Question 1: Describe the situation and why the conversation will be a difficult one.
This August, during my short vacation back home, I am planning to have a difficult conversation with a former fellow who I have known three years ago while I was serving in the Taiwanese Armed Forces. We were best friends at that time; however, due to a series of misunderstanding occurred in the last month of our service, we stopped talking to each other ever since and eventually became estranged. Now every time when I look back at our withering friendship, I cannot help but feel regret about it. And I am planning to have a difficult conversation with this friend, trying to recover our long past friendship.
It will be a difficult conversation for us for several reasons. First, we have not stayed in touch since our discharge from the armed forces. Several years have passed and now it seems imperative that we re-establish an effective communication channel and get to re-know each other in the shortest possible time. Second, when dealing with the “what happened” conversation, we must manage to revisit all the misunderstanding occurred two years ago, so that we are able to exchange our stories. Lastly, we need to properly and openly express our feelings, a challenging situation that I am not comfortable with. Considering all these factors, I anticipate our conversation to be both a difficult and a challenging one.
Question 2: Discuss the what happened conversation.
The “what happened” conversation centers on a disagreement generated by misunderstanding between two parties (Heen et al, p.26, 2010). In such a difficult conversation, we must first understand that it is rarely about getting the facts right, but rather, it is about conflicting percep...
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...ore about his story and recognize the misunderstanding involved, but also directly encourage him to reveal more of his story. This will lead to effective communication between us. Second, I must speak for myself with clarity and power, so that I can express what I am thinking and feeling. As I am usually not a confident speaker, some preparations will help me identify the key issues in my story, so that I can give him the whole spectrum of my story during our conversation. I must provide the context and the development of my feelings during those past events to help him understand me better. By carefully examining all the above-mentioned tactics, I found that a difficult conversation is all about communication. By openly expressing my story and actively listening to his story, I should feel confident that I will eventually succeed in such a difficult conversation.
...om an unbiased perspective, engage in self-discovery, listen from a stance of genuine curiosity, ask questions, and pay attention to feelings. Finally, with consideration for both perspectives, we can begin problem solving. The authors of Difficult Conversations suggest working toward a productive, learning conversation, and they offer realistic advice on obtaining this objective. I am glad that I had the opportunity, and that I took the time, to read this book. It has empowered me to tackle difficult conversations with confidence, and it has changed my approach to problem solving.
Listening is a vital and important part of communication. While speaking clearly and concisely is imperative, true listening is central to speaking with mindfulness and in the case of the counselor, this mindfulness has the possibility of leading clients to their own solutions to life’s tough circumstances. In his book, Petersen (2007) breaks down the communication cycle so that we can be aware of how we react when people share their emotions with us, and how to effectively communicate by listening and speaking in turn to build strong and supportive relationships, whether they are personal or professional.
What do we do when we face conflict? we either run away from it, or turn to violence. Conflict usually starts as a crucial conversation that was communicated poorly. Sure, we can blame our genetic makeup for our emotions as we are hardwired to come into conflict with one another. Wynne Perry of Live Science interviewed anthropology researcher, Christopher Boehm of the University of Southern California who shed light on the issue” The genes are still making us do the same old things, which include quite a bit of conflict.” However, Boehm has some good news” Culture has given us solutions at various levels”. So, what is a crucial conversation? And, how can we handle it?
Before beginning a crucial conversation, ask what is at stake and what is the desired outcome. It
In Robert M. Hutchins essay, ”Preface to The Great Conversation” he discusses how he believes Great Books are the finest creations. According to Hutchins, Great Books are the books written in the Western civilization. Robert Hutchins believes reading these books will help everyone morally, intellectually and spiritually. In the fifth paragraph Hutchins state, “the rising generation has been deprives of its birthright: adults have come to lead lives comparatively rich in material comforts and very poor in moral, intellectual, and spiritual tone.” Hutchins believes this because this generation isn’t reading the Great books, to such on the materialistic thing in life. I disagree with Hutchins. I don’t’ believe everyone should read Great books. I disagree, everyone opinion of a great book is different.
