Topic: Skill Development Plan Report
Description:
Word limit: 3000-word limit (excluding appendices, tables and references)
1. Good communicators are not bom, they have Ieamed their skills over time. The aim of this assignment is to illustrate this fact by showing that we can all become better communicators with practice. The assignment is an opportunity for you to develop a particular interpersonal communication skill using the insights and techniques you have learned from your reading and from your engagement with assignment one.
2. Select an area from within the field of interpersonal communication in which you perceive a need for personal growth and development. Dnce your choice has been made, you will need to design an intervention which aims to improve your skills in your chosen area. You will then implement the plan and record the process as well as the outcomes in your Development Report.
Your choice of interpersonal communication skill will likely emerge from the process of working through the course material and, in particular, from the personal assessment and reflections in Assignment 1. In many ways the first assignment functions as a personal needs analysis and will signal both areas of strength and areas yet to be developed. If your interest lies in areas outside of those identified in the assignment then, please, follow your impulse. Here are just a few ideas to get you thinking:
You may have recognised that you tend to be extremely task-focused when interacting with others, pemaps to the extent that social or relational issues are disregarded. Or maybe the opposite is true?
Is self-disclosure a problem for you? Do you find it hard to get the right balance of disclosure and privacy?
Is it difficult to listen when you don‘t agree with what you are hearing? Do you find that your judgments prevent you from considering other options?
In conversation do you more typically advocate your viewpoint rather than inquire about the perspectives of others? Dr does your facilitative style encourage others yet leave you without opportunity to state your own views?
Do you find the turn-taking and ‘offer and yield‘ process of conversation daunting? Is it difficult to accept and advance conversational offers? Do you find it easier to switch subject or block advancement in some other way? Do you habitually use particular listening blocks with certain people or topics of conversation? What are the sources of conflict or resistance in your interpersonal behaviour? Most likely the discomfort associated with these events, issues or people is an invitation to explore the great potential for learning they
hold.
Plan an intervention to address the development issue you have decided upon. This will be a cleany thought out strategy for attempting something new or different in your upcoming conversations. You may choose to undertake some instruction or training in the identified skill and then follow up the training by trying out the modified behaviour in a real setting. For example, you may decide to improve your listening skill and develop a plan to increase the use of effective listening skills. Altematively you may wish to learn how to suspend your judgments in conversation and therefore use the techniques outlined by Ellinor 8. Gerard in the course readings.
Write up your experience using the following format:
{i} an introduction that identifies the skill for development and the process you used to make this choice {reflections from assignment one, personal observation, feedback from friends, family or teachers?) What is your ideal for this behaviour and how does that compare to your current level of skill? It is important to give clear specific objectives here.
{ii} A methodology section that details your plan to effect some change in your behaviour and to create opportunities for practicing the new skill. What suggestions do your readings provide? Will you seek training in tltis skill? Whyi’why not?
Outline the schedule you will follow in this process and substantiate your approach from theory. How will you record the process? How will you measure your progress? The question of measurement needs some thought. E.g. If you record that you had a 25% increase in your active listening ability your marker needs to be able to see how that figure was attained. In other words what method was used to measure it? Other questions that should be discussed are: Over what time period will the intervention be implemented? Are there any potential problems that you can foresee? No person is an island so how do you think others may react to your change?
{iii} A description of the implementation of your plan. including any changes or modifications you made. Recount your experience as you work through the process, including any training you may decide to undertake, any practice sessions with groups of friends and of course the final real life setting.
{iv} A conclusions and reflections section where you eyaluate your intervention in relation to the original goal. How successful was the approach you adopted? How satisfied are you with the outcome“? How appropriate was the original goal?
{v} A follow up section which details how you might work at embedding the new skill or deyeioping it further. How might it apply in different contexts or be relevant for future challenges?