Constructive Communication

All good negotiation, whether in mediation or not, involves engaging the other parties in meaningful dialogue. Core has recently conducted several in house courses for senior executives on the theme of constructive communication.

Coming from these are common themes:

• how easy it is to make assumptions about people and events, to draw inferences from these – and for the assumptions and inferences to be incorrect;

• that there are two sides to most stories and that we need to be skilful in eliciting the real concerns, needs and issues of others who may see things differently, whose behaviour we may think abnormal and whom we may think are irrational;

• that we infrequently really listen to what someone else is saying and that we often miss the real gems in a conversation or dialogue;

• that to get our point across we tend to assert our position: how much more we can achieve by asking carefully formulated and focussed questions, drawing others out and helping them to see our point of view.