Social Dynamics and Communication skills

Sivakami Mani
BI3 Technologies
Published in
10 min readJul 27, 2021

History of communication:

The history of communication can be traced back since the origin of speech circa 500,000 BCE. The use of technology in communication may be considered since the first use of symbols about 30,000 years BCE. Among the symbols used, there are cave paintings, petroglyphs, pictograms and ideograms. Writing was a major innovation, as well as printing technology and, more recently, telecommunications and the Internet.

Introduction:

‘Man is a social animal.’ This is a very commonly heard and read phrase but is also very frequently ignored when it comes to a person’s development and growth. In the contemporary world, how a person is viewed by the society has gained so much importance that people are busy managing their image in the society and are less worried about what their actual personality is!

what does Social Dynamics mean? It is the behavior of a person that is a result of his/her various interactions with individuals, group members, neighbors, other interactions on social media, etc. In other words, it is a process in which people evolve to become more responsible, leading to having a healthy social life without the impact of egoism.

Social dynamics bring together the ideas from people who basically would want to influence the changes or put forward their points of discussion.

Everyone has different skills but one of the important skills that are the influencer is the “Communication skills”. Every person has a unique communication style, a way in which they interact and exchange information with others. And for a good communicator, one should be a good listener. Listening is as important as speaking and is the key to developing good communication skills. Communication can be verbal, visual, or written. If we have effective communication skills, we will be able to present ourselves and our knowledge with everyone confidently.

seven Cs of Communication

1.Clear

When writing or speaking to someone, be clear about your goal or message. What is your purpose in communicating with this person? If you’re not sure, then your audience won’t be sure either.
To be clear, try to minimize the number of ideas in each sentence. Make sure that it’s easy for your reader to understand your meaning. People shouldn’t have to “read between the lines” and make assumptions on their own to understand what you’re trying to say.

2.Concise

When you’re concise in your communication, you stick to the point and keep it brief. Your audience doesn’t want to read six sentences when you could communicate your message in three.

3. Concrete

When your message is concrete, then your audience has a clear picture of what you’re telling them. There are details (but not too many!) and vivid facts, and there’s laser-like focus. Your message is solid.

4. Correct

When your communication is correct, it fits your audience. And correct communication is also error-free communication.

· Do the technical terms you use fit your audience’s level of education or knowledge?

5. Coherent

When your communication is coherent, it’s logical. All points are connected and relevant to the main topic, and the tone and flow of the text is consistent.

6. Complete

In a complete message, the audience has everything they need to be informed and, if applicable, act.

· Have you included all relevant information — contact names, dates, times, locations, and so on?

7. Courteous

Courteous communication is friendly, open, and honest. There are no hidden insults or passive-aggressive tones. You keep your reader’s viewpoint in mind, and you’re empathetic to their needs.

There are a few variations of the 7 Cs of Communication:

· Credible — Does your message improve or highlight your credibility? This is especially important when communicating with an audience that doesn’t know much about you.

· Creative — Does your message communicate creatively? Creative communication helps keep your audience engaged.

Elements of communication

Seven major elements of communication process are:

Sender, Ideas, Encoding, Communication channel, Receiver, Decoding, Feedback.

Communication styles

There are four communication styles: Passive, Aggressive, Passive-aggressive and Assertive.

It’s important to understand each communication style, and why individuals use them. For example, the assertive communication style has been found to be most effective, because it incorporates the best aspects of all the other styles.

Passive

Individuals who use the passive communication style often act indifferently, yielding to others. Passive communicators usually fail to express their feelings or needs, allowing others to express themselves. Frequently, a passive communicator’s lack of outward communication can lead to misunderstanding, anger build-up or resentment. At the same time, these communicators can be safer to speak with when a conflict arises, because they most likely will avoid a confrontation or defer to others.

Passive communicators often display a lack of eye contact, poor body posture and an inability to say “no.” Passive communicators also act in a way that states “people never consider my feelings.”

But passive communicators are also easy to get along with as they follow others and “go with the flow.”

Aggressive

It’s often apparent when someone communicates in an aggressive manner. You’ll hear it. You’ll see it. You may even feel it.

The aggressive communication style is emphasized by speaking in a loud and demanding voice, maintaining intense eye contact and dominating or controlling others by blaming, intimidating, criticizing, threatening or attacking them, among other traits.

Passive-Aggressive

Passive-aggressive communication style users appear passive on the surface, but within he or she may feel powerless or stuck, building up a resentment that leads to seething or acting out in subtle, indirect, or secret ways.

Most passive-aggressive communicators will mutter to themselves rather than confront a person or issue. They have difficulty acknowledging their anger, use facial expressions that don’t correlate with how they feel and even deny there is a problem.

Passive-aggressive communicators are most likely to communicate with body language or a lack of open communication to another person, such as giving someone the silent treatment, spreading rumors behind people’s backs or sabotaging others’ efforts. Passive-aggressive communicators may also appear cooperative but may silently be doing the opposite.

Assertive

Thought to be the most effective form of communication, the assertive communication style features an open communication link while not being overbearing. Assertive communicators can express their own needs, desires, ideas and feelings, while also considering the needs of others. Assertive communicators aim for both sides to win in a situation, balancing one’s rights with the rights of others.

Assertive communicators can express their own needs, desires, ideas and feelings, while also considering the needs of others.

One of the keys to assertive communication is using “I” statements, such as “I feel frustrated when you are late for a meeting,” or, “I don’t like having to explain this over and over.” It indicates ownership of feelings and behaviors without blaming the other person.

