Communication Tips from Jean Shannon

Jean Shannon spoke at the Regional Symposium of the Queensland Law Society.* At the Symposium, she shared the following insights for communication:

• The higher the level of anxiety in a person, the less ability they have to take on information. Therefore, the higher the anxiety, the more structure needed in communication.
• It is important to cater for all learning styles - auditory/visual/kinesthetic

1. You may pick an auditory learner because they may respond "I hear what you're saying"
2. You may pick a visual learner because they may respond "I see what you mean"
3. You may pick a kinesthetic because they may respond "I understand what you're getting at"

To cater for all learning styles, have a good structure in your message, use visual aids and prompts, and back it up with facts!

How a person communicates has more weight in personal decision making than what is communicated. Something to ponder when giving altar calls etc

• In a study conducted from US and Canada on how communication was received, they found it comprised:

1. 7% words
2. 38% tone and voice
3. 55% facial expressions (from Nancy Adler, Professor of International Management McGill Uni)

*(Jean is a communications and change management specialist with 20 years experience in strategic design, project evaluation and problem solving. She has used applied communications theory in corporate strategic planning to assist in restructuring and repositioning a variety of government and non government organisations. She is a specialist in providing executive communications training including trainer-training, presentation and structured persuasion and is a published journalist and editor. Jean has demonstrated experience in designing corporate communication strategies that make successful change management possible. see http://www.jeanshannon.com/)