Contextual Communication – What is it?

In a book I wrote on communication, I talk specifically about contextual communication as opposed to communication as we know it. What is contextual communication? How is it different from proper communication? And how can it help improve our communication? We’ll see.

Let’s say one day you feel frustrated about an important issue at work and you go to your boss under the spur of the moment. You may not come up with the best of word choices.

Your boss must recognize that your behavior is out of context. Under normal conditions, you would communicate in a more rational and constructive way. Therefore, being aware of this, the Receiver (the listener, in this case his boss) will have some understanding at this critical moment.

We are more vulnerable to misunderstandings and negative reactions at home. People are at their best at work or in public, and can hold back more and apply communication tools. At home, unfortunately, we sometimes forget about mutual respect. However, it is the best place to start practicing improving communication and the changes we would like to make in our lives.

If your boss isn’t properly trained, he can sometimes return an unexpected verbiage of literary responses that will start a series of escalating words, or even unspoken misunderstandings. That could build up to serious confrontations or silent endings (you say nothing, walk away, but carry the grudge of unfinished business).

The same type of situation applies in reverse: the subordinate may misunderstand the boss at a vulnerable moment. Often these confrontations can cause permanent damage to relationships. One may even lose a job as a result of it.

What is the contextual part? It is the set of “the parts of a sentence, paragraph, speech, etc. immediately next to or around a specific word or passage and which determine its exact meaning (to quote a comment out of context). The whole situation, the background or setting relevant to a particular event, personality, creation, etc. Contextual: of, depending on, or pertaining to context (New World Dictionary).

Just as in reading, where the sentence, paragraph, chapter, plot, theme, theme is read in the context of the words, communication is also read, heard, or understood in the context of the subject. the subjects and the communicators, both by the sender (speaker, presenter, etc.) and by the receiver (the listener).

In a conversation, each of us alternately assumes the role of Sender and Receiver. Each can also be just a sender or just a receiver. For example, we are a Sender only when we are talking to someone who is not participating in the conversation, such as when we are teaching or giving a presentation or seminar, or giving instructions, etc. We are a receiver only when we are the listener in an audience or a class or an instructional situation. But, most of the time, we are both at different times. We participate in conversations that require us to be senders when we speak and receivers when we listen.

The contextual part of communication requires us to be aware of the context within which the topic is being discussed: the environment of both points of view. If we learn to see this contextual part, learn it and use it, most people will be able to improve their communication by 50-100% in most cases./dmh