To begin with communication we must first learn how we as individuals think and how we can teach ourselves on how to be more effective. Before we can speak we must learn how to think. Self-awareness comes from our own makeup and our own thinking based on circumstances. A fun way to learn about oneself is to take the Myers-Briggs Type test. How we think and how we make choices says a lot about how we communicate. Being able to recognize ones own personal strengths is helpful when working with others and trying to reach a bigger perspective when it comes to resolving issues and barriers within communication. The article on the web about, “Successful Communication Begins with Self Awareness”, is a great review of how important it is to learn about what our personal preferences are and how they relate with others.
On another note, learning about global diversity and how others communicate is also an important perspective to realize. Even if we work with a certain culture group it is very important to recognize ones individuality and identity. By labeling and stereotyping too much, can pull apart communication. The article called, “Global Diversity: Understanding Cultural Differences in Communication Style” retrieved from, www.orcworldwide.com/readroom/diversity_culture. Speaks about how the importance of being culturally sensitive. When working with someone from a different background than us, or someone that uses another language to communicate, sometimes the context of thinking may not be clear. To effectively manage clearer understanding we must learn to sympathize or use empathy to place ourselves in their situation to learn about how they feel or think about the situation.
In the article I do not agree that the American style of communication is very direct or personal. But I do agree that it is problem-oriented. I think because there is not too much awareness to care about others, and more of an image to care oneself that creates a barrier automatically. If someone has a position of power, they usually communication out of that frame of mind, rather than a way to communicate as leaders.
In the American culture it is so easy to make friends and so easy to lose it. In Europe the communication is very clear as to the social structures of experiences. I’m sure this exists in the USA also but not as much as I had expected out of my personal experiences. Having experienced two contexts of life in Europe and the United States and the crash course in Iraq, this has opened my eyes to communication very much. What one person thinks is person may not be the same for another. That is why it is so important to learn about cultural differences to better communicate and build interpersonal relationship.
Being explicit with saying what you mean is often overlooked since many people assume they know what you are talking about and that may be a lack of listening skills or it could be out of ignorance or just simply not being a good communicator.
To be effective we sometimes have to repeat ourselves to get what we want or to be understood and this can be effective in portraying our point of view.
Another helpful perception to have in understanding communication is to have a clear systematic approach. Kinesics and the actions people make nonverbally also plays a role in global communication. It does not matter with whom you are communicating with, the gestures one makes says a lot about how you one feels and thinks. By learning one’s own communication style one will learn how to determine how the other is communicating. In a meeting, at home with family, with friends, or with someone who you are interviewing. People express a lot about what is being communicated in their surroundings.
I was an observer to an argument at work. Two ladies at work were arguing about a job. On the manufacturing floor we have to build things and their task was to label strings one through four. To make this visual simple to understand I will do my best to describe it. There was a round plastic coil and out of the coil were four strings. The task was to label each string one through four. The first lady argued in her language that you must face the strings up before you label them. And the other lady argued that the strings must face down. I used my logical thinking and thought it was very absurd that I was experiencing something that could be placed in some third grade conflict. I let them talk back and forth and than I stopped one of the ladies and said. “Hey, can I tell you something?. You both are right about what you are saying. Can I tell you why? I than looked at the other lady and she did not understand my language too well, but I smiled and than I said to the one that had her feelings hurt the most. “Here let me show you something”. I said directing her to hold up her coil. “If you have four strings and you number them you can see the numbers written on each strand.” I asked her if she could see it and she said yes. I than went on to say, “ And if you turn this upside down with the four legs facing down, the numbers are still in the same spot. Can you see that it did not change?” She said yes and smiled. And than I went to the other lady and repeated myself. They both understood and were still a bit irritated, but after an hour they were back to normal. Sometimes it take someone to bring in another way of seeing something to help in communication, because the way something is expressed sometimes and the words used, together with the relationship you have to the person you are speaking says a lot about what will happen.
In my tact of resolution, I used explicitness, I was direct with not too many words since there vocabulary is not large, I also approached it with personal focus on trying to make them both feel better in that they were both right. I also understood that they both had different perceptions and tried to communicate with both of them in the communication style they would understand. Also depending on influence depends on how culture affects perception as to whether it is low or high in context. By wanting both people to build a better relationship I approached it with this perspective. I believe that I hold a kind of individualism and therefore I strive for personal achievement but also look to helping others. I would not say that I am that competitive. Not only is it essential to know our own skills, but to learn about others. The conflict resolution occurs when we know how to listen. Listening improves interpretation, judgment, and evaluation. Author Sarah Trenholm says, “When we listen, we engage in a complex multistep process that includes, sensory stimuli that make up a message, our own experiences to interpret, critically evaluation or our interpretations, the responses to messages, and storing the messages for later usage”. (Trenholm, 2008, pg. 45)
References:
Trenholm, Sarah, ( 2008) Thinking through communication: an introduction to the
Study of Human communication. 5th ed. Pearson Education, Inc.
LeBaron, Michelle, (2003) Communication Tools for Understanding Cultural
Differences: Cultural Diversity. Beyond Intractability Project. Colorado
University of Colorado at Boulder. Retrieved on March 9, 2011 from
Wyman, O., Carpenter Guy (2011) Global Diversity: Understanding Cultural
Differences in Communication Style. Mercer LLC. Retrieved on
March 9, 2011 from www.orcworldwide.com/readroom/diversity_culture.
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