I think the idea of ‘communication’ gets tossed around a lot. We go through ideas like effective listening, building, and facilitating the perspectives of other individuals, and even considering it when writing (be clear … be succinct).
A concept that’s perhaps not always considered, however, is understanding how you need to change the manner in which you’re communicating, based upon your target audience. Now, this is an idea expressed in academic subjects like literature before (where we’re supposed to employ a ‘formal’ tone and register), but in an extremely limited form. Real practical examples of modulating our expressions are something I haven’t had significant exposure to, up until this our session last week.
We had planned simple coloring activities for the kids and everything was coming along smoothly. Then, disaster struck. One of the kids at my table started taking over another’s drawing and an argument quickly ensued. Now, I’ve had to conduct conflict resolution in the past, but always between peers. Doing the same to a group of 5-year-olds was a whole different ball game. After all, you can’t exactly tell them to Shut Up and start acting their age … they’re 5 and would probably burst into tears. No, instead, I had to be extremely careful about how I was going to phrase my sentences.
Now, through a combination of utilizing a soft yet firm voice, and attempting to remind the kids the classroom norms they had, I was able to de-escalate the situation.
The incident has gotten me thinking about some of the more subtle elements of effective communication. Factors such as modifying your lexicon, or modulating the overall volume and pitch of your voice, can in fact be important factors (depending on your particular target audience). It’s also incredibly important in TEAM settings, as you’re not always going to be working on teams with individuals the exact same age as you, from the same background. Heck, this even has applications to my podcast. Maybe there’s some further reading I can do on the subject, to see how I can make our podcast hosts more appealing to our target audience of teenagers. Certainly food for thought.
