Communicating Effectively
This week’s discussion was on challenges in communication. Communication is hard. We can say something with good intentions and in our heads know exactly what we mean, but the people that we say it to can not see our thought process and so at times are not able to get understand 100% of what we mean by what we say. This can lead to them becoming frustrated or offended. Especially since a lot of the meaning from what we say does not come from the words we say as much as the tones we use and the nonverbal cues that we give off while we talk.
The most important part of communication is listening to what people say. Really listening takes work, it does not just happen. To really be listening we have to not be focused on coming up with how we will respond to what is being said. To be an active listener we should at times during a conversation repeat back what has been said to make sure that we understand what they said in the way they meant. This can be really tricky. We try to listen to people, but will often get distracted with other thoughts, or sometimes we can be constantly interrupting them making it so that they don’t ever get a chance to finish what they were saying.
When we are listening and planning how we are going to respond we sometimes can fall into the role of the interrupter. This is because we come up with a response for the first few things that were said and then come up with a response for the next few things that were said. The person that we are talking to doesn’t have a chance to tell us what is going on because they could never finish what they were trying to say and we can’t help them because we never actually understood what the issue was.
Without even realizing it when we are conversing with others we are listening to what they are saying we also hear the tone of their voice and we watch them so see what their nonverbal cues like the gestures and expressions they make. We use the input from each of these to help us to not only understand what they are saying, but to comprehend what they mean and feel about what it is that they are sharing. Fully comprehending what they are sharing with us happens when we use different pieces of communication to make sense of their meaning.
The great challenge of understanding communication is that in trying to make sense of what is being said we don’t know what they are thinking and because of that it is easy to accidentally misunderstand what they are trying to tell us. When we misunderstand what is being said it can be very frustrating for them and for us. The actions and reactions that we make are often to what we may think someone meant instead of what they actually meant.
Communication is very important, but because of the complexity of being able to communicate what we actually mean and not just the words that we use, it makes it easy to say things that are misunderstood. When something is misunderstood people can be offended and feel like we don’t really care about how they feel, even when that is not the case. It is very important to remember that because communication is so complicated that we have to learn how to listen and understand what people are trying to express before we become frustrated over anything that was said.
The most important part of communication is listening to what people say. Really listening takes work, it does not just happen. To really be listening we have to not be focused on coming up with how we will respond to what is being said. To be an active listener we should at times during a conversation repeat back what has been said to make sure that we understand what they said in the way they meant. This can be really tricky. We try to listen to people, but will often get distracted with other thoughts, or sometimes we can be constantly interrupting them making it so that they don’t ever get a chance to finish what they were saying.
When we are listening and planning how we are going to respond we sometimes can fall into the role of the interrupter. This is because we come up with a response for the first few things that were said and then come up with a response for the next few things that were said. The person that we are talking to doesn’t have a chance to tell us what is going on because they could never finish what they were trying to say and we can’t help them because we never actually understood what the issue was.
Without even realizing it when we are conversing with others we are listening to what they are saying we also hear the tone of their voice and we watch them so see what their nonverbal cues like the gestures and expressions they make. We use the input from each of these to help us to not only understand what they are saying, but to comprehend what they mean and feel about what it is that they are sharing. Fully comprehending what they are sharing with us happens when we use different pieces of communication to make sense of their meaning.
The great challenge of understanding communication is that in trying to make sense of what is being said we don’t know what they are thinking and because of that it is easy to accidentally misunderstand what they are trying to tell us. When we misunderstand what is being said it can be very frustrating for them and for us. The actions and reactions that we make are often to what we may think someone meant instead of what they actually meant.
Communication is very important, but because of the complexity of being able to communicate what we actually mean and not just the words that we use, it makes it easy to say things that are misunderstood. When something is misunderstood people can be offended and feel like we don’t really care about how they feel, even when that is not the case. It is very important to remember that because communication is so complicated that we have to learn how to listen and understand what people are trying to express before we become frustrated over anything that was said.
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