This week, I learned that the Platinum rule is to “do unto others as they would do for themselves” (Beebe, Beebe, and Redmond, 2011). This rule applies to communicating to diverse groups of people. After evaluating my communication with others, I realize that I communicate differently in different situations and different contexts. When I talk with colleagues, I am more professional and flexible with my communication style. However, in personal communication, I am very informal and I do not try to incorporate cultural awareness in to my communcation. As a result, I experience cultural myopia during personal communication. When I work with parents, I am informal yet professional. I try to talk to them in terms that they can understand. However, this makes it difficult for me to avoid implying my own cultural beliefs in the conversations. Therefore, I will work to establish better communication practices with others now that I am aware of my current communication styles.
Three strategies that will help me communicate more effectively are developing cultural competency, monitoring nonverbal cues, and avoiding industry jargon.
Reference
Beebe,
S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2011). Interpersonal communication:
Relating to others (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon
It is great that we can recognize the areas that are in need of improvement. I think that we all are a little guilty of myopia. Now that we understand how it affect others, we can limit our judgement of others and their situations and try to see things from different perspectives.
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