Communication Skills by Rakesh Godhwani
Communication Skills by Rakesh Godhwani
Communication Skills by Rakesh Godhwani
Critical thinking means evaluating a problem from all sides before reaching a
decision.
This requires reading and understanding the experts' view both in support of and
The chief aspect of critical thinking is to listen, read and view each and everything
precisely.
The entire critical thinking process involves four main stages: Research, Analyse,
Developing a reading habit, surfing the web or talking to some intelligent people will
Moving on, we will learn a few basic writing frameworks to keep in mind while
writing any document. These are the AOM framework, OBC
framework, Minto's Pyramid, Mind Maps, Fish Bone diagram and more.
You will also learn about the importance of feedback in the writing process and
how to use them judiciously to develop quality content.
In the second session, you will be taught how to master the three major forms of
professional write-ups:
Emails
This will then be supplemented with an understanding of what to write and what
to avoid in professional writing along with a segment on how to be
more persuasive and assertive in your writing.
writing. Avoid heavy jargons at all points to maintain simplicity throughout your
Readability: Documents that are prepared with an appropriate size of fonts, crisp
formatting and the right visual cues (photos and colours) are preferred by readers
because the information can be navigated with ease. Read the annual report by
Read Stephen Elop’s Burning Platform Memo to understand why being truthful with
Tonality: Brian Cheskey’s email on workforce layoff reflects how leaders can be
helps set the right tone of interaction between the writer and the reader.
this is considered a key trait of professionalism within organisations. Read this short
yet powerful speech of 272 words by Abraham Lincoln, widely cited even after 150
years of creation.
Clarity: Clarity refers to informing people what exactly is expected of them instead
of beating around the bush. Jeff Bezos drives meetings and directs his stakeholders
audience using the pronoun ‘I’, the writing style is known as first-person writing. On
the other hand, when the writer conveys the message to the audience using the
pronouns ‘He’, ‘She’, ‘It’ or ‘They’, the writing style is known as third-person
writing.
expressive.
your writing more relatable for the reader. It also makes the content enjoyable and
easy to recall.
Grammar and spelling: These are some of the most basic hygiene factors that should
be considered while writing but are often overlooked. You can use tools
using appropriate fonts, aligning the text correctly, choosing the right size for your
fonts/images and structuring the paragraphs that you wish to add to the overall written
piece.
The first framework covered is summarised below:
Audience: A simple way to identify your audience is to ask yourself “Who is going to
read this email/message?”, and then identify how you can adapt your writing to best
Objective: Here, the purpose is to convey your point of view with an argument.
Time-bound.
Message: Message refers to the core matter of your written material. You need to
decide on the outcome that you want to achieve before crafting your message.
Body: Writing the body of your message is the same as taking the audience through
the plot of a movie. It contains details and brief peeks into the problems and solutions
Conclusion: In the end, summarise key takeaways and any action you expect from the
reader here.
Rakesh refers to these three points as ‘scaffolds’, a structure that helps you build
the entire write-up.
Scaffolding Tools -
Minto’s Pyramid: This is a tree-based matrix that can help you break down your
main idea into three subideas, which can be further divided into three more subideas,
Mind Maps: This is a tool that can help you think visually. The core of the map
contains the topic at hand, which branches out further. This aids in structuring all your
breaking down a central idea into subbranches until you reach the end of your content
break-up.
Fishbone Diagrams: Fishbone diagrams are useful when you are writing a piece that
revolves around the elements of a cause, its effects and possible solutions. This link
will give you detailed information about Fishbone diagram. Also, you will learn about
it more with the problem-solving course.
Polishing your Prose:
Now, we move on to a few tips that will help you polish your prose. A few tips to
keep in mind while sculpting your write-up and removing certain small errors are:
Words such as ‘very’, ‘basically’, and ‘actually’ should be avoided because they add
an unnecessary exaggeration to the written material. These are most commonly used
event.
Another important tip is to write short sentences. You should use a full stop and
commas to pause so that the audience does not get bored while listening to your
speech.
You should make it a practice to rewrite your sentences twice or maybe thrice to
business writing.
After writing the first draft, sleep over it or go for a walk. And then, return to the
Fishbone diagrams are also called a cause and effect diagram, or Ishikawa diagram.
Review by peers
Review by seniors
Now, the final product is ready to be published. Once you have added all the
flavours together for publishing, you can gauge the response on your draft in the
following manner:
Pick insights from the target audience based on their response
Review the bits that you need to polish and improve your draft
Track how people are perceiving the content that you are publishing
Sometimes, the answer to our problems lies in the reflection of the problem.
Communication can sometimes be brutal. Therefore, feedback is the loop that can
help you write better. It can help you understand why people rate something higher
or lower.
Just to give you a quick recap, the following topics were covered in this session:
Basic principles of writing
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