4 days ago
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Week 4 - Blog 1: Communicating Multiple Identities (Ch. 7)
The textbook states that "Thoughtful and responsive communicators will make conscientious decisions about communicating in ways that value difference, resist stereotyped assumptions about particular social identities, acknowledge the power of communication, and foster agency" (p. 223). Also, Allen offers the three specific strategies to better communicate multiple identities: 1) Be Mindful, 2) Be Proactive and 3) Fill Your Communication Toolbox. Since my workplace is a college, I encounter diverse population, such as resident and nonresident students, instructors, administrative staff, technicians, etc. on campus, whose backgrounds vary, and especially the students who I meet change every quarter and every academic year. As a college staff, I definitely need to enact and embody these strategies in my job (teaching ESL). To me, the job is not only teaching but also communicating and interacting with multiple identites outside of the classroom. Fortunately, ther are many co-workers around me who serve as good models and who demonstrate these strategies, so I hope I could improve my competence of communicating multiple identities.
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While seemingly obvious, I think Allen's three golden rules: be mindful, be positive, and to fill your communication tool box, can be applied to life as well as life in the work place. Indeed, work is the catalyst and provider of all the many interactions that one has with the outside world (in most cases), and it gives our "tool box" a plethora of "effective critical thinking and listening" skills that can be applied to improve the quality of one's life. "Thinking outside the box" is a subtle way of telling someone to break any stereotypes one may have and focus more on these golden rules.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Allen's three ways to better communicate multiple identities. Being mindful, being proactive, and filling one's communication box can only help better communication. Many time's people can become offended by simple statements that are taken for granted by many people of the U.S. offending someone can lead to bad business or termination of that relationship. These three suggestions serve to be important tools to better communicate. Imagine going into a meeting without being proactive, and you end up offending your prospective partner because of your lack of finding out whom your meeting with.
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