EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR UPDATE Communication — One of DFI’s Four Core Principles E very day I’m reminded of how important communication is to success. It plays a key factor in the workplace and team projects as well as personal relationships. The ability to clearly communicate your ideas and have them take hold is dependent on your skills as a communicator. Being a great communicator means connecting and engaging your corres- pondent in the conversation so there is a balance of talking and listening. Keep an open mind and consider equally what you each want , compromising when possible. Stay focused and be specific — get to your point quickly and convey as many details as possible so there are no misunderstand- ings, but also give the recipient time to confirm you are both on the same page about the outcome. As I wrote this mes- sage, I recalled talking about communi- cation last year in the March/April 2014 issue. I believe it is important enough to mention again and deserves reinforcement since it touches all people, no matter their job title, personal situation or desire to be a leader or a follower. We all want to be heard and understood and we all should be. Communication in Practice I was recently invited to a local association executive group’s session titled “Your Prescription for Healthy Communi- cation.” The speaker was Dr. Neha Sangwan, author of Talk Rx: Five Steps to Hones t Conversat ions that Create Connection, Health, and Happiness, and the session was attended by about 25 women executives. Many of the concepts presented seem so simple and obvious, “The ability to clearly communicate your ideas and have them take hold is dependent on your skills as a communicator.” however it amazed me how often they evade most of us. Listening to Sangwan, it became clear that many people avoid simple, direct communication, and people often believe they are being clear in communicating directions or requests, but are not fully listen- ing to the responses to determine if there is total agreement and clarity. Sangwan demonstrated the five levels of agreement through play acting with an attendee, whereby the same question was asked five times however the answers varied and indicated one of the following levels: 1. Acknowledgement 2. Positive Interest 3. Qualified Yes 4. Clear Yes 5. Details Confirmed One might think Level 4 “Clear Yes” means the person is in agreement with the request. However, if details on how the agreement will be carried out are not conveyed then that “Clear Yes” could later turn into the agreement not being fulfilled due to lack of clarity. It seems simple enough but in our busy lives we move on without Level 5 agreement only to later be disappointed that our agreement with another was not fulfilled and our expectations not met. The session also touched on the 7%-38%-55% rule, developed based on Prof. Albert Mehrabian’s research on verbal and nonverbal communication of feelings and attitudes. Mehrabian is a professor of psychology at UCLA, and noted that when people are communicating in person only 7% of how the message is received is based on the spoken words while 38% is based on the tone of voice and 55% based on body Theresa Engler Executive Director [email protected] language or facial expressions. Think about the amount of communication that is now done via email — this means it is harder to correctly decipher attitudes or feelings from the words in an email message. Bottom line, if something is important pick up the phone and discuss it or better yet, meet with the person face-to-face or via video conferencing to provide that personal touch to gain respect and trust, and hopefully a Level 5 agreement. Communicating Together DFI prides itself on providing oppor- tunities for deep foundation professionals to interact in-person to achieve one of our four core principles, COMMUNICATION. We utilize conference calls for some committee and board interactions, and certainly use email a lot to communicate information, but our many seminars, workshops and conferences as well as the committee and board meetings throughout the year bring everyone together to exchange ideas and experiences and make decisions and agreements. These events also provide a forum for fulfilling the other three DFI principles, COLLABORATION, EDUCATION and NETWORKING. I’ll touch on these in future messages, but here’s some parting thoughts: remember to make firm, clear agreements; talk to people in person when possible; make sure the words you speak match your tone and body language; and reinforce your key points to ensure you have Level 5 agreement. Try this at your next DFI event to communicate with fellow deep foundation colleagues. DEEP FOUNDATIONS • SEPT/OCT 2015 • 9
