Saturday, November 16, 2013

Effective Communication Strategies

I have learned that communication styles vary within cultures and among people. What I have found interesting as well is that even within my own Latino culture, communication varies from country to country. So for example, I have a good friend from Puerto Rico and although we speak the same language, our vocabulary and expressions mean different at times. We have had to really sit down and talk about different words and their meanings as well as hand gestures, just to be amazed how different meaning each one had.
I guess because we have a good friendship it was easy to ask and talk about differences and similarities about our culture with no worries of offending each other.
I have also learned about the Muslim community since I have many friends and worked with families from this specific community.
I think in order to practice Effective Communication among each other we have to:
Be respectful
Be open minded
Ask questions when something is not clear to you
Treat each other as you want to be treated
Have empathy for others
Reflect on your bias and don't let that block for seeing the whole picture
                                        

5 comments:

  1. Hello Ana,
    Thanks for sharing your posting. As I often say, I do learn new things from my colleagues every week. However, when there is mutual understanding of messages between the sender and the receiver who interprets the message, and makes decisions based on it, we can say that communication is effective. It combines a set of skills including nonverbal communication, attentive listening, the ability to manage stress in the moments, and the capacity to recognize and understand one's emotions and those of the person you are communicating with. For sure, effective communication can improve relationships.
    Joanne.

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  2. Your picture quote is very powerful and it caused me to reflect upon my own listening skills. It is so important to "think before you speak." Something that I know I need more practice on! Great post

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  3. Ana,
    Lovely post. Within culture there are definitely sub-cultures and thats makes it so dynamic and the communication process so interesting yet challenging at times. However, with the right strategies we can overcome some of the barriers to effective communication.

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  4. Ana,
    Great post. Understanding different cultures is in important when it comes to communication. I agree thinking before you speak is necessary to ensure you don't offend someone or give false information.

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  5. Ana,
    Great post. It is very important that we respect and understand other cultures,i spoke about the importance of the platinum rule which before this week I don't think i heard about.

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