This post is also written in the following language:
日本語 (Japanese)
It’s not English conversation skills, it’s logical thinking skills
Our Global Leadership Training focuses primarily on leadership and facilitation as a communication skill for effective leadership.
Facilitation is a crucial skill that encourages collaboration especially in leadership for highly diverse teams.
Meanwhile, in global leadership training especially for Japanese trainees, there is often a need to “improve skills in effective communication using English.
Don’t have a good English vocabulary.
Can speak in English, but redundant.
Can’t demonstrate a good story-telling in English
We often hear about these challenges. What skills are needed to solve these challenges?
Of course, English language skills need to be more enhanced. While the strong mindset that ensures confidence even with no-sufficient language skills would be helpful, you still need to have a certain level of English proficiency.
Such English skills cannot be acquired shortly through training such as business English conversation training. It requires steady, daily effort on the part of the individual.
In the meantime, there is a common characteristic shared by those who seem to show poor performance in English communication.
That is, poor communication performance in Japanese as well.
Talks too long and doesn’t get to the point.
Story is almost collapsed
Speaks without sharing the context with the listener.
Although the Japanese language is fluent, the communication is not at all clear.
Those who are needed to train logical thinking skills, logical speaking skills, whether in English or Japanese. It’s a very tough journey. It can not be acquired through one-off training.
So, how can we develop logical thinking and logical speaking skills? The clue lies in the characteristics common to those who seem to lack of logical thinking and logical speaking skills.
I have conducted more than 300 training sessions on presentation and explanation skills, and have had more than 1,000 participants.
Through this experience, I have noticed the 3 characteristic common traits in those who are not good at articulating what they want to speak.
‣They don’t listen to what others are speaking.
‣The written text to speak is not in proper Japanese.
‣The more they try to communicate properly, the less relevant the information becomes.
I believe that by improving these three points, we can improve our logical thinking ability and logical speaking ability that can be used in English communication.
Ask questions to absorb what the speaker is saying.
Those who are not good at explaining well do not listen to what others have to say. In my training on explanation skills, when I invite the participants to do some exercise, I explain the procedures and rules first, but most of the time, they do not listen to my instruction.
Listening to someone properly is a process of understanding in one’s own mind. By trying to speak something immediately, the process of logically understanding is lost.
What should you do to ensure that process of logically understanding?
When you are having a conversation with someone, once you have heard what they have to say, ask some questions instead of making any kind of comment and keep listening. By asking questions, you shut down the train of thought to think what to speak.
For example, if the speaker says, “I’m having trouble with xx”, Instead of saying, ‘This is what you should do’, ask at least three questions as below.
“Tell me more about it.”
“What do you mean by XXXX?”
“How do you feel about it?”
You should keep in mind to ask a new question in response to the answers for your previous question. Questions should be asked to elaborate speaker’s story.
Asking questions gives you the time to absorb the speaker’s story and by asking related questions consecutively, you can understand their story even better.
Write down what you have to say before the words come to your mouth.
In my explanatory skills training, when the participants do exercises to speak something, I ask them to write down what they are going to say on a sticky note. And when I see the outputs, the description which those who are not good at explaining wrote down is awful. It doesn’t seem to be proper Japanese language.
It’s a strange thing, when we type on a computer or a smart phone, we can write accurate sentences, but when we put them on paper, they become goofy.
I am not sure how the brain works differently when writing on paper from typing, but the thought process must be different.
People who can write well on paper are also good speakers. When we speak, we formulate what we are going to say into sentences in our minds before we speak. It proves, the more carefully we think what to speak, the more appropriately we can speak.
Try to practice writing something you are going to say in English on a piece of paper. It doesn’t matter if it’s a short sentence. Don’t type it. Write it down on paper. By doing so, you will develop your ability to structure what you speak logically.
Speak concisely what you have to say in larger category and break down into smaller step by step.
Another characteristic of those who are not good at explaining is that their stories are not long but rather span detailed information. Moreover, the focus is not on the core of the story, but on minor details.
For example, to explain curry rice,
They don’t describe it as “a spicy, yellow, sludgy sauce over rice.”
Instead, it would be something like, “Basically, it is an organic, starchy, paste of perishable fiber and protein, which is the main ingredient.
If you still don’t understand, the information gets even more detailed like, “the crystals are shaped like ~” and “the PH is ~”.
In order to explain things concisely, you should summarize what you have to say in larger category and break down into smaller step by step.
If you are asked to explain what is Facilitation, the first thing you need to speak is
“A kind of communication skills”, and then break down as
“Communication skills to lead the discussion”
“To lead the discussion by neutral intervention”
There are many other ways to learn how to express concisely.
5 words rule might work. You can use 5 words as a cliché to explain something, such as “I have a specific idea.”
And writing lyrics is very good practice. I used to practice writing song lyrics in English.
I would decide on a theme and then add lyrics in English to some melody. Since lyrics are constrained to fit within the notes, it is a great way to work on compact expressions.
It also helps you develop expressive skills, such as rhymes.
If you feel challenges in your ability to communicate in English. You should train your logical thinking skills, logical speaking skills in your mother language.
