Non Verbal Communication In Action / Inaction

This past week I decided to try out some non verbal communication is a real world setting. I am after all an engineer, and we are big on practical applications (no offence to all you scientists out there).

So here's the setting. I had a tutorial in one faculty, and another tutorial following that in another faculty which was located across campus. The tutor in the first class was running a little late which surely meant that I would be late for my next lesson.

Now for my objectives. I wanted to see exactly how much non verbal communication it was going to take to let the tutor know that I was going to be late and I wanted to leave.

Assumptions: Once the tutor had picked up on enough non verbal communication, he/she would give up on his/her lesson plan and wrap up quickly.

And so i proceeded with the experiment. I did it all I think. I believed at some point I was actually non verbally screaming at the tutor. I kept looking at my watch. I rapped my fingers on the table. Occasionally I'd just stare at the door. I even started packing my stuff.

My results? Well lets just say that either my assumption isn't valid, or I wasn't thorough enough with my experimental procedures because the tutor carried on till the end of the hour, which meant I had to make a mad dash to the bus stop and squeeze into Bus A-something.

Maybe I should try repeat this experiment in an ES2007S class. That should be interesting. Or maybe I already did....

Haha I'll never tell.

btw the class that I was rushing to; well it was canceled.

Why Effective Communication Skills are Important to me

"You need to be more articulate." 

Those were the very words repeated to a 12-year-old version of me by my teacher. Admittedly at that time I didn't know what 'articulate' meant but time soon fixed that; and so begins my journey of learning and appreciating what it means to truly communicate effectively.

Moving forward the modern day Faizal is fully aware about the importance of communicating effectively; There was a point of my life that it was absolutely critical in fact.

Part of my duties during my National Service was to teach basic First Aid and CPR to members of the public and at that time my communication skills are not as awesome as they are today (yea i'm SUPREMELY humble). However as most guys will tell you during those 2 years you often get thrown into the deep end and so I had to learn such skills 'on-the-job'.

Seemingly minor things like eye-contact, how you stand, the tone of your voice are all important in getting your message across. Throw in a joke somewhere, share an interesting anecdote; these can help capture people's attention. The most important thing I learnt was to understand your audience, speak at their level, observe their reactions and react accordingly.

Today as I am being formally educated of professional communication I know these things to be termed as "non-verbal communication", "feedback" and removing "barriers". It gives perspective to all my prior experiences.

Looking to the future I have no doubt such communication skills, be it formally cultivated or ingrained by trial and error, would no doubt continue to serve me well. As a future civil engineer I would be expected to work with people of different specialties, skill sets and backgrounds. A typical construction project would involve mechanical and electrical engineers, architects and city planners, contractors who may not even speak the same language; all of whom need to understand each other perfectly if the building is to remain upright at the end of it all.

Historically significant and potentially valuable, that is why effective communication skills are important to me.