Blog Assignment

Blog Assignment:

As I reflect over a conflict the one that comes to mind is an experienced I had with my daughter-in-law.  I will give you a brief example of the situation that happened between my daughter-in-law and myself.

 I had agreed that two of my grandson’s could come over my house from 8 am until 12 noon.  Each of their mothers agreed to pick them up at 12 o’clock pm.  One of the grandson’s mothers ran late in picking her son up from my house.  I had to drop him off actually with his uncle due to an appointment I had for later that afternoon.  I left her a message as to where her son was and about my appointment.  I thought everything was fine until later that week when she refused to answer my call.  After a while she did pick the telephone up and explained how she felt about me having to drop her son off with his uncle before she returned.  The biggest reason she was upset with me was due to not telling her I had appointment.  Even though, I had her to agree to a pick up time before leaving.  She thought I should have gone as far as to tell her my plans.

One strategy I learned in the case of communicating with my daughter-in-law is accepting a personal responsibility for how I communicate in the future with my daughter-in-law.  I now see that the way I communicate is a way of collaborating and learning to cooperate with one another.

After watching the “YouTube” video “natural giving” and to remember to “do the things that we know how to do” is what I learned.  I now know that when communicating with my daughter-in-law I need to fully communicate until we have a full understand of what she expects from me and what I expect from her before moving forward.  I also, learned how we all have challenges with the way we listen to others.  I believe I need to take in account the challenges one maybe experiencing when listening.  These challenges are considered “listening barriers”.  People can have things going on in the life, work, health that can prevent them from always hearing the full information.

References:

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication. New York: Bedford/St.    Martin's.

YouTube. (2010). The basics of nonviolent communication. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-129JLTjkQ

Blog Assignment

From looking back over this weeks assignment I was able to recognize a few similarities in my evaluation of myself.  When examing two other people, I noticed I was harder on myself in some areas than other people.  I feel that I am sensitive to the needs of people but, one person told me that I was not. Then on the other hand the other person agreed with me that I’m sometimes over sensitive to the needs of people.

The thing that surprised me was how honest the two people where with me during this assessment. I picked one person at work and my son to complete this assignment.  I was thinking that their answer would closely match my answer but they gave me a different truth.

The insight I gained was that I have to become a little more sensitive to people needs at work.  Another, insight I learned is that, I get very nerves when I speak in groups with people in power.

Changes in my Communication Skills

Changes in my Communication Skills

During this past week I did found myself communicating differently with colleagues and families. As I think back over the past weeks.  I noticed how I was choosing my words more carefully than I have since I started this course.   In addition I have been more aware of my body language than in past times.  A prime example was Friday, when I was in a training class for work and something was said that I did not agree with during the training.  The person I use to be would have said what came across my mind right then, but I remembered this week discussion about the “Platinum Rule”.  So I sat and gather my thoughts before I said anything in the training.   This, I felt was a better way of present information and myself and treating people the way I would like to be treated when communicating information.  This weeks resources has given me a chance to see the areas I need help in and what I need to improve in to help me as a person and a professional.

 I could use “code switching” and “style switching” to communicate with different types of people who’s culture is different than my own.

Taking the time out to think before commenting when communicates with people can help you choose your words more carefully.

Another good strategy to use is allowing a personal to express their selves totally before commenting.  This will give the person who is listening a chance to practice “emphatic listening.”

Reference:

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Army Wives

The movie I watched was Army Wives:

The characters in the movie relationships seemed to be people who are married to one another based on the way they are communicating.

The feelings expressed seemed like anger, happiness, sadness and celebration based on the nonverbal behavior I observed.

The assumptions I made about the characters that most of them appearing in the movie would be that they were married.  Based on the plot and the interpretation of the communication I assumed something bad was going to happen.

My assumptions were close to being correct by watching this movie.  I do believe if I had watched a movie that I was use to watch all my assumptions would have been more correct.