Soc/110: A Short Note On Group Communication

Group Communication
Darrin Palmer
SOC/110
12/15/14
Susan Corliss
Group Communication
Good communication is a very important part of any group, or team success. There are numerous ways to communicate within a group, both verbal, and non-verbal, as well as those that are in a virtual environment. Finding ways to overcome conflict, and achieve a common goal that the whole group agrees upon is a long process, and is one most of us will experience throughout our lives.
Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication
Verbal or spoken communication on its own is something we use every day of our lives. How it used and how we apply it to our conversations differs depending on the person, or their personality. I think a lot of people have a certain mindset
of how they believe a conversation should go, either in a one on one or in a group discussion, and this tends to affect how they use verbal communication.
Speaking clearly and confidently is one key to good verbal communication, as well staying calm, focused and showing politeness in your words. Another good example of verbal communication is showing interest by asking questions. Doing this is often overlooked as having no bearing on verbal communication, but it is one of the few ways to show the speaker they have your attention without using non-verbal communication by asking relevant and topical questions. Which brings me to the differences in non-verbal communication. To me non-verbal communication involves the use of facial expressions, the tone of your voice, and general body gestures or language. A lot of problems with non-verbal communication is that not everyone interprets it the same way, which can lead to conflict and unintentional arguments. Learning to control your body language while conversing is very important, maintaining eye contact and good
posture is a great start, as it is something a lot of us struggle with. Keeping in mind peoples personal space is another thing to keep in mind as well, people who use a lot of body movement when explaining or describing something, often move around a lot and to some this becomes bothersome when they start to feel that their personal space is being invaded, so keeping this in mind or being aware of your body movements is important so you do not cause any conflict or uncomfortable situations with your peers.
I think having knowledge of your own non-verbal communication cues is very important to any conversation or group interaction. Knowing these cues can be beneficial learning about others as well, for example in poker this is known as “reading” the other players, figuring out based on their body language if they are bluffing or not. This applies to all of our lives to some extent however, knowing that “person A” always scratches their nose when they are not being honest, or that “person B” refuses to make eye contact when a discussion topic turns conflicting, is a great skill to develop for use in the real world.
I personally have issues with staying focused in conversations that do not pertain to me, or have grasped my attention from the get go.
I think part of this is because I tend to allow myself to believe I have the leadership skills that gives me the “know it all” mentality, so if the information being given is on a “need to know” basis, or is coming from someone above me, then I sort of tune it out. Another part of that problem is that I have become so good at still visually appearing to be actively listening, which just means I have managed to use my non-verbal communication skills and body gestures to appear as such, though I could not be further from focused in my mind. So in the future I definitely hope to avoid this by learning to take interest in the full conversation and not just the bits and pieces I think I need to, it is disrespectful to not give full attention to the topic at hand and the speaker, so I hope to make this change and improve my overall worth to the
team.

In closing, I personally believe that I have a very good understanding of the differences in verbal and non-verbal communication. The differences are very important to our everyday interactions with one another, and being self-aware of your non-verbal cues and gestures will help you in both listening, and speaking amongst your peers. I believe setting personal goals to improve some of these things like those I have set myself is something everyone should do, if for nothing else than to challenge yourself to become a better team member, or even leader.

References
This is a hanging indent. To keep the hanging indent format, triple click your mouse on this line of text and replace the information with your reference entry. You can use the Reference and Citation Examples (Center for Writing Excellence>Tutorials and Guides>Reference and Citation Examples) to help format your source information into a reference entry.
The reference page always begins on the top of the next page after the conclusion.