Strategies for Effective Communication Certificate

Understanding Generational and Dimensional Diversity are foundational to the rest of the certification. It will help us to understand the complex layers of diversity that exist in our workplace. We have all of these unique people with their unique worldviews which creates challenges like gaps in the ability to communicate effectively and collaborate productively. If we can break down the biases and stereotypes that we all hold about each other, we can narrow these gaps to where people are better at working with each other because they have increased their communication skills and are better equipped to work with people of all ages and with many different dimensions as well.

This was posed over 30 years ago (in 1989) by Stephen Covey, in the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” He wrote: “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” Listening with the intent to reply is listening for your opportunity to control the interaction. Most of us think that helping someone else means telling them what they ought to do or trying to give them good advice…so that we can give them a solution to their problems. What people really want is to be heard and not heard just enough to be judged and be told what to do, but really fully listened to and focused on. If we can truly learn to listen to understand you will build better interpersonal relationships, gather critical facts before making decisions, uncover underlying issues, avoid trifling conversations, and recognize the skills, knowledge, and contributions of others.

Gathering information is a basic human activity – we use the information to learn, to help us solve problems, aid our decision-making processes, and to understand each other more clearly. Questioning is the key to gaining more information and without it, interpersonal communications can fail. This means that in order to communicate well, you need to ask the right question and ask it at the right time. The wrong question is almost guaranteed to generate the wrong answer. This course focuses on how we can ask questions well by knowing your questions and knowing your audience, so being mindful.

Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people intended to reach a beneficial outcome over one or more issues. Often negotiation is seen in terms of ‘getting your own way’ or ‘driving a hard bargain.’ While in the short-term bargaining may well achieve the aims for one side, it is what’s called a win-lose approach. This means that while one side wins the other loses and the outcome may well damage future relationships between the parties. It also increases the likelihood of relationships breaking down, of people walking out or refusing to deal with the ‘winners’ again, and the process ending in a dispute. In contrast, win-win negotiation is a negotiation style in which the interests of both parties are taken into consideration to end the discussion positively and gain maximum benefit. A win-win negotiation is a discussion instead of a competition.

Many of us have had the unpleasant duty of having to deliver bad news for a myriad of reasons. And, without preparation, bad news can be delivered poorly, resulting in damage or loss of relationships, mistrust, loss of confidence, and even retaliation. Unfortunately, there are far too many examples of this being done poorly; bad news being downplayed, blamed on someone else, or simply lied about. This training outlines how you can use your communication skills to deliver difficult messages without unduly concerning your audience. There are well-proven 10 commandments that can be incorporated into the delivery of difficult messages that can not only provide an ideal, ethical guide but provide respect and dignity to the receiver.