EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Conversation cards are a fun and creative way to lead meetings and to open dialogue with friends or even with someone new.  Whether it be a web meeting, public speaking or business presentation learning new techniques with conversation cards is a positive direction.  They are also a great way to keep the interest and attention of listeners and to master one's presentation. Let's detail just a few ideas you can use to liven up your dialogue.

You're sitting in a classroom listening to an agonizing lecture on the significant impact beeswax has had on world history. Better yet, your eyes glaze over during a business update meeting where you work. As a cherry topper you are addressing your class on the fundamental ingredients of tapioca when you notice that half the kids' heads are crashed on their desk with drool soaking their work. What do each of these scenarios have in common? Obviously boredom!

Let's cut to the bull. The purpose of communication is to be enlightened and to have your senses thirsty for more information. There are several obstacles that do hinder effective communication. Attention can easily be diverted by the smallest of detail in someone's environment. The problem is that each person is different and reacts to different stimuli. Here are a few obstacles to consider:

• Physical Environment – The brain seeks to accomplish it's mission of processing information. In a classroom of white walls and little else to process, the brain may find ease in going inward for information – daydreaming. Colors and patterns keep the cognitive functions operative and alert. In a one-on-one dialogue environment is no less important. As long as the space is orderly you should have a good conversation.

• Presentation – Monotone voices with accompanied void facial expression is not useful information for the brain to process. The speaker must first have interest in what he/she is saying. Delivering the information in varying degrees of tone stress can add to the retention of the information package. Using hands and complementary body movement adds to the train of thought. The body can help emphasize passages of thought and it gives the listener additional dialogue to process. Be dynamic – even with charisma when appropriate.

• Noise – It's irritating to present or listen when a police vehicle is chasing someone down the street right outside your window. It's also equally annoying when you hear the jackhammers of road construction or even the sound of children's recess when you are stuck in the classroom. Find ways to incorporate such noises into the presentation if such noises cannot be dulled.

Let's talk about conversation cards . These are important for the speaker as well as the listener. Disciplining the mind to maintain interest in a subject for over a half hour can be a daunting task. Oftentimes breaking up the information into segments needs to be done. The space in between should be used as brief breaks.  It can also be used for different dialogue which is completely off the topic. It can be fun and a great way to invite participation.

In a meeting or classroom environment a deck of conversation cards can be staged for use at various times. Either the instructor or a plan of alternating students can take the card off the top. That card holds the subject to that intermittent conversation. It's important for the instructor to be impromptu and to start moderating the conversation. This exercise further develops presentation and leadership skills for all involved. Subjects can be semi-serious or down right off the wall and funny.

In a one-on-one it can help alleviate those “dead” conversation points that we've all traveled in. You may adore who you converse with but dull moments will happen. Conversation cards can help. Also, expanding the fields of mutual dialogue will help further more productive exchanges. Breaks and changes in vocal relationships with each other awakens the senses which allow growth and expansion.

Converation cards can even be utilized in a very important speaking exercise known to Native Americans as the Talking Circle. The outline is to allow each person the opportunity to express their thoughts. Instituting these cards would be highly effective. Each person would take a card and lead a discussion on that subject within an allotted span of time. This will sure up the foundation of leadership, improvisation and impromptu situations.

Fear not! Instituting something different into something as personal as the way you communicate with others can be unappealing. Yet, test the doctrine and see if it doesn't improve your information skills. You will find this useful in business meetings, ecclesiastical leadership meetings, music conducting and even rank advancements in various organizations.

We want to make a difference and an impact on the world and those around us. It is a part of that inner longing or purpose. Effective communication is crucial to the realization of this endeavor. To be a leader is to affect the perceptions and understandings of others. To follow is to submit yourself to the teachings of another. Both are important. Because they are important it would be folly not to develop these and other communication techniques.