How to Become an Assertive Communicator

Understanding how others communicate can be key to getting your message across to them. In order to develop a more assertive communication style, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Take ownership (use “I” statements) • Maintain eye contact

  • Learn to say “no” • Voice your needs and desires confidently

Communication Skills

1. Listening

Listening is one of the most important aspects of communication. Successful listening is not just and understanding of spoken or written information, but also an understanding of how the speaker feels during communication.

If a speaker can see and feel that someone is listening and understanding that can help build a stronger, deeper relationship between interlocutors.

Careful listening can also create an environment in which everyone feels safe to express ideas, opinions and feelings, or plan and solve problems in a creative way.

2. Straight talking

Conversation is the basis of communication, and one must not neglect its importance. Even a simple, friendly conversation with colleagues can build mutual trust and even detect problems before they become serious.

A healthy dose of chatting with and unknown person can lead to a business opportunity. Be accessible and friendly because then you will be able to talk to almost anyone.

3. Non-verbal communication

When we talk about things that matter to us then we send a lot of nonverbal messages.

Non-verbal signals are wordless communication, body position, facial expression, hand movements, gestures, eye contact, attitude and tone of your voice, muscle tension and the way you/we breathe.

The way you look, listen, create, react, gesture, speaks far more about feelings than words will ever be able to.

Why non-verbal communication skills are important?

Because, according to Salesforce’s research on interpersonal communication, 93 percent of communication is non-verbal.

Developing the ability to understand others and use nonverbal signals will help you connect with others, express what you think, meet challenging situations, and build better relationships at home and at work.

4. Stress management

In small quantities, stress can be very useful and encouraging for work. However, when the stress becomes constant and completely begins to take effect, it can affect communication, clarity of opinion, and appropriate behavior and action.

When you are under stress you may misunderstand other people, send confusing nonverbal signals, and use funny patterns of behavior.

5. Emotion control

In communication, feelings play an important role. Making decisions more often affects the way you feel than the way you think.

Guided by emotions, your nonverbal behavior affects the understanding of other people and how others understand and perceive you.

If you are not aware of your feelings you are guided, you will not be able to express your needs and experiences. This can result in frustration, misunderstanding and conflict.

Control of emotions provides you with tools to understand others, yourself and the messages you send.

Though recognizing feelings makes it simple, many people have strong feeling like anger, sorrow, or fear being pushed under the carpet.

4 Smart Ways to Improve Communication Skills

1. Listen with empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand the feelings, thoughts, and beliefs of another person. Exactly this is the reason why organizations have started developing empathy in the workplace.

Emotional acceptance, closely related to empathy, means that, after empathizing and understanding how other person feels, we can accept the reasons why somebody feels or thinks the way they do, regardless of whether we agree with it or not.

Try to see things from others’ perspectives by accepting what you hear instead of trying to “fix things and solve the problem”.

2. Speak up

Communication begins with you. Take responsibility and start communication, do not wait and expect another person to do so and don’t hide behind various forms of online communication.

Good communication, especially on important topics, requires far more than what we can express in a written message.

3. Prepare what you’re going to say

Think before you speak. Most of us work best when we have time to process our own thoughts before we share them. If the conversation or meeting is worth your precious time, take a few minutes to prepare the speech draft.

For a very important conversation, try a mock-up conversation with a trusted person so you can get rid of any potential mistakes.

4. Be ready for different answers

As you formulate a speech strategy, put yourself in the position of a person who will listen to you.

This will ensure balanced approach and you will be prepared to learn and defend potential disagreements and it will be easier for you to defend your standpoint. No one can predict with certainty how other people will react.

Understanding Social dynamics and Communication Skills for employment

Every individual gets a degree and competes with several strangers for employment in renowned companies in want of a stable profession. However one can be distinguished from another with the development of different skills which can influence people around them and one of utmost importance skill that is the influencer are the Communication Skills. It is the sole medium through which people share their ideas, feelings, knowledge, and thoughts with others. If you have effective communication skills, you will be able to present yourself and your knowledge with everyone confidently and be able to stand out from the crowd.

Social dynamics bring together the ideas from people who would want to influence the changes and thus communication is the act of conveying your thoughts to others through the use of mutually understood signs which will influence their behavior.

Communication can be verbal, visual, or written. To ensure that you maintain the social dynamics of the society, as an individual, one needs to be a good communicator which can create a positive impact on Social Dynamics around you. Some techniques to improve your Communication Skills and balance the perfect social dynamics include:

  • Be confident and speak clearly about what you are thinking.
  • Practice to use your communication skills, prepare yourself for opportunities and deliver with ease
  • While communicating, make sure that you have eye contact with others, and you use gestures to express yourself. Gestures are a great way to communicate a positive body language, make optimal use of them.
  • To create an impact on what you want to present, let your behavior reflect in your communication. When the qualities as honesty, peace, culture, optimism, etc. reflect in your talk, it elevates your communication.

Body language is considered to be 70% of every conversation. Most people are unaware of the phenomenon that we converse more with our bodies rather than our mouths. We use the gift of gestures to assist what we are trying to say. Body language includes the stature, hand gestures, facial expressions and even the pitch and tone of your voice with each of them impacting the whole presentation of your talk.

The importance of having good communication skills & Social Dynamics cannot be stressed enough for gaining and maintaining employment. Good communication skills can guide you to nail your dream job interview and that first job in your new career. Being able to articulate all you know and can do, whether in spoken or written form, goes a long way in the application process in a non-verbal or verbal way.

Communication Benefits you in the Workplace in aspects of:

  • Team Building
  • Helps with Diversity
  • Global Business
  • Employee Morale

Thus, an effective communicator is one who is engaged, considerate, and listens to the other person; taking the time to ask questions and respond accordingly. While speaking they should be confident, and gracious in their interactions. With a confident set of positive communication skills and effective social dynamics, one can get into a successful job opportunity and carry themselves out perfectly on the professional front.

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