Completed Day 2 of the UTK practitioner course 4, 2021-22.
I was interested in feedback from a discussion activity around communication and listening. A comment about eye contact intrigued me and how it was noted that some of the most effective conversations had by practitioners had been where there had not been direct eye contact. For example in the car, or when doing a task with the person.
It made me wonder about modern day communication behaviours, reflecting on comments previously made by young people, when the SCCR discussed communication with them. They felt that they were able to effectively listen to a conversation while using their phones, but did qualify that if they heard something, they felt important or urgent, they would then focus on the person who was talking to them. They saw this as completely normal communication behaviour.
Being of a generation were ‘eye contact’ was reinforced as a key element in an effective communication process, maybe not so in the modern day. Communication, like people management in this modern day is much more of an informal and inclusive process, which if done well works better (in some settings) than more formal systems. I would welcome your thoughts on this and share any best practice knowledge.
