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Browse published articles attributed to Azriel Winnett, with full-archive search.
Almost anyone who’s serious about acquiring good interpersonal communication habits will appreciate the value of effective listening skills. Some refer to listening as the most important communication skill of them all. Of course, this doesn’t only apply to adults. Parents around ...
Ineffective communication is a major, yet avoidable, obstacle to business productivity. And yes, it can be avoided. Given the will, the bleakest of situations can be turned around for the better. Management must face squarely the challenge of formulating strategies to encourage ...
If you've been around long enough, you're aware of the many things that can play havoc with domestic peace, even where the parties conce ed are not short of goodwill and have the best of intentions. High up on the list of culprits here are poor communication habits, either on their own or in ...
Many kinds of interferences or disturbances can confuse a message. Communication specialists call them ''noise.'' A noise is anything that competes against communication. Obviously, if we want our communication to be effective, we have to be continually on our guard to detect such noise, ...
Try an experiment. Start a conversation on any topic with your spouse or best friend. After you’ve been talking together for a few minutes, interject with something along the lines of: “Hey, what are you talking about? You’re a real idiot!” Next, hasten to explain to your partner that of ...
I want to tell you a little story. Not about anything dramatic. On the contrary, it's very ordinary. So ordinary, in fact, that the many onlookers who must have been standing around didn't bat an eyelid when they overheard this brief conversation in a busy butcher shop. Hardly surprising that ...
We all know it, or we SHOULD know it. An apology can be the first step to better understanding in a damaged relationship. When you apologize, you are saying that you share values with the offended party regarding appropriate behavior towards each other. You are saying that you regret that you ...
When the phone rang at the local drug store, the pharmacist was shaken to hear the booming voice of a very angry doctor on the line. The doctor demanded to know why the pharmacist had dispensed medication to his patient completely different to what he had prescribed. Just how careless can a ...
Try an experiment. Start a conversation on any topic with your spouse or best friend. After you've been talking together for a few minutes, interject with something along the lines of: "Hey, what are you talking about? You're a real idiot!" Next, hasten to explain to your partner that of ...
Yes, you’ve read correctly. I don’t like it. The word “partner” is used very widely by people writing about relationships, including many of our own site contributors. And it’s perfectly understandable. After all, what better term do we have at our disposal to ...
Imagine that the Internal Revenue Service in your country claimed that you owe $1000 plus in tax arrears. You dispute this, and you challenge the tax people in court, but the court rules that they're right. Especially if you're a person of substantial means, you'd pay up with a shrug of the ...
If you leave a wet towel on the bathroom floor, it could be somewhat irritating to the next person who uses the bathroom after you, but would anyone start a major fight over it? Most definitely, according to research funded by the US government's health research arm and conducted in the ...
I once heard a fascinating story in the name of a famous relationships counselor who talks on radio shows. It was claimed to be an authentic account of something that happened in real life, but even if it's apocryphal, I'm very much inclined to believe it could happen. A man decided to divorce ...
I've often written about the supreme importance of becoming a good listener. I've even gone as far as to suggest that listening might be the most important communication skill of them all. It should be so simple. Yet, it's not simple. Before I explain why, let me tell you an enlightening ...
Your head is spinning as you finally pull into the driveway of your home. You've had tough days in the office before, but today beats all records. And in spite of a long string of interruptions entirely beyond your control, you have to complete the project on time, even ahead of time. Or else. ...
I want to tell you a little story. Not about anything dramatic. On the contrary, it's very ordinary. So ordinary, in fact, that the many onlookers who must have been standing around didn't bat an eyelid when they overheard this brief conversation in a busy butcher shop. Hardly surprising that ...
Jill and Sharon (not their real names) worked on the same projects in close proximity to each other in a relatively small office. Their work was very pressured with one tight deadline to meet after another. Small wonder that the two of them were continually treading on each others toes and from ...