When the word communication is mentioned, it's almost automatic to perk up our ears and perk up our antennas. Communication is undoubtedly what most envelops and involves our lives , our relationships on all levels: personal, family, friendship, social, at school, and at work.
A few years ago, a colleague, Mariella Sabino (now deceased), conducted a very interesting, academically recognized thesis at a major Roman hospital. Her thesis, within the context of organizations with creative work, analyzed the importance of horizontal and vertical communication, focusing on the role of volunteers in the department. This thesis allowed her to see how even volunteers, present on the ward, close to the patient, can trigger a series of mechanisms and activate new forms of communication, both horizontally (for example, between nurses or doctors) and vertically (between healthcare workers, nurses, and doctors), ultimately creating new, important assessments for the treatment of the disease. This work was fully recognized by all those involved.
Reflecting on communication: putting yourself in someone else's shoes
Communication certainly requires a prerequisite: putting yourself in the other person's shoes . Imagine being invited to dinner by a blind couple and having to rearrange the order of the cutlery, bottles, or various courses. That couple will undoubtedly panic when they begin to eat. Or what might happen if you left a door locked that was supposed to be open? Or imagine having to describe some scenes from a movie you've decided to watch after dinner. Will you use terms like "beautiful," "strong," "romantic," or will you go into more detail that the blind person can grasp?
Are we sure our message always reaches its recipient correctly? Some time ago, we were at university with friends and played a game related to some issues related to the world of communication. One of us was blindfolded, while the other, placed in front of a painting, had to describe it. You can't imagine the difficulty of explaining the details of that painting to the blindfolded person without being able to use adjectives. We avoided using adjectives because it's often assumed that certain elements are assimilated or have the same meanings (the concepts of beautiful, ugly, and bad don't always have the same parameters for each of us). At the end of the game, the person was removed from the blindfold and, looking at the painting, had to decide whether what the other person was saying was true to the painting they had just seen. I won't deny that there were few times that the story came close to actually seeing the painting.
Are we sure that when we say something our interlocutor is synchronized on the same frequency , or, more likely, are we the ones using concepts, manners, language out of context and, above all, far from what is actually required of us at that moment?
Verbal and non-verbal language
Another key element is certainly assertiveness. We often hear about it, but just as often we don't use it enough. Just think about our family or friends . Are we able to maintain an appropriate tone of voice in our relationships? Or rather, are we able to assert with various parts of our body what we might only be saying verbally? How many times do we, in family or with friends, encourage them to lower their voice, or perhaps, when speaking to our children or our partner, we realize that perhaps that wasn't the most appropriate way. It can happen that we say one thing with words while simultaneously sending another message with our posture, our expression, our facial expressions.
Another key element is communication in the workplace. In our workgroups, we often find ourselves with colleagues with the most diverse personalities and ways of doing things. Some tend to dominate, some to be authoritarian, some more quiet, some more reserved. The leader will undoubtedly be the person who manages to gain the most consensus. And what's the trick? Surely, that person has come into contact with more people, has had the opportunity to get to know them, and in their discussions, they not only find the right points, but also implement what is called "assertive communication."
Moreno and sociometry
A famous sociologist, Jacob Levi Moreno , creator of sociometry, experimented in various work groups with the importance not only of one's own contributions, but also of the ability to give others a voice, creating new lines of contact and enriching one's communication network. To play games inspired by Moreno's arguments, a group of people needs someone who acts as an observer and who does not participate in the group. This person marks all the contributions with arrows on a sheet of paper (from whom they originate and to whom they are directed). The person with the most references, both incoming and outgoing, will certainly have a positive influence on the group . This highlights how much one's communication skills influence each of us.
Reflecting on school and communication
One final reflection must be made regarding schools. A question arises: does the school system, or rather, classroom organization, facilitate communication within the teaching/learning process, ensuring that the established objectives are achieved? Is school organization as conceived still valid as our globalized, social, and multimedia society evolves daily? To what extent do students today maintain concentration, or rather, remain in tune with their teachers?
Could a test, perhaps with role-reversals, after due guidance from the teacher, allowing the lesson to be proposed by the student, be another way to attract and engage attention and be more interactive? However, how can we leverage all the media and global resources to capture student interest?
These are certainly questions that fundamentally require greater attention from others if we want to have an impact on our message and our mission.
Joseph Valente
Bibliography
- Moreno JL, Principles of sociometry, group psychotherapy, and sociodrama. ETAS, Milan, 1980.
- Pacori M., The secrets of body language, Mondadori Books Spa, Milan, 2018.
- Platts David Earl, Games that transform. (Finding group harmony and discovering yourself through play), Trigono Edizioni – Il giardino dei libri Srl, Bellaria (Rn), 2022.
