Day 25 - Communication Skill
4 May 2020
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sirurp@gmail.com
What is Communication Skill?
Communication Skill is the ability to effectively give and receive information.
Different types of communication - Verbal (oral/ written)/ Non-verbal/ Visual, Formal/ Informal, One-to-one/ One-to many...
The purpose of communication - to inform, to express feelings, to imagine, to influence, and to meet social expectations
My learning for the day
Author - Brian Peters
Storytelling predates writing. Stories have been a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation or instilling moral values for thousands of years.
Stories and children
Stories play a crucial role in developing children’s overall personality. A bedtime story is always a good way for parents to bond with children. Listening to stories helps children develop their sense of imagination, which is vital for their future development. By listening to stories, a toddler gets to hear a lot of new words. Repeating these words will help widen her vocabulary. It is a great medium to instil values in children.
Successful communication is more than conveying information; it is about engaging your audience. The most effective way to engage an audience is with storytelling. Effective storytelling involves a deep understanding of human emotions, motivations, and psychology in order to truly move an audience.
Pixar’s storytelling rules
Pixar’s 22 storytelling rules became world famous when Emma Coats, Pixar’s storyboard artist began tweeting her learning.
These are the top 6 storytelling rules from the list of Pixar’s famous 22 rules.
1. Great stories are universal - Great storytelling is about taking a piece of the human condition (so things like birth, growth, emotionality, aspiration, conflict) and conveying it in a unique situation.
2. Great stories have a clear structure and purpose - This is Pixar’s structure (part A) - Once upon a time there was ….. Every day, ….. One day ….. Because of that, .... Until finally …..
And this is Pixar’s rule about purpose (part B) - Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? What greater purpose does this serve? What does it teach?
3. Great stories have a character to root for (an underdog) - When your character is battling against all odds, facing adversity, or their back is against the wall, everyone roots for him/ her. Everyone wants to see the character win.
4. Great stories appeal to our deepest emotions - These six emotions are our deepest emotions anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. The story should have space for these to play.
5. Great stories are surprising and unexpected - A potent mixture of red herrings, misunderstandings, and sudden plunges in the opposite direction provide opportunity to build stories with surprises and the unexpected.
6. Great stories are simple and focused - Authors want to pack all information possible into their stories. Great stories are simple and focused. One way to find out if your story is easy to follow is to tell it to a friend or family member who has never heard it before. Watch their face as you read it and try to see where they pause and what questions they might have.
Something about Pixar - Pixar is arguably one of the greatest storytellers of our generation. Pixar, originally a Steve Job’s company (1986), was bought by another great storyteller company, Walt Disney in 2006. Over the years, they’ve won 13 Academy Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 11 Grammys. Toy Story, from Pixar, is the world’s first computer animated feature film (1995).
A great quote to remember - “A fact wrapped in a story is 22 times more memorable.” - Jerome Bruner, cognitive psychologist. No wonder Pixar stuck to this number when they wrote their 22 rules of storytelling.
Some articles that I read when creating this piece.
How to improve this skill?
Set a goal to become a go-to person by mastering the art and science of communication.
Follow the LAST model to build your personal brand as a Guru of communication.
- Learn - Invest time in learning different frameworks/ models/ techniques of communication
- Apply -
- Identify a model suitable to you
- Create a template to document the flow of the process
- Find opportunities to use the selected method/ template
- Maintain record/ process flow of every important activities you did to with respect to communication
- Maintain notes of your thoughts/ insights/ failures/ challenges…. to be used for sharing/ training others
- Share - Share the insights captured in step 2 above in a planned manner (social media posts, blogs, videos, study notes…)
- Train - Generate opportunities to train your peers and team members so that, over time, your organization benefits from your efforts
Purpose of this document
I took a 66 day challenge to study Life Skills last year (10 April 2019). To my astonishment, I succeeded in studying for 66 days one skill a day.
My objectives of learning these skills were - To strengthen my mind to face life’s challenges with ease, To use these skills in my worklife for a better performance, To use these skills in my personal life for enriching my relationships, To open new possibilities to surprise myself.
This is my next 66 day challenge (from 10 April 2020) - To share my Life Skills learning with my social media friends.
I pray that my toil helps you in your success journey.
What are Life Skills?
UNICEF defines Life skills as - psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. They are loosely grouped into three broad categories of skills
- cognitive skills for analyzing and using information,
- personal skills for developing personal agency and managing oneself,
- inter-personal skills for communicating and interacting effectively with others.
Which LifeSkills are covered?
The World Health Organisation identified these basic areas of life skills that are relevant across cultures:
- Decision-making
- Problem-solving
- Creative thinking
- Critical thinking
- Communication
- Interpersonal skills
- Self-awareness
- Empathy
- Coping with emotions
- Coping with stress.
Some trivia
‘Life skills’ was never part of the school curriculum. WHO/ UNESCO mandated academia to teach these skills in all schools across the globe in 1993.
Different countries educate their children in these skills with different objectives
- Zimbabwe and Thailand - prevention of HIV/AIDS
- Mexico - prevention of adolescent pregnancy
- United Kingdom - child abuse prevention
- USA - prevention of substance abuse and violence
- South Africa and Colombia - positive socialization of children.
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