Communicating according to the needs of our interlocutor, is posed as a strong challenge, however, applying some tips for information management, active listening, and synchronization with the rhythm of the other we can achieve a fast and effective communication.
When we talk about communication, depending on how we have initially known its meaning, two ideas come to mind: if we have known the theoretical concepts that support it, perhaps we imagine the famous little square of Emitter, Message, Receiver; otherwise, most likely, we think of communication as in two fields: SPEAKING AND LISTENING. However communication is much more than that, communication also implies a staff that contains tones, rhythms and as with music, each one prefers different rhythms.
Our way of communicating is linked to the cerebral hemisphere that we have more developed, although we vary our discourse depending on each particular case, we always tend to hide ourselves in the model that we have more established. Understanding that the same happens with our interlocutor and giving answers based on his dominant mental model will help us to shorten times and be more efficient.
Based on the above, we can visualize 4 types of people:
- Those that are action oriented Those that are method oriented Those that are marked by ideas Those that have a people approach.
Each of them has peculiarities that are their own and that define the best way in which they can understand the world, since communication is not only about words, but also about gestures and rhythms.
Action-oriented people are those for whom time seems to always be short, they are people oriented to quick results, they have a great capacity for synthesis, they are motivated by challenges and theory tends to bore them quite a bit.
Those oriented to the methods are structured, detailed people, who take stock of pros and cons before making a decision. They need to know the finest detail of each situation to feel safe. They have a great capacity for analysis and their decisions always come from logic.
The most creative are usually the people whose greatest development is found in ideas, they are the provocateurs, the impetuous, the revolutionaries, those who speak openly about their projects, those who are outgoing, and sometimes not very focused. Their great creative capacity can occasionally be a limitation on their listening skills.
Finally, we find people who have a clear focus on people, on human relationships. These people are usually very supportive, always ready to help others, they are motivated by all those activities that involve teamwork.
As we can see, there are great differences between each of these typologies, that is why if we cannot "synchronize" with the other, in rhythms and in ways of displaying the information, it is very possible that we will not achieve effective communication.
Having understood this, let's now see what we do to communicate?
- Let us emphasize the model of the other: I may be a person of action, but if my collaborator, or my boss is a person of methods and I do not manage to adapt my communication, I will not get him to "buy" my proposals. Let's eliminate the filters of Perception: The way we look at the world comes directly from our perceptions. We must respect and try to understand that the other has their own and manage to open a third channel that is the "common". Let's listen actively: It is clear that hearing and listening are two extremely different actions, the problem is that when a person speaks to us with a different rhythm from ours, we usually turn our ears “off”, we are still physically but our head has already gone to think about other things. This "off" is one of the most frequent and important obstacles in communication.Let's try to adapt the information we give to the other's model: After analyzing the other's model, it is a good idea to order the information that we present so that the other can "activate their sensors" since we present things in a way that can be friendly to him.
Taking into account the types of models and some rules of good communication, let's see to show the information adapting it to the Interlocutor:
a) With Action-oriented people:
- Let's use a fast pace Present information from results Reinforce ideas from practice Support information with visuals (graphics, videos, photos)
b) With method-oriented people:
- Let's organize information in a logical way Let's present things with detail and precision Let's talk about fundamentals Let's show the current status of things and the expected results Let's include advantages and disadvantages of the options Let's put tables and Ishikawa or Gantt diagrams.
c) With people of Ideas
- Respect long debate times Emphasize innovative aspects of proposals Present the topic conceptually Underline the recommendations Start with a global look and then go to the details
d) With people-oriented people
- We should make a brief and informal introduction Show the relationship between what we propose and the people Show that our proposal before worked Use very informal writing and dialogue styles.
I know it is not easy, but by putting these tips into practice we will achieve assertive, effective and complete communication.
