Effective Communication and Impact

In a world where connections are always increasing through social media, and conflict is a never-ending cycle of hate and violence, we can have an impact just by strengthening the connections we have around us and making sure they are positive. 

I was personally inspired by the Inner Development Goals Framework for educating me on how we can do this through improving our communication skills. There are a lot of times in my life where I wasn't able to clearly express my ideas to another person, and it ended up in another fight or another relationship lost. But if I truly focused on my capability to really listen to the other person, foster a genuine dialogue between them and me, and worked on advocating my views with skill (found under 4a in the Guide), I would have resolved those conversations much more smoothly.

I would like to invite you all to answer the following discussion questions to better understand what we can do to better talk to each other and create the impact we want to see and need:

1. What is the most effective way to communicate? How do you truly create an impact in the other person without stepping over boundaries and losing their interest?

2. What are some examples where communication has been strong in allowing you to affect the other person, and what are some examples where it has not been so great in doing so?

3. What does it mean to foster a genuine dialogue? What are instances where dialogue might not be so genuine and therefore a poor example of communication?

Thank you for your time, and I hope reflecting on these things will be as helpful to you as it has been for me 😄! Take care and have a good day.