Colleen's Communication Part Two

I have seen so many applications of this competency, not only through reflections of my own communication experiences, but through the way each of us are currently communicating with the blogger software. When I was trying to formulate my first post, I decided to brainstorm different forms of communication, yet I forgot about the concept of "listening," as a form of communication until I read Brandi's posting. During my time at George Mason, I have become much more aware of the importance of active listening as a form of communication. Typically, many of us think about our physical act of speaking when discussing communication, yet the practice of active listening is equally important. Brandi's written text raises an excellent point that listening is crucial in people's interaction with one another. In fact, in order to successfully communicate within a group, people need to practice listening to one another. This correlates with the competency of group interaction, in that, groups succeed when they are able to communicate through struggles and conflict. Often conflicts are surpassed once people stop talking, and start listening to one another.

I saw a strong relation between Chris's academic experience in her speech class to the article Learning that Lasts. Both emphasize the importance of feedback, which happens to require the usage of communication. Feedback is incredibliy beneficial not only to the person receiving the comments for improvements, but also to the person giving the feedback. Typically, many people become defensive when receiving feedback, therefore it can be difficult to give it. Feedback requires people to think about what they have to say, and how to say it so that the other person not only understands but appreciates the comments. I found it interesting how Chris commented on the importance of seeing and hearing the feedback in person versus through e-mail. I think she raised an excellent point, that feedback requires ownership and gives people an opportunity to connect to one another. The ability to communicate with one another in such an open setting requires a lot of fine tuning of our own communication skills.