ES2007S: Professional Communications

Communications: Do it well, or else... Friday, August 21, 2009 1:06 AM

If you know the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, you will certainly understand why effective communication skills are essential. Communication is an indispensable process that has laid out the very foundations of today's society. If carried out poorly, human relationships can sour and turn ugly. And without effective communications amongst individuals, law and order in society can plummet into chaos overnight. Horrifying, isn't it?

Communication is such a complex process to grasp and thus it is no wonder why so many of us are still struggling with it despite an entire lifetime of trial and errors. It is a feat that comprises of planning your message, active listening and interpreting all at the same time! Personally, I think that the ability to communicate effectively, effortlessly and confidently is crucial in a society that demands for individuals to speak up and do it well. Every individual needs to overcome the barriers that stand in the way of communication, or else, he or she can never connect with another individual/group in the corporate and/or social setting. An idea, no matter how brilliant, cannot be uncovered without one expressing it clearly. An emotion, positive or otherwise, when expressed the wrong way can result in unintended consequences. For example, try this on the boss of a new ice cream place in town: "I think this ice cream flavor has an acquired taste!". You can either mean that (1) his ice cream is very unique or (2) you hate it and you were trying to avoid hurting his feelings. It all depends on how you said it and how the boss chooses to interpret it.

Given the terrifying consequences of ineffective communication, I really hope that this course will help me gain further insights into this complex process and maybe transform us all into "professional communicators". :)

★Posted by g.

There are 2 comments!

Russell commented at August 23, 2009 at 6:46 AM :

Hello Gwen,

I can finally post a comment on your blog! First of all, let me just say that I absolutely love the simple elegance of your blog.

Back to the task at hand, I love the way you start off the post with the example of the tower of Babel. It’s simple yet effective, and immediate invokes vivid pictures of the calamitous clamouring of different tongues. It’s the exact opposite end of the spectrum of effective communication and is a powerful tool of imagery. In the next line, you wrote “Communication is an indispensable process that has laid out the very foundations of today's society”. It is a very clever double entendre here, with the word “foundations” linking back to the previous imagery of the tower of Babel. (Haha was this intended? :p )

Overall, the tone of your post remains light and is easy to read. The simple example of the ice-cream man that you provided brings your points across clearly and effectively. Your ideas are well-thought out and the entire post remains focussed on the topic. I couldn’t really find any mistakes in it based on the 7Cs.

Cheers, and thank you for the wonderful read!

Regards
Russell

Brad Blackstone commented at August 25, 2009 at 9:29 AM :

This is a most compelling first post, Gwen. As your (former) classmate Russell mentioned, you immediately grab reader interest with the Biblical reference, and you provide lots of apt phrasing as you underscore the importance of comm skills for the very essence of civil society. You go on to provide a clear and fluent overview of the how much of a struggle it is for most of us to master effective skills. Your suggested interaction with the ice cream shop boss is an appropriate one as well. What I'd like to see follow that is a direct connection to you and the specific skills you need to focus on.

But we will get to that soon enough, eh?

Welcome to ES2007S Group 7!

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