What are the major types of communications?

Communications between persons are carried out verbally and nonverbally. Verbal communications are in the form of oral and written messages. Oral communications can be carried out through dialogues, meetings, negotiations, presentations, or telephone conversations where the main part of the information is transmitted through vocal signals. Written communications can be realized through documents in the form of letters, instructions and orders, and regulations and statutes when one person transfers signals to another person in written form.

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Nonverbal communications occur through body language and the modulation and coloring of speech. Body language is a main component of nonverbal communications influencing the other participant in the communication process. It includes dress, gestures, pose, facial expression, eye contact, and even the space between the people who are communicating.

Examples of the most known conscious body signs include:

• Clenched fist in front of someone's face means threat.

• A finger put up to someone's mouth means: "Keep silent".

• An open hand put to an ear means: "Speak up, I can't hear you".

• A raised hand or finger means a person wants to say something, etc.

The examples of unconscious body expressions may include:

• Enlarged eye pupils in the case of increased interest.

• Lifted shoulders in the case of tension.

• Mouth corners dropped in the case of person who is tired, unhappy, or angry.

• A hand closing the nose and lips if the person is uncertain.

• A head bent to the side in the case of a listener being interested, etc.

The position of the shoulders and the head can give lots of information about whether a person is opened or closed, in control of the situation or not, tensed or relaxed. Normally a person lifts the shoulders when he or she is tense and drops them when relaxed. The head dropped and shoulders lifted may also mean a feeling of losing, dissatisfaction, fear, uncertainty.

If you need to make a presentation in front of a group of people, you can predict how the audience feels about you by watching the pose of the shoulders and heads of people; the more tense and aggressive the audience is, the more lifted shoulders and dropped heads and month corners there will be.

Head lifted and shoulders dropped may mean openness, interest, orientation towards success, feeling in control.

The pose of the body is important for the analysis of how a person feels. You need to remember it may have one meaning or multiple meanings. When a person is saying what he thinks, his pose sends out singlemeaning signs. If it is mostly erect, without much curve, the head and feet on the same line, this is a pose of a person controlling a situation, satisfied with what he is doing and having no hidden intentions.

A person who is trying to dictate and make people obey takes a pose that is somewhat leaning forward. It may also mean uncertainty when the person is not sure that he wants to do something.

When the body is bent back, it normally means resistance, defensive feelings, dissatisfaction, a willingness to have the least possible contact with the interlocutor. All of these are the single-meaning poses, but it is also important to remember the pose can have multiple meanings; a leaning forward and at the same time "looking from above" pose can mean the person is willing to dictate, but in reality feels his fault and wants to be excused for it.

It is important to understand, particularly for communications in a project environment, which can often involve representatives of different cultures, that body language can depend on a person's nationality. Different nationalities have different specifics and characteristics of body language. First of all, there is conscious body language. A person who wants to talk raises a hand or a finger, a person who wants other people to keep silent puts a finger to his lips, etc. However, there is also unconscious body language, which, if interpreted properly, gives much important information about people's intentions and attitude.

In order to understand body language correctly, it is not enough to look at one detail and come to a conclusion; body signs have to be considered integrally and correlated with the whole situation.

Important unconscious body language includes the position of the shoulders and the head, pose (position of a body), facial expressions including the position of the mouth, the eyebrows, and the eyes, and the size of the eye's pupils.

In order to reach harmony with your counterpart and increase the efficiency of communications, it is important to help him or her to open up. This can be done by imitating or mirroring the poses of a closed person and slowly making changes to the pose in order to encourage the other person to a higher level of openness. This technique not only helps you move the person into a more open state, but also helps you understand the person's attitudes, and it distracts your attention from your own problems or lack of confidence.

Communications are made much more efficient if the listener demonstrates an open, active, and polite listening style to the person communicating using body language.

Speech parameters form a second important component of verbal communications. A great percentage of communicated information is transmitted this way. It includes intonation, voice timbre, speed of speech, choice of words, volume of the voice, pronunciation of words, etc.

The ways of providing communications are well known to most people and include listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening is a one-sided process when one person is talking and another perceives information without interrupting. Listening is the most important skill of interpersonal communications. The major types of listening include:

• Information gathering (neutral)

• Defensive listening (with a skeptical attitude toward the speaker)

• Aggressive listening (with an effort to "catch" the speaker)

• Polite listening (pausing between statements)

• Selective listening (hearing what one wants to hear)

• Active listening (understanding the listener and encouraging communications during the dialogue)

Speaking represents a dialogue between two persons and makes up a major part of communications during meetings, negotiations, and presentations. It is the second most important skill of interpersonal communications after listening.

Reading is the process of perceiving written information. It is especially important for people who are intellectual types who prefer formal logic to a more emotional perception of the world.

Writing, which has played an important role in providing communications during the last thousand years, is losing its importance in the twenty-first century. By writing we mean actual written communication with handwriting or printing on paper. E-mail, which has emerged as a new communications technology, is actually a new kind of communication somewhere between written and verbal.