Hi Everyone!! I have been in school now for four weeks and it has been crazy trying to get back in the groove of school! I have been relearning how to read questions right on quizzes and tests (missed a few already), reading pages upon pages out of books, discussions (on-line classes), and papers. It is crazy but I am loving it!
I am going to start off with what I learned in one of my classes this week. It is the S-TLC approach. Perhaps some of you have heard of it. I hadn’t really. S stands for STOP! T stands for Think, L stands for listen, and C stands for communicate. (pg 14)
The concept seems pretty easy but it can be really challenging. It takes practice. The topic for this week was conflict management and this is a tool we can add into our communication toolbox. The S-TLC comes in handy when we feel a conversation is starting to escalate. Someone might ask, what does it mean “to escalate”? It means to increase in intensity; tempers are starting to get heated. When that happens we need to tell our minds to “STOP” doing what it’s doing or we may need to have both the sender (person speaking) and the receiver (person being spoken to) “STOP” and take a time out. Step out of the room if we have to but “STOP” doing what you’re doing. Take time to “THINK” about what was happening. Let’s try putting our self in the others persons shoes so we might receive a better understanding of what they might be seeing, feeling or what they might be really trying to get across. When both are calm try “LISTENING” more. After we have the information we need then we can decide which the best way to “COMMUNICATE” back is.
One woman in my class did an excellent job in helping her son work through a problem by using this concept. These are the things we need to implement into our lives and to teach our children so they have better communication skills.
Cahn., & Abigail, (2008). dysfunctional versus functional conflict. In Ereserves: COMM1080 - Conflict Management and Diversity. Retrieved from http://ereserve.slcc.edu/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=30&page=docs (pg 14)