How do I connect within groups through communication?

 A group is a number of people greater than three who interact over time, depend on each other, and follow shared rules of conduct.  These three or more must see themselves as interdependent on one another to formulate cohesion, the feeling of group identity.  This is also sometimes known as "groupthink".  Two challenges that group formation faces are the pressure to conform and the time needed for the group process.  Work coming from the group can be of lesser quality  when the focus is on time and conformity.  Though groups face these two hardships, there are also a number of benefits that arise from groups.  Greater resourcing is available, along with thoroughness, creativity, and commitment. Task communication, procedural communication, climate communication, and egocentric communication are all different ways in which a group functions to accomplish goals.  The type of communication used largely depends on the type of leadership the group is under.  An authoritarian leader would probably tend to lead the group in task communication, generating results quickly, being the least likely to give power to any other group members.  A democratic leader might lead the group in a procedural communication, using small group discussion, where there is more power given to group members, but the leader still helps guide the discussion and keep the group on track.  Lastly, a laissez-faire leader would most likely lead the group in climate communication, or a harmonizing brainstorm, where there is more power given to other members of the group, and the leader is less likely to use "power over".  The laissez-faire leader is hands-off and would merely help keep a healthy conversation going.  From this project, i learned that there are different ways to lead a group, but the best way is democratic, because of the efficiency and fairness involved. 

How do I connect within personal relationships through communication?

In personal relationships, there is a multitude of processes that we use to connect and relate to others.  In some cases, we use listening to connect with others. The interpersonal climate between two people is also largely affected by the levels of self disclosure we participate in.  Self disclosure has much to do with the closeness between individuals and the level of the relationship they are in.  Relationship conflicts can wedge themselves into personal relationships and create small obstacles that need worked through to overcome.  All in all, the commitment in a personal relationship is the glue that carries the irreplaceable individuals through until the end, and there is an end to some personal relationships, be they friendships or romantic involvements.  Our self disclosures turn into investments, or "that which we put into relationships that we could not retrieve if the relationship were to end." As we disclose more to one another, there builds a trust, and with more trust comes a deeper level of self disclosure.  The rules of the relationship help guide the behaviors of each of the partners. The tensions in a relationship help each of the partners learn and grow together as individuals. These are called the relational dialects. These include autonomy versus connection, novelty versus predictability, openness versus closedness, and the way you manage these different dialects can determine the relationship's success or failure.  The key is to find what works for you, and find a partner that can work with your own style of personal communication to fit their own. From this project, I learned and can take with me the knowledge about explorational, intensifying, and revising communications and how to properly navigate through changes in a romantic relationship. 

How do I connect with myself through communication?

Communication, as we've talked about, is not just a one way, one time step.  It is an on-going process.  With communication, it develops with us through our daily lives and through our different relationships.  For me, communication has greatly developed my personal relationships and my professional relationships.  All aspects of my life revolve around the way I communicate with others.
To begin, in my personal life, communication has taken on many different roles in the formation of the person I am today.  In my family, there are many boys.  As we know, communication is not just about the words we use to communicate, but the kinesics, haptics, artifacts, and environmental factors, among other things, we use to interact with those around us.  Growing up with boys, I learned that words don't tend to mean as much as the non-verbal communication devices do.  Boys use pats on the back and hand shakes and fist pounds to show their emotions.  Along with that, boys tend to keep their emotions and feelings to themselves.  This is how I was shown to communicate, so I now have many of the same habits in communication as boys do.  In my later teenage years, I have developed a sense of security in my emotions, and can now speak my mind, but that is not how I started out.  These habits of communication have made me the person I am today because without sometimes keeping my feelings to myself, I may have said something that would have turned me in a different direction than I am now headed in.  I can now use words to clearly explain what I mean and I can clearly describe what exactly I need or want.  This has come in handy in my professional life.
My professional life consists of both my school and work experiences.  During school, communication has shown me, through cultural development, how to act around teachers and how to act around friends.  With teachers, I am expected to be respectful and obedient.  I don't have a problem with this, as communication throughout my lifetime has said to me, "This is the respect teachers deserve and you need to show them that you value them as an administrator."  With friends, I know that I need to explain my points of view sometimes to avoid conflict.  If there are two different points of interest, to find a common ground and communicate clearly, explanation is due. Also, with friends, peers are more likely to use the same words as you do, but maybe in a different sense, so you have to make sure you understand what they mean before you react.  During work, I talk to people for a living every day.  I don't know any of these people on a personal basis, and there are cultural norms that keep us from "peeling the onion", but I do try my best to find a common topic to talk about.  When I'm at work, my job is to provide exceptional customer service and make customers feel like they can ask me for anything.  I try my very hardest to break the ice with some very generic personal questions like, "Are you from around here?", or, "Are you staying here in the Inn with us this week?".  To provide them with a personal feeling of welcome is my job, but also my pleasure.  Over time, communication has made me very social and warm towards others, and I love to talk and share stories with anyone. 
Communication has made me the person I am today, not only verbally, but non-verbally.  Communication has brought me out of my shell, and it has shown me that in order to know how I feel, feedback from people I communicate with is very important.  Going through my life and using different forms of communication has given me the chance to find what works best for me, and how comfortable I am with myself.  I can see what kind of mood I'm in just by the way my friends react to me or the way my boss tells me how the customers are reacting to me.  Communication's feedback through my lifetime has shaped the way I express myself by giving me the chance to observe how different people react to my different ways of communicating. 

What is Communication?

What is communication?

According to Julia T. Wood, author of Communication in Our Lives, it "is a systemic process in which people interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings."  What does this definition mean?  By breaking it down into four key words Wood helps you better understand just exactly what she means.  The first key word is PROCESS.  Communication is a process, meaning that it is a series of events, not a thing.  An event is ever-changing and never stagnant.   The second word she uses is SYSTEMIC, meaning that the parts that are ever-changing work together and effect each other.  SYMBOLS, the third key word in the definition, are things that represent other things.  Some examples she gives are language, both verbal and nonverbal, art, and music.  MEANING, which is the last, but not least, key element of communication, is the literal and related form of expression.  In communication, the literal words being used can be interpreted differently by way of the underlying relationships between the people executing the communication.  So, what is communication, you ask?   By looking at the four elements of communication, we can gather that communication is a series of ever-changing events that affect one another.  It is executed by way of exchanging symbols that can be interpreted both literally and figuratively by the receivers of the information.  People use communication everyday.  Think for a moment about how very often you interact with anyone.  Every instance uses communication.  This is the way we relate to one another! If we were without communication, the world would be without any type of sync.  All beings would be in their own little universe, never exchanging a thought, a word, a look.... How very lonely we would be.  Humans constantly communicate.  Lack of communication has even been proven to cripple the psychology of human development.  It is as necessary as water, food, and shelter.  Could you live in solitary?