Personal Development and Relationships: 3 Steps to More Effective Communication

Personal Development and Relationships: 3 Steps to More Effective Communication

Have you ever had the experience of speaking to someone and, in return, getting either a blank stare or a complete non-sequitur? The easiest explanations are often, "they didn't hear me", "they didn't want to communicate with me", or "they don't speak my language." But in reality, this type of communication disconnect occurs most often between people who have no common perceptual ground in their relationships.

The Perceptual Style Theory (PST) describes a system in which the six Perceptual Styles form a circle. Each Style has two neighboring Styles, one opposite Style, and two "one-off" Styles. The order of the Perceptual Styles clockwise from Methods is: Methods, Adjustments, Flow, Activity, Vision, and Goals.

Methods, for example, has Adjustments and Goals as neighbors, Activity as it's opposite, and Flow and Vision for it's one-offs. PST describes the communication challenges we tend to face when we interact with neighboring, opposite, and one-off Styles. When we describe communication with one-offs we often tell our clients, "it's like talking to a person in a foreign language they don't understand what you say and vice-versa".

If you've ever doubted the existence of different Perceptual Styles, just try to have a casual conversation with someone who is one-off from your own Style. Conversation will reveal totally different interests and values, you will miss each other's jokes, and attempts at compliments and personal validation will either not be received or be misunderstood. Casual conversation can easily become awkward and stilted, and typically, you're both glad when the conversation is over.

So what to do when this happens to you? Don't give up or assume the other person is purposely trying to annoy you! Instead, try these tips to break thru the disconnect.

Practice active listening':Eliminate distractions.

Focus on the speaker.

Frequently paraphrase what you have heard'.

Provide feed-back.

Ask the speaker to paraphrase what you have said.

Summarize conclusions, decisions, and actions agreed upon before ending the conversation.

Follow up on and double check the results or progress of any actions agreed to.

Engage in serious communication in small bites rather than in lengthy discussion.

Take frequent breaks.

If you follow theses steps, communication with a one-off PS may still be difficult, but it will not be impossible.

POST COMMENT

Journalism And Its Relation With Languages How to Mend a Broken Relationship Four talking patterns that are most prognosticative of death to a relationship Students Of College Life: Student-professor Relationship When A Relationship Is Over Cool Sin City Las Vegas Newbies Steps In Relation To Cheap Hotels, Must-do's And Other Stuff To Enjo Warning Signs Of A Bad Relationship You Can 'catch A Cheater' In A Huge Percentage Of Relationships This Year Sin City's Travel Steps In Relation To Accomodations, Enjoying Your Time And A Lot More Amazing Sin City's Newbies Secrets In Relation To Entertainment, Must-do's And Other Stuff To Enjoy You can mend a broken relationship - Here's how Questions For Couples To Ask Each Other-To make your relationship long lasting Yes, it is Possible to get your Relationship Going Again