What I Say, Isn't Always What You Hear

How often do we take the process of conveying an idea across for granted? Ideas are now being transmitted via internet and social media in split seconds. Can you recall those embarrassing moments when the auto correct or dictionary on your smart devices spelled out words that you would have never intend to say? Well...don't we all brush these silly mistakes aside and once again get busy clicking and tapping away.

When things taken for granted forms a habit, it gives birth to communication mishaps, Communication on the other hand may seem like a long word to many of us. Some may even feel bombarded with the terms like "Effective Communication" and "Workplace Communication". Now let's take things up to the next level people; how about "Critical Communication"?......I sense long pauses.

I so know that I have stirred some chaos in your ever challenging life. I am not here to make things worst my friends, perhaps let me shed some light on just a thing or two you and I do daily - communicate.

We all are well aware of the fact that, communication is always 2 ways. When a message is encoded to be delivered it must be decoded by the receiving party on the other end. Nowadays our receiving party may even share what was communicated to extended recipients. 

Below is a very basic communication model/process:

The Communication Process

icon source :  https://www.cirriusimpact.com

Let me breakdown this process a little further for your understanding, a typical communication process has not 1, not 2 but 7 major elements. 

We have the:

1. Sender - A person that intends to convey a message

2. Encoding - Conversion of subject matter into symbols, words, action or picture etc.

3. Message - Idea/subject matter (opinion,feeling,attitude,directions or suggestion etc.)

4. Communication Channels - mode/channels the subject matter is transmitted 

5. Receiver - A person that receives the intended message

6. Decoding - the action of converting the message in the best form intended

7. Feedback - A reinforcement process to indicate message conveyed was well received. 

Notice, there is something special about encoding and decoding. When a message is sent it gets encoded by the sender and decoded by the receiver. When the receiver gives feedback, the feedback now gets encoded on the receiver's end and decoded on the sender's end.

Ever wondered, why at times this simple yet dynamic process may not give us the end results that we wanted? The simple answer to this are the noise that occur during the transmission - while communicating. In my next post, we will look at some of the common barriers (noises) in communication. Stay tuned :)

The Communication Process

icon source : https://www.cirriusimpact.com

PSMB Certified Trainer I Am

With every ounce of excitement in my body, I am proud to announce that I am a PSMB/HRD Certified Trainer. A celebration is in due, now...How shall I reward myself? A nice treat of Hagen Daz is something I well deserve and of course I will exercise caution prior,while and after consumption.

Sealing a deal with something sweet is defiantly my way of cherishing a dream come true. Thanks to my current employer I am now a certified trainer. Along the way of being a workplace trainer, I came to realize that certification is also needed to qualify ones training competencies apart from experience.

 It was the best 5 days of my life for this quarter.  The journey in becoming a certified trainer was nothing but pure hard work, idea generation, sharing of experiences and was all about having fun. I met executives from various backgrounds and industries We are now one big happy family of trainers, awaiting to embark our journey as Trainers.

The course is know as Train the Trainer  - Certification in Training by PSMB/HRD and the training was conducted by IRS Training (http://www.irs-training.com/). This 5 day journey was very pleasantly facilitated by Mr.Alex Wong, the one in the Pink Shirt (in the pic below). The course was pretty intense as we had to learn not only the "mojos" of being a competent trainer but also tools and theories involved in being one.

Being a trainer in not limited to knowing your audiences, building a comprehensive course structure and reinforcing the learning. It is knowing, understanding and being competent in understanding an organization's structure, training and non-training skill/competencies gaps and providing customized solution to cater dynamic business needs.

I have said a whole mouthful of words, do you now get the picture folks? When I say it was "INTENSE" you just got to take my words for it...... the intensity did not stop there, we had series of assignments aligned carefully after every module. The hand writing was put to test and boy, did I hate my own writing....I sure did, they were hideous beyond imaginary. Yet another participant wanted to copy down my notes.

Here is us being serious.....

One for the Album.....All Smiles

From Left Standing: Ramesh, Wazir, Teoh, Farizan, Maslinda, Me, Ooi@Ocean, Azahar, Law & Wong

From Left Seating: Shafiq, Darma, Alex Wong & Rudy Sim

My favorite part of the learning was all the knowledge and experience sharing from these beautiful team of executives and not forgetting our dear trainer too.

I am now well aware of the sectors or shall I say the areas that organizations/industries like Banking, IT, Manufacturing and Sales put their focus on.

Well, If you have the time to read a little bit more, proceed to the link below: 

These are 2 blogs that nurtures open learning; where you get to learn at your own pace for free.

Is one way of giving back to the community, I feel we will be needing more blogs like this :)

How to be an Engaging Leader by Sir Alex Wong:

http://howtobeanengagingleader.blogspot.com

Open Learning - Experience Online Learning the Social Way

https://www.openlearning.com/

Enjoy reading :)