1. “The Foundations
of Communication”
Presented by
Len Roberts and Sue Harrison
Bloomfield College
Student Affairs Retreat
August 14, 2015

2. Our Goals
for This Session
Discuss Some Issues that Occur with
Miscommunication
Discuss How Individuals Communicate with
Each Other
Practice Our Skills to Increase Our Ability
to Communicate More Clearly

3. Listening
“Seek first to understand…
Then to be understood.”
-- Dr. Stephen Covey
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

4. Skit
“Order Two Sandwiches
from Charlie’s
Sub Shop”

5. Skit Discussion
What are some of your
observations about the
Skit?
What was and what was not
communicated?

6. The Three Levels of
Communication
Item Activity Percentage
1 Vocabulary 7 %
2 Voice
Inflections
38 %
3 Nonverbal
Behavior
55 %
100%
From Peter R. Garber
in
50 Communications Activities, Icebreakers, and Exercises

7. Listening &
Communication
Exercise
“I know that you
believe you
understand…”

8. Listening &
Communication
Exercise
“I know that you believe you
understand what you think I said,
but I am not sure you realize that
what you heard is not what I
meant!”
Quote from a U.S. Government Official

9. Listening
How Many Levels of
Listening are
There?

10. Listening
There are Seven
Levels of Listening!
From Peter R. Garber
In
50 Communications Activities,
Icebreakers, and Exercises

11. Level 1 Listening
Not Listening:
Not paying attention to or
ignoring the other person’s
communications.

12. Level 2 Listening
Pretend Listening:
Acting like or giving the impression
that you are paying attention to
another person’s communications,
but in actuality not really paying
attention to that individual.

13. Level 3 Listening
Partially Listening:
Only focusing on part of the other
person’s communication or only
giving it your divided attention.

14. Level 4 Listening
Focused Listening:
Giving the other person your
undivided attention to his or her
communication.

15. Level 5 Listening
Interpretive Listening:
Going beyond just paying attention
but really trying to understand what
the other person is communicating.

16. Level 6 Listening
Interactive listening:
Being involved in the
communications by asking clarifying
questions or acknowledging
understanding of the communication.

17. Level 7 Listening
Engaged listening:
Being fully engaged in communications involves
listening to the other person’s views, feelings,
interpretations, values, etc., concerning the
communication and sharing yours as well with
the other person(s). In engaged listening, both
parties are given the opportunity to fully express
their views, feelings, and ideas.

18. Reasons for Poor Listening
 Hearing problems
 Physical noise
 Effort: listening is hard; it is not natural
 Message overload
 Rapid thought
 Psychological noise
 Faulty assumptions
 Cultural differences