledge, and behavior of the person we communicate with. We should then structure our message and the mode of delivering the message according to what we have learn about the person we are communicating to, because at the end what we want is to be understood, and we already have an expectation of reaction of the person we are talking to.

From someone to you: For example if someone is giving you instruction or teaching you, he or she expects you to pay attention, understand, if you don’t understand you can ask. But if you seem to be occupied with other things like using cellphone or listening something else, you may distract the person, you may even be sending message that you already know what he or she is trying to say to you. In this way you may force that person to restructure his or her message, may be giving you less information than required, in the end you two fail to communicate effectively.

From you to someone else: For example, if you are trying to speak a funny thing while the mood of a person or what he or she expects is that you will be serious leave funny stuff for later stage of communication, this funny stuff of yours will not work. The person may think you are not serious, may even think you don’t give importance to the matter on hand.

Language use:

From you to someone else: Remember to keep your language simple and understandable, make sure you use the language that someone else will understood, because it doesn’t make sense if the person you are communicating to doesn’t understand you. So know whether formal language or informal language is appropriate or not. Informal language is like using certain shortcuts for words or phrases, use of slang words etc.

From you to someone Consider context of words used to correctly understand the meaning of what someone else wanted to say. In some cases, words used may have different meaning from the usual well known meaning.

You should also consider differences in pronouncing words.

Language use includes choice of appropriate language signs. In some cases, you may not be required to use sign languages because it may not bring positive understanding. For example, if someone asks you by speaking, but you reply by nodding only, in some cases it may be interpreted badly.

Environment: 

Consider the environment you are in when communicating. Noise and other interruptions may cause misunderstanding or not understanding each other at all. In some cases environment may cause fear or anxiety that may affect interpretation and feedback.

Non verbal communication:  

It is important also to take note of non verbal communication – how you look at some, how you pose, how you node, what you touch, etc. All these can send certain message to the person you are communicating too. You should also notice the non verbal communication from the one you are communicating too. How this person looks at you, what he touches, how he or she touches etc. Examples of messages sent through non verbal communication include – not sure, fear, true, not agreeing, agreeing, comfortable or uncomfortable.

Consider the message:

Complete – you should make sure that you have heard or read complete information otherwise your feedback may be wrong or irrelevant.

Clear – Make your message well understood by clearly showing intention, key points, and what kind of feedback you expect from the one you are communicating to.

Relevant – Make sure what you are communicating is relevant. For example, jokes are nice, but when they are used unnecessarily, they create distraction. Another example is when you repeatedly use the same words or examples in your conversation, you may create unnecessary

Correct – Making sure that what you are saying or writing is important to help you get effective feedback. The same can be said to making sure what you hear or read is correct.