Communication

Practice comprehension. Occasionally read or listen to difficult-to-understand materials to keep your brain sharp.

• Avoid unconscious barriers to good listening. Such barriers may include a desire to be right, a fear of another’s influence, self-absorption with our own ideas, or apprehension about our ability to express ourselves lest we take our mind off our own thoughts.

• Information Questions: How, What, Where, When, and Why?
• Precision Questions: 'What exactly?', or 'How much?', or 'Always?'
• Powerful Questions: 'What's stopping you?' or 'What are you afraid might happen if you. . .?'
• Reflective Questions: 'So you're saying that. . .?‘
• Probing Questions: ‘What do you mean by that?' 'Could you explain that further?' 'Have you thought of. . . .?' 'What else has happened?' 'And then what happened?'

• Asking questions...

• Questioning comes at both ends of the communication model. Sometimes the “source” poses a question to stimulate conversation or get information. Other times the question is asked as feedback from the receiver, asking for clarification. There are several types of questions:

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• Difference of opinions is normal. How you resolve those differences is called “conflict resolution”. Before you introduce information that is not in agreement with what the other person said, you must use a "Transition Sentence" or risk starting an argument. A transition sentence provides support for the person's point of view without necessarily agreeing with it, and at the same time, makes them receptive to a different point of view. People are resistant to changing their minds, however, most people are willing to "make new decisions" based on new information, as long as they have a way to justify their previous point of view.

• Communicating a disagreement...

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