ICE - Key Skills - Communication

USE THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THESE PAGES TO THINK ABOUT YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES ANALYTICALLY BEFORE COMPLETING YOUR KEY SKILLS TEMPLATE

Effective communication is about knowing who your audience are and how they are going to respond to what you say or write.  For each act of communication there is a coding and decoding process. Somewhere in between there are barriers, which can prevent your audience from getting your message.

CODING............ BARRIERS .............DECODING
(Sending Messages)  (Understanding Messages)

These barriers may be physical (for example noise, restricted view and bad acoustics) or mental (limited knowledge of the subject, prejudices, bias or boredom).  Knowing your audience well and preparing thoroughly are key to communicating successfully.  You should also note that proper communication is a two-way process.

To communicate, rather than to merely lecture or speak, means ensuring that your audience understands you. You should ask your audience questions and look for positive body language as affirmation that they understand what you are saying. If the feedback you receive is negative, you should go back to the beginning and rephrase your message. Failure to recognise the two way nature of this process is failure to communicate.

SOME USEFUL WORDS TO USE WHEN TALKING ABOUT COMMUNICATION:

Succinct
Clarity
Illustrative
Appropriate
Feedback
Understanding
Opinions
Facts
Language
Responsive
Coherent
Content