Between the lines

Perception psychology: “The more I see the less I know for sure”-John Lennon

What do you see?

I see a beautiful young woman, whereas some may just see the plants. You see the reason I portrayed an image such as the one you see above is to convey those perceptions are distorted depending on who sees the image. This leads me to my next question: How would you describe the image you see? If you’d noticed I describe the image as a “beautiful young woman”, and so in your mind, the image already became a thing resembling beauty, therefore my communication has an impact through the words I use. This leads me onto the personal development and employment module, where I was introduced to the three 7cs of communication.

I am not perfect in communication and no one is, it’s the fact that I had many experiences with communication in the form of public speaking to a crowd of sixty, talking to the youth through Westford University College's Youth Businesses Leadership programs, and also by coming from a culture which instilled happiness through the use of my words. Within these experiences, I have learned a great deal about how to address different levels of people. For example; Dear sir/ mam (for elders or out of respect) and Hey or Hi (to friends and close ones). This allowed me to view communication as a cycle.

The communication cycle helped me to see the ways communication moves and at what stages the communication is in, so that way I can act appropriately. Similarly, the Mehrabian Model aided me to describe the actions needed to communicate effectively. Areas of improvement in my communication package are:

1. Body language (My stance and the positioning of my body on during a conversation)

2. Gestures (Conveying my message through the use of hand gestures)

3. Eye contact (Maintaining strong eye contact)

4. Handshakes (practice a firm and proper handshake) and

5. Proximity and space (Being culturally aware of the space that I am comfortable with and using that space to effectively communicate).

But that’s not all!

It’s no use communicating effectively and not LISTENING. I am a poor listener; I feel like I get distracted far too easily. I'm practice listening by, asking questions, not interrupting a person whilst talking and always showing kindness whenever I can. This lead me to take a quiz by Queendom which showed that surprisingly I am an OK listener.

So, with this new found confidence, I was eager to know how can I improve. The video that was shown in class did just that.

In this extraordinary video the speaker, Julian Treasure, helped me highlight areas to improve my listening skills, a few minutes of silence every day, and if I'm in a busy environment listen to each sound and pay attention to those sounds. This will help me not only now but in the future as I can better understand and not have any conflicts due to miscommunication. Also by being a good listener, I can put my skills and expertise to accurate use by listening to those who are conveying a message to me.

References

breakers, T. g., 2022. Old guy falling down stairs meme. [Online] Available at: https://youtu.be/1lPwKDwVCYo [Accessed 15 April 2022].

doyouremember, 2022. Optical Illusions. [Online] Available at: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/756112224930621193/ [Accessed 15 April 2022].

MindToolsVideo, 2018. The 7 Cs of Communication. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYBw9-8eCuM [Accessed 15 April 2022].

Ted, 2011. 5 ways to listen better | Julian Treasure. [Online] Available at: https://youtu.be/cSohjlYQI2A [Accessed 15 April 2022].