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| Getting Your Message Heard Good Problem Solving and People Skills |
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Intro Part A Listening Part B Body Language Part C Verbal Communication Part D Problem Solving Effective Words Communicating With Parents Electronic Communication |
Electronic Communications To e-mail or not E-mail is not always the solution. Saving time and paper is great, except for when it causes you hours of emotional turmoil. Consider the circumstance before you hit that send button. Don't leave the "unconnected" part of your population out of your information loop. Distributing information to the masses is an appropriate use of e-mail, but keep in mind not everyone you are trying to reach may be connected. Be considerate of all your audience. Sensitive issues have no business in cyberspace. Humans rely too heavily on non-verbal communicators for getting the message straight. Body language and voice inflection make a profound difference on how we are received. Several e-mails can fly back and forth before you realize the other party took offence. Face to face could have saved both of you personal anguish. Even the telephone still affords you voice inflection and an immediate means of checking that both of you are on the same page. E-mail also brings its own phenomenon, unleashing the dark side in some otherwise lovely people. Being an impersonal mode of communication, many people lose their inhibitions becoming far more aggressive. It's the virtual parallel to "road rage." Couple this with an ability to command the conversation and indulgence in a little ranting, and small sparks can ignite into a blaze. Unlike letter-writing to burn off a little steam, there is no cool-down time while walking to the mailbox. E-mail is immediate. Once that button is pushed the message is there. So think of your e-mail as gasoline. You don't want to live without it but would never dream of throwing it on a fire. |
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