Unit 1: My Voice video script

Video 1.2, page 18

Communication plays an important role in helping us work well as a team and build relationships.
But we all have different ways of communicating and differences in our communication styles can cause
problems in communication.
In fact, communication problems are often listed as the number one problem when working with people
from different countries.
The first step to improving the way we communicate with others is to think about our own
communication style.
Understanding our communication style is like getting to know a map of how we communicate. And when
we know this map well, we’re then in a better place to think about how other people communicate and
put that on the map.
Of course, we often change the way we communicate depending on the situation or on who we talk to,
but, in general, we often have a preferred style of communication.
And when someone we meet has a very different communication style from ours, it can cause difficulties.
But is it a bad thing – to have different communication styles? Sometimes talking to people with different
communication styles can be a good thing because it helps us to see things from a different point of view.
For example, I often talk about how things make me feel and I will usually use a lot of emotional words
when I speak.
When I talk to someone who is likely to think more about the facts of a situation, it helps me to notice
things I’d never considered before. It helps me to get a different perspective and I come out of that
conversation feeling like I’ve really learned something.
In the same way, it might not always be good to talk to people with communication styles that are similar
to yours. If we have a group of people who are all active and competitive communicators, we might not
be able to work well together. And if we have a group of people who are all passive and cooperative, we
might not push each other to make changes and be more creative.
So, when you meet someone you have problems communicating with, first ask yourself: What do I know
about my own communication style? How aware am I about how I talk to people?
The next step is then to think about their communication style and how that is different from or similar to
yours. Do you think the communication difficulty comes from the differences or the similarities?
When we understand how our communication styles might cause communication problems for us, we can
then start to think about how we can adapt to our conversation partner and what changes we could make
in order to avoid those communication issues and have more effective and efficient conversations.

Intermediate Student’s Book: Unit 1: My Voice video script