Communications generally occur in body languages: how the individuals interpret each other. Her essay is an event that is reoccurring more and more lately. The event results in a failure in marriage. In today’s society more and more people are splitting up or having divorces due to miscommunications. The essay, “Sex, Lies and Conversation,” that Deborah Tannen wrote is much use of today because it explains where miscommunications happen and she has her own studies and research to back it up. The essay goes into depth about her ideologies that cause miscommunications. Look at a miscommunication twice and do not be quick to judge because it will save plenty of
Communication is essential in our everyday life. There are many forms of communication; to name a few: there is intrapersonal communication, interpersonal communication, interviewing, small group communication, computer-mediated communication, and mass communication. Although we all engage in all of these forms of communication every day, I would have to say that I engage the most in intrapersonal communication and small group communication. Speaking of communication, I believe that my biggest strength deals with self monitoring strategies. For some of my weakness, I would have to say that due to self-destructive beliefs, I have very low self-esteem. I would also like to introduce and talk about a topic that I found
“By Failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” The great mind of Benjamin Franklin said that and it connects with many aspects of every day life. One that it connects to greatly is communication. Right now my future plans are to become a certified public accountant. “In this job with how global it is becoming you are constantly communicating.” Which was said by Miss Lauren Kolarik. “Communication is very important,” she continues, “in this job you use every type of communication.” There is conversational communication when you are working with your team in auditing a company, there is professional communication when talking with a partner and there is written communication when writing emails to clients and overseas workers. All of these types are important because they all accomplish a different but equally significant aspect of the job. Through the course of the interview, one idea remained constant in every answer, be prepared. In the field of accounting you will be communicating in a conversational, professional and written form. It is crucial you know which type of communication to use and how to vitalize its
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Months past since the last time we’ve seen each other. Months since the time I saw him giving it his all during conditioning. Words cannot describe how much this person impacted the lives of many people in my hometown of Smithfield, RI. It was mid-November. My brother was heading home from college and I picked up my brother from the train station. He distressingly broke the news to me about his sudden passing, and my heart dropped to my stomach. During the whole ride home, I was too nauseated to even speak. I wanted to believe that I was simply having a bad dream. I cried myself to sleep that night. I had school the next day and wasn’t able to function properly. Walking through the crowded halls, I watched all of my classmates walking to their classes in tears. As the announcements came on through the intercom, I could hear the sorrow in my principal's voice as he was speaking about weekly events. I had continuous flashbacks of the cheesy jokes he used to tell, his lustrous smile that brought happiness to others, and his curly perm that he never wanted to cut. I just wanted to stay in my bed and let every single tear drain from my glands. I went to the candlelight vigil for him the next day. Almost everyone from the town attended with a candle. The iridescence reflecting from the candles illuminated the sky with an angelic glow. I felt like he was there next to us at that moment, smiling for what
The conversation I chose to analyze was the third conversation between two participants about a classmate they go to school with. After reading and analyzing the conversation I would have to personally find it unsuccessful. The reason is because only one participant is actually successful in communicating their point to the other person.
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Use communication skills effectively, use active listening by listening to the other person and paying close attention to what they are saying, asking questions and rephrasing what the person says to ensure understanding.
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It’s been said, “you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family” this quote is so true when it comes to family relationships you can’t choose them but you’re stuck with them for life. Things can often get tough and when family relationships get tense it can only make life a lot more difficult than what is necessary. My communication goal is to better improve my current relationship with my teenage brother, we have both have not been getting along lately as well as I would like (teenagers and their mood swings…) and I want to change that in a more effective way by using the skills I learned in interpersonal speech. In this paper I tried to complete my goal of improving and maintaing a solid relationship with my brother I applied perception checking, listening, and self-disclosure to better communicate and understand my brother. I used the concepts of self-disclosure, perception checking and responsive listening because those three concepts applied the closest to each situation. With each one I felt that I understood how exactly to communicate using them and that they fit in well with what was going on between my brother and I.