Questions to establish connection and bonding

A story of Local Response by Susan Koshy

My target audience of students who graduate from professional colleges equipped with a degree certificate, academic knowledge of the line of study and generally low self-esteem and confidence. They come from colleges of the semi urban general towns, and as the first generation graduates of low-income families. They seemed in dire need of self-confidence and life skills.

Recognising this need, I have been a facilitator in the training of the students in soft skills. In the course of the training, efforts are made to reach out to the students and to guide them through information-based pep-talks and activity-based classes.

I enrolled myself to the GL F to explore new learnings, if any, that could facilitate me in my training. During my SALT visit on November 21, I had the opportunity to experience this.

I was with Jean-Louis, Head of the Constellation, and was the interpreter for him with some villagers to questions posed by him to them.

One such question elicited my response to Jean-Louis, without checking with them. Jean-Louis did not accept my response and insisted that I posed it to the villagers. I did so reluctantly and conveyed their response that was similar to the one I had volunteered. Jean-Louis showed satisfaction. He then explained that the purpose of the questions was not just to elicit responses. It was to make a bonding with the villagers, a criterion in the SALT approach and the CLCP process.

As a trainer with niche expertise in communications, this aspect in communications hit me as a fresh insight. It was a fresh dimension in the methods for effective communication.

I go back raring to apply this new dimensional technique to reach out to my talk at target audience and to understand and to cater to their skills need.

This is what I will take back from the GLF: When you ask someone a question, you are often looking for information, but at some level you are showing respect for them.