Communication Skills

Smart Wars

Madrid, 24/04-01/05/2016

Natalia Saranti, LC Patras and Patricia Ramos, LC Madrid

Madrid, 28/04/2016

1. Introduction
The training took place in Madrid. The event was from the 24th of April to the 1st of
May. Natalia applied as a participant to the event and that gave us the opportunity
to deliver a training for the international participants of the event. The training took
place on the 5th day of the event, so us to get prepared after Natalias arrival, and in
order to get to know the participants a bit more.

2. Keywords
Channels, filters, communication, sender, receiver, feedback

3. Target Group
The target group was formed by the participants of the international workshop Smart
Wars, organized by LC Madrid. They were EESTEC members of different commitments
with different experience levels.

4. Trainers
Natalia Saranti, LC Patras, Trainer Candidate, 7th T4T (Zurich)

Patricia Ramos, LC Madrid, Trainer, 7th T4T (Zurich)

5. Training Details
Goals of Training Session
Give some basic informations about the
● Model of communication, how it works
● The channels we use during our everyday communication, emphasise on how
many they are and how important they are
● The filters,and how they affect our communication. How can we notice them.
● Ways to overcome this problems, and especially by using BIO Feedback

Timeline
You can find the timeline of the training in the following link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Wct-fIisVBbDdjem5OM2Q3TWs/view?usp=sharing

Learning Block I - Process of Communication

Theory
We explained the different parts that take part during the basic process of
communication: sender, receiver, channels, filters and feedback.

Impressions, Difficulties and Changes

This part was just an introduction for the rest of the training, in which we explained in
more detail each part of the communication process. We used visuals for this
introduction, which made it more clear to connect all the part explained later.
Learning Block II - Channels of communication
Theory
Different channels of communications were explained, like body language or eye
contact. These channels were introduced through a discussion, in which participants
said the channels they thought about, and they were later explained. Some of these
channels were also introduced in the previous activity.

Activities
The activity related to this learning block was done at the beginning of it. In this
activity we asked for 3 volunteers. We gave to each one of them a paper with a
sentence and 3 different emotions to express while reading this sentence to the rest
of the participants. The participants should applause to the one of these 3 situations
that they believe the most.

With this activity we tried to show the participants the importance of the rest of the
channels in communication, not only verbal communication.

Impressions, Difficulties and Changes

For this activity we had 3 volunteers that made it really easy to see the differences
between the three chosen emotions. This activity was a perfect introduction to
explain in detail the different channels used in the communication process.

Learning Block III - Filters of Communication

Theory
After playing the game in which each participant had a role, we had a discussion
about the role the had in the roleplay game and how did the others felt that the role
was affecting the communication. We discussed about the problems they faced
and by that we made the introduction to the filters. Then we introduced them to the
filters of communication, giving some real life examples, and how can you recognize
the filter which is making your communication more difficult in order to solve it with
the tools we were going to introduce later
 Activities
We played a role play game. We divided the participants into 4 groups of 5. Then we
gave to the participants a small piece of paper on which we had a filter with a small
description underneath it. We asked the participants to adopt the role for the game
and try to not reveal to the others there role. The filters they had was for example:
you can’t express yourself easily or you are very emotional with everything that
happens , get excited or mad but you are over excited or too mad.
The subject they had to discuss was about planning a trip to a Greek island. We had
three different rounds in the game. The first round was with back to back in the
chairs, so the channel of eye contact, body language .etc wasn’t there (a way to
see the importance of the filters too). On the second round they could be face to
face and discuss about the topic. In both rounds they were keeping hide their filter.
In the third round we gave them the opportunity to reveal their filter to the others, so
they could see at the same time the characteristics of each filter.

Impressions, Difficulties and Changes

It was a really nice game. The participants really liked it, though they found it too
difficult to reach a conclusion and communicate in a group with so many different
personalities. Maybe we could have small groups of different personality and not
each person of the group with a different filter, so as to make the communication a
bit more realistic and easy for them. In advance some of the participants found it
difficult to adopt their filter, maybe we could have had a more clear explanation.

Learning Block IV - Sender and Receiver

Theory
In this part we talked about sender and receiver, the main characters of the
communication process. We made a discussion about possible solutions to problems
that can happen in the whole communication process.

Impressions, Difficulties and Changes

For later trainings we can include the process that the message experiments while
going from the sender to the receiver, to show more clearly the difference between
what the sender transmits and what the receiver gets. This process should describe
how the sender transmit the message, how this message is influenced by the
channels we transmit it and how the message changes because of the different
filters.
Also, we could have explained first the different problems that can happen and then
go one by one explaining possible solutions for each one of them, instead of talking
about general solutions.

