Communication is the basis of many aspects of legal practice. This episode looks at the science behind what we say and how we can use this to improve our communication for best effect.
Full description / show notes including links etc Matt works with the Verbal Behavioural Intelligence system to help people look at the science behind what they say. In short, all conversation content can be divided into 14 criteria (in 4 clusters). The amount of each of these clusters and criteria we use in a conversation can shape how we communicate. We can tweak these ratios to improve our communication style.
The four clusters are:
• Initiate:
- structuring conversations – organising the flow of direction in the meeting
- Propose – putting forward new concepts or suggestions.
- Build – extending a proposal which has been made by another.
• Reactions within conversations:
- Support – a declaration of support or agreement.
- Disagree – direct difference of opinion.
- Block – e.g. no or that wouldn’t work.
- Defend / Attack – attacking another person to defend one’s own position.
- Open – open to loss of status e.g. admission of mistake or inadequacies.
• Clarifying content:
- Test understanding – checking they have understood
- Summarise – summarising actions
- Seek information – e.g. what do you think we should do now?
- Give information – giving views or experiences.
• Controlling the conversation:
- Shutting others out – talking over or finishing peoples sentences
- Bringing in – e.g. what do you think XX?
We always encourage listeners to undertake practical actions after listening to the episode. Here are a few suggestions.
- What people and see when they are really good at communicating and adopt that yourself.
- Pick one of the 14 criteria which you have as a strength and one which you could do better at. Think about who does that one well that you know and see if you can adopt
- In your next meeting – look out for the 14 behaviours. Did you notice anything in particular about how they were being used?
