Three Important Skills in Effective Communication
I think the biggest mistakes we make in communication revolve around assuming that the other person will understand will understand what we are trying to
say, and not take precautionary actions in making sure there is no room for misunderstanding. I'll show three points to be careful of in order to successfully communicate.
Talking more beats talking less
I have the chance to teach children both English and Japanese to non natives. When I teach, I try to teach in the language I'm teaching them, even though oftentimes my students aren't familiar with the language. However, by using lots of words to describe one word or one event, I can have them understand what I am trying to say. For example, I wanted to describe what 'past tense', 'present tense', and 'future tense' meant. I described it using body signs, words, and finally settled with the calendar. I pointed at the boxes that represented yesterday, today, and tomorrow to show what the three tenses meant.
In reality, we won't be talking in languages they don't understand very often, so my method can be overly redundant. However, I think I can apply this to my daily life. Even when I think something is self explanatory, I can avoid any confusions by re-saying something to make sure that I am being clear.
Leaving written messages or e-mails when giving important information
When there is an important piece of information that needs to be passed on to somebody, I always make sure to first tell them by phone or in person, and follow up with a note or an e-mail to make sure that they have both understood my point and remembered what we talked about. This is especially true to work related communication. I have been taught that when important information needs to be passed on to somebody else, I should first look into ways I could reach them through a method that involved them hearing my voice. After I gave them the information, I should reaffirm the information by sending them an email or leaving a note so that they could refer back to it for details that may have missed them. This way, I can repeat myself, which gives me a chance to make things clearer, and the receiver can repeat the information in their minds which would help them to remember what we discussed better.
Not assuming that what I know is common knowledge
Unless a certain piece of information is something everyone knows without a doubt, I try to make sure that I do not assume that the receiver will know what I am talking about, and try to explain things as I speak. This can prevent confusion and misunderstanding by making sure that the listener and I are both sharing the same knowledge needed to understand the topic being discussed. I am most careful about this when I am talking about culturally sensitive topics. I live in an English speaking community in Japan, and the foreigners have different degrees of cultural knowledge. Some will know so much about the Japanese culture that they can even surprise me, a Japanese native. Another person can have as little information as someone that's had no exposure to the culture, and everybody else will fall somewhere in between. Therefore, unless I have previously found out about their knowledge of the Japanese culture, I try to make sure that I establish a common ground of understanding before I start communicating with them.
To repeat, the three main skills I use in becoming an effective communicator are talking more instead of talking less, repeating myself using written notes or e-mails, and not assuming that what I know will be common knowledge to the listener. By keeping these three things in mind, I can make sure that I am being clear to the receiver, and also avoid any misunderstandings that may have required me to spend even more time than taking these precautionary steps in the first place.