Communicating is something that most people believe they do well. After all, we have been communicating all our lives with many different people and in many different situations. However, how much do we really think about communicating? How many people simply engage in the same old scripts with the same people over and over?
When we think of communication, we should be thinking of it as a tool to be developed and used in ways that can best serve us, our communities, and our world. It should be a mindful activity as opposed to one that is simply left to familiar ways of speaking to others devoid of planning or consideration. Consider your choice of college major. Perhaps it is biology, theater, sports management, business, nursing, or something else. How much of the career that you are planning for involves communication? The answer to this question, regardless of your major, is a considerable amount.
It is estimated that 75 percent of a person's day is spent speaking and listening. In fact, in a recent poll of 330 industry leaders, 96 percent of executives rated communication and interpersonal skills as the most valuable employee traits (Cline, 2005). These data are only a sample of a common belief that is shared universally.
Communication matters and it is hard work to be an effective and appropriate communicator. It is our goal to make you a better communicator at many levels, including public speaking, group and team communication, and interpersonal communication. Perhaps the value of communication skills is best summed up by The New York Times award-winning columnist Thomas Friedman and author of the best-selling book, The World Is Flat (2006) when speaking about the skills and competencies that will required of college graduates in the 21st century:
""You need to like people. You need to be good at managing or interacting with other people. Although having good people skills has always been an asset in the working world, it will be even more so in a flat world [advances in technology and communication putting diverse people in touch as never before]. That said, I am not sure how you teach that as part of a classroom curriculum, but someone had better figure it out."" (p. 106)
When we think of communication, we should be thinking of it as a tool to be developed and used in ways that can best serve us, our communities, and our world. It should be a mindful activity as opposed to one that is simply left to familiar ways of speaking to others devoid of planning or consideration. Consider your choice of college major. Perhaps it is biology, theater, sports management, business, nursing, or something else. How much of the career that you are planning for involves communication? The answer to this question, regardless of your major, is a considerable amount.
It is estimated that 75 percent of a person's day is spent speaking and listening. In fact, in a recent poll of 330 industry leaders, 96 percent of executives rated communication and interpersonal skills as the most valuable employee traits (Cline, 2005). These data are only a sample of a common belief that is shared universally.
Communication matters and it is hard work to be an effective and appropriate communicator. It is our goal to make you a better communicator at many levels, including public speaking, group and team communication, and interpersonal communication. Perhaps the value of communication skills is best summed up by The New York Times award-winning columnist Thomas Friedman and author of the best-selling book, The World Is Flat (2006) when speaking about the skills and competencies that will required of college graduates in the 21st century:
""You need to like people. You need to be good at managing or interacting with other people. Although having good people skills has always been an asset in the working world, it will be even more so in a flat world [advances in technology and communication putting diverse people in touch as never before]. That said, I am not sure how you teach that as part of a classroom curriculum, but someone had better figure it out."" (p. 106)
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