ICAR Sponsored Short Course on Communication & Management Skills for Extension Professionals (1-10 June 2015)

Overview of
Communication Skills

Bharat S. Sontakki (bharatss@naarm.ernet.in)

1 June 2015 Total Slides: 42
 Objectives i) Reinforce importance of and need for
understanding and practicing
“Communication Skills for Personal
and Professional Excellence”
ii) Briefing on the exercise
Focus Experience sharing, interaction and
exercises
Date 1 June 2015

Duration 1hour

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 Setting the Stage
“Communication may not save us,
but without communication we will not be saved.”
- William F. Berkeley

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 Setting the Stage

The single biggest problem with communication is the

illusion that is has taken place.
-George Bernard Shaw

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 Understanding Communication:
Classic Communication Model

Medium

Sender Message Receiver

Coded Decoded
Feedback

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 The Process

COMMUNICATOR

CHANNEL

NOISE
CONTEXT CONTEXT
MESSAGE

AUDIENCE

FEEDBACK

EFFECT

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 What is Effective Communication?

Communication is what we do to give and get understanding.

 Effective communication occurs when there is common

understanding of meaning and intent.
 The message that is sent is the same message that is received.
 There must be a mutual understanding between the sender and the
receiver for effective communication.

“What you heard is NOT what I said!”

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 Communication Skills

RECEPTIVE SKILLS EXPRESSIVE SKILLS

 Listening  Speaking
 Reading  Writing
 Observing  Non-verbal skills

PROCESSING SKILLS
Thinking, Analyzing, Decision Making

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 Barriers to Communication

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 Barriers to Communication ..

 Physical & Environmental Barriers: due to time, place, space,

climate, noise, medium, etc.
 Barriers due to wrong choice of medium

 Semantic barriers: due to varied connotative meanings

 Socio-cultural barriers: due to diversity of cultures

 Psychological / attitudinal barriers: due to emotions, attitudes,

strong sentiments, etc.
 Barriers due to varying levels of perception: due to variations
in understanding and comprehension
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 Communication Skills:
The Outreach Perspective

 Diverse audience and divergent needs

 Quick grasp / awareness and alertness
 Timeliness and timing
 Analytical perspective
 Empathetic listening, patience and perseverance
 Innovative thinking
 Clarity of thoughts, expression and actions

success mantra
work, hard-work and smart-work
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 Strategies for Effective Communication

 Know yourself

 Know your audience

 Know the context and purpose

 Communicate bit by bit

 Think and organize your communication

 Follow the ABCs of communication

 Maintain consistency
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 Strategies for Effective Communication

 Choose your words and balance them with

appropriate non verbal cues

 Be a good and empathetic listener

 Encourage feedback and use it constructively

 Guard your credibility

 Master communication skills

 Judiciously use humour and silence

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 EXERCISE
Funlearning by Unlearning & Relearning

 Individual exercise

 Prepare and orally present a 2 minute speech in ENGLISH

(sans AV aids) for video-graphing on 4 June 2015

 Your presentations will be and played back for review,

analysis and feedback on the same day

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 EXERCISE ..

Format Options: Present any recent innovative approach / success

story of your institution to
 A group of high school students on their visit to your institution
 The members of Rotary Club (an invited speech)
 To the members of Management Committee of your institute
 To an international delegation on visit to your institution
 To a task force headed by the Director General, ICAR

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 EXERCISE …
Follow 3M Approach: Structure your content to make it
Memorable, Meaningful and Miniature
 Analysis and feedback will focus on
Content: its relevance and structure for the audience and
purpose
Presentation: style, accent, pronunciation, intonation, cliché
etc.
Non-verbal aspects: confidence, posture, eye contact,
facial expressions, etc.
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 How to get Started?
 Write a good script: consider audience, purpose
& time to balance the content

 Prepare thoroughly: physically, technically,

intellectually and emotionally

 Rehearse your speech

 Don’t read the script

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 Take-home Message # 1

Development of effective communication skills is a life-long

process. We must practice and work at improving these
skills.
“The long and winding road”
The Beatles
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 Take-home Message # 2

The way we communicate with others and with

ourselves, ultimately determines the quality of our lives.

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 Take-home Message # 3

LISTEN and SILENT

are spelt using the SAME letters

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 What was/is common in these personalities?

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 शुक्रिया
ধন্যবাদ നന്ദി
ਦਾ ਧੰਨਵਾਦ
‫شکریہ‬

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