Page 77 - Effective Communication Skills by Dalton Kehoe
P. 77
Exercises
1. If you are in a management position, practice using dialogue talk instead
of control talk with your employees. For instance, say, “I noticed that
you came in 20 minutes after start time this morning.” Avoid using
categorical labels like “late,” and be speci¿c in your description. “In
fact, I checked the time sheets for the past couple of months, and you’ve
shown up after start time every couple of weeks. Can you tell me what’s
going on here from your point of view?” If the other responds in a way
that seems to diminish the importance of the issue, you can always
describe the larger effects of his or her behavior on other individuals or
on the unit as a whole.
2. For persistent problems, try using structured dialogue. Follow exactly
the same steps we discussed in Lecture 19 for a couple with a persistent
problem. Workplace conversations may have different content and less
obvious emotional talk, but stick to the same process: Get the other
person to talk ¿rst, and seek mutual understanding before going into
problem solving.
69
