Communication Skills

Effective communication is the basis for successful problem solving. A lot of times, conflicts arise because of problems I communication like:  The people in conflict might not be talking to each other  They may not listen to each other when they do talk  They may talk in ways that make it difficult for the other person to receive a message.  They may misunderstand or misinterpret what is said

Communication Pitfalls The following are some ways you can shut down rather then facilitate communication between two people in conflict.  Interrupt  Offer advice  Judge  Ridicule  Criticize  Distract  Bring up your own experience

Active Listening In order to help people communicate with each other, you can use the following skills:  Attending  Summarizing  Clarifying All of these skills together are called active listening.

Attending Using nonverbal behaviors to show you hear, are interested, and want to understand. Some examples are:  Eye contact  Facial expressions  Gestures  Leaning forward in chair

Summarizing Summarizing involves two things:  Restating the facts by repeating the most important parts and disgarding extra information  Reflecting feelings

Clarifying Using open ended questions to get additional information and make sure that you understand.

Use open ended questions to keep a conversation going! Open Ended Questions are those that keep people talking. They usually start with the words:  Who  What  When  Where  Why  How  Tell me more about Close ended questions can be answered by a simple yes or no and tend to end a line of conversation. They usually begin with:  Can  Have  Should  Did

Practice all three active listening skills in conversations everyday and become an expert friend and communicator!  Attending  Summarizing  Clarifying