Learning Block V - Feedback

Theory
We talked about the goal of giving feedback and the different types of feedback
we can give. We then gave a more analytical review on how we use BIO feedback,
why do we find this structure so important.

Activities
We divided the participants into groups of two, and we asked them to sit on the
chairs, putting the chairs back to back. We gave them a different paper with a
drawing and we asked them to : for the first round describe the drawing they had to
the person behind them. The other person couldn’t talk. That would happen for the
other person, so that both would describe their drawing and both could have tried
to draw. Then on the second round they had the opportunity to talk and ask
questions.

During this block we had another game. We asked the participants to give BIO
Feedback to a poster we had on the slides in order to practice a bit on giving BIO
feedback.

Impressions, Difficulties and Changes

They really liked the game. It was a really nice opportunity to see how the filters
affect the way we understand everything, how the channels we use (we can only
talk, and not use our hands) make the communication more difficult if we don’t use
all of them. And in the end how feedback makes the communication much more
easy than before.

Logistics Needed
We used the following materials:

● Flipcharts: Agenda, Ground Rules, Solutions to problems in communication

(Sender and Receiver learning block), and name of the training.
● Pens: back to back drawing activity.
● Colorful cardboards: visuals.
● Printed papers: back to back drawing game, activity about channels of
communication and role play about different filters.
 ● Sticky notes: feedback.

6. Materials Used
Sources
We used the following materials for the preparation of this training:

● Mastering Communication - Nicky Stanton

● LSS 2013 - Communication

Materials Created
Link for the PPT:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4MPdERBwTtlUVVIcm9OcDE3bVE/view?usp=sharin
g

Link for the pictures:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8Wct-
fIisVBWFhtdWhQbTFpUE0&usp=sharing

7. Follow up
Participants’ Feedback
Negative:

Most of the participants would like to see something more during the training, and
emphasise on one thing more. For example they asked for more details about body
language during communication, maybe more about feedback and other
methods, others about the process of communication. One of the participants
suggested (something that we found really interesting) to present some statistics of
experiments and some percentage. Moreover, to encourage participants to share
their knowledge and maybe use media, audios, videos, or incorporate self
evaluation stuff(personal tests,self judgement).

Positive:

The training was interesting for the participants, as they said it was a dynamic training
about useful topic. Also, they think the activities made more clear the topic, and that
they were well balanced with the theory parts. Some of them said that this training
made the knowledge they have about communication more clear and structured in
their minds. They gave positive feedback about our way of communicating and
about the way of working between the two of us.

Suggestions for improvement

What we can improve about this session is to get more into details about the
different parts, not only about the basics of communication, but to go a little bit
further. Also we can explain in detail how the message changes during the process
of communication, to show the importance of channels and filters. We could give
more examples also, to show different situations we have faced about problems of
communication.

Observations from Trainers

Natalia Saranti
I think it was the best training I had so far. Being a participant and at the same time,
being a trainer during an event gave me the opportunity to be more close to the
participants, they were feeling also more confident, to approach me and talk with
me about what they liked and what they didn’t like during the training, but to ask
also for more details about the training. The cooperation with Pati was amazing, we
had a really good communication before the training and that helped a lot for
preparing it. The communication during the training was also good, we were feeling
both really comfortable in adding details to the others part and helping with writing
on flipcharts, or putting things on the wall while the other was talking.
The most important thing for me though it was how the participants were paying
attention and even if they were very tired they were really active during the training
and they were trying to do their best during the games. Moreover I was more than
excited that participants were interested to learn about the training team and how
you can become a trainer. I believe that some of the participants are really
considering in applying for T4T and that makes me proud for our work with Pati .

Patricia Ramos

Since T4T in Zurich Natalia and me wanted to delivered a training together and
finally we got our chance to do it, and I’m so happy we did. First of all the working
atmosphere before the training was really great. I felt really comfortable and we
created a positive atmosphere where we could give different ideas and work as a
team. Second of all, during the training we understood each other in case we
needed help from the other and we were comfortable with the fact of delivering
together. Also, while delivering the training, the participants were really active and
contributed during the whole training session. This fact made the training a perfect
activity for sharing knowledge and for learning about Communication Skills. It was a
pleasure for me to be part of this training, one of the trainings I’m most proud of.