The title refers to the topic only, and does not have any intrinsic meaning. :>
Open Topic: Other Communication Issues (Post #5)
Well, since I have been given free rein, I thought I'd talk a little about my National Service. (Disclaimer: To avoid any restricted/confidential content, I will be sticking to communication principles in general) I was a signaller in the Air Force for about 2 years, and I would like now to compare some principles of communicating over the radios, and communicating as we know it normally.
As people who handle communications within the armed forces, we learnt some valuable skills. Firstly, like the more common walkie-talkies, only 1 person is supposed to speak at a time. This avoids missing information which someone else was giving when you are speaking at the same time.
Secondly, no one person may speak for too long a time. This provides for a contingency in the case of emergencies, or if someone else has more important information than your chatting about the weather (as a figure of speech of course, we would not waste precious time and energy complaining about how we've to sit in the rain again). A related point is that we speak in short phrases packed with content. That means parsimonious speech, with as much important information as possible and as little 'fillers'. It sort of reminds me of Yoda's (little green alien from Star Wars) manner of speaking.
Thirdly, acknowledge and double-check all important information. This is especially crucial as our speech is encoded. If a person codes wrongly, or if an enemy has hi-jacked the radio network, the wrong information can be propagated.
Lastly, we have to check our equipment from time to time, to make sure we do not accidently press on the "Talk" button. Since only 1 person can talk at a time, a person pressing the button would cause a whole lot of nuisance. The more powerful your equipment is, the more trouble you can cause.
Well, now the question would be: How can this 'military' examples relate to communications in 'real life'?
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Hi Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteEven though we do not use the walkie talkie in our everyday communication, the principles are essentially the same.
Firstly, in a conversation, it is ideal to have one person speaking at a time. Only this way can information be relayed correctly and efficiently. If everyone speaks at the same time and no one listens, than important information may be missed.
Secondly, to have one person speak all the time is communication alright, but is not effective communication. Have you ever wondered why in classes where we sit and listen to the lecturer for one to two hours, we always come out of the lecture hall not remembering anything? On the other hand, we tend to remember most things that happen in classes where there is interaction between the lecturer and the students.
Thirdly, acknowledge and double-check all important information. This is intuitive enough I suppose. For example, we as students always scurry around to check with friends or lecturers just before the exams to make sure the concepts that we understood from class are correct.
Lastly, (I'm not sure if I'm getting it right here) my interpretation of this last point would be to constantly attend courses to brush up our interpersonal communication skills. This is especially important as one climbs up the corporate ladder. The more powerful one is, the less room for mistakes. Japan's prime minister Taro Aso is a good example. It may have been part of his personality to say things that come to his mind, whether insensitive or not. However, it is only after he becomes the prime minister that people start to scrutinise his behaviour and are not so tolerant of such insensitive remarks.
Samantha
Hy Jonathan,In my opinion what i heard was that in military operations,while using walkie talkie,soldiers are taught to use code words mostly... where each code determines a specific command.
ReplyDeleteAs explained above,one person talking at a time helps to convey the message clearly.Hence in military case,the code is conveyed clearly and decrypted as message.So I would like to point out that effective communication is followed even in short walkie talkie talks also....
Sorry for a long routed explanation :p...
Hello Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteYour military experience highlights one crucial aspect of effective communcation: active listening.
The fact that only one person is suppose to speak at a time when using the walkie talkie helps to train users how to become active listeners since nothing can be accomplished if everyone wants to speak and nobody wants to listen.
Thus, from your experience, I assume that you are a 'better' active listener than those who have not gone through what you did?:)
Excellent! You have all done a very good job of elucidating the parallels between what i learnt in army and what can be applied in real life! :>
ReplyDeleteI think these communication rules would be particularly useful in meetings and by cutting back on empty talk save many man-hours which could be used for other more constructive purposes. By double checking, we could be sure that wrong information is not picked up and later spread around.
ReplyDeleteMrs Richardson