1.5 - About University

8.1P OWERFUL L EADERSHIP C ONVERSATIONSInspired by Tor Norretranders, Jonathan Sydenham, Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton,Sheila Heen, Roger Fisher, and Deborah Tannen.Even in this electronic age, face-to-face conversations are still the most powerful and significantcommunications leaders have. Research shows that only 20 percent of communication iscontained in a conversation’s actual words, while 80 percent is in the tone of voice and othernonverbal cues. Further research shows that leaders believe they communicate three timesmore than do the people they are communicating with! This tool helps you examine your leadershipconversations and provides concrete suggestions for dealing with typical conversationproblems.T HE FOUR LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDINGThere are four levels of understanding to every conversation:1. the data you hear,2. information you glean from the data,3. your interpretations of the information, and4. your conclusions from the total conversation.Level ofWhat happens atunderstanding this level Issues with this level1. Data(the data you hearduring theconversation)2. Information(the data you extractfrom what you hear)3. Interpretations(how you make senseof the data you haveextracted from theconversation)4. Conclusions/evaluation(your evaluation ofthe totalconversation)What you actually hear. Alsowhat you sense, see, and feelas the other person iscommunicating.Of all the data available inthe conversation, this is thedata that you actually attendto and take intoconsciousness.You need to interpret the datathat you have chosen to focuson. In this way you makesense of what is beingdiscussed.After interpreting the data,you draw your ownconclusions about theconversation as a whole.Too much data is available during a conversation. Thebandwidth of all sensory perception is over 10 million bits persecond, while the bandwidth of consciousness is about 100 bitsper second. Each individual tends to hear or focus on differentdata, all the while being unconscious of the entire field of databeing communicated.The data you sense is filtered through very personal filters, likepast life experiences, male or female conditioning, your personalvalues, how you feel about people in general, what is okay ornot okay for you, and so on. As a leader, you need to be awareof your personal filters in order to check your interpretations ofconversations.Now you try to make sense of the data. This, again, is filteredthrough your personal interpretation rules. As you get fartheraway from the actual conversation—with the passage of time,for example—the information you glean and the interpretationsyou make often become less accurate.Your conclusions typically reflect your self-interest. People tendto look for information and use interpretations that producepositive conclusions if they like the person or ideas, andnegative conclusions if they don’t.232 SECTION 8 TOOLS FOR COMMUNICATION