Hi Dear Friends!
Welcome to my blog!
As we all know, man is not an island, he needs fellow humans to exist and thrive. That is why, the struggle to discover ways, to communicate and develop communication skills, became a necessity. However, communication skills, as we know now, is very different from, what it was when it started. There were many challenges, that had to be overcome, before acquiring this stage of exertise in communication skills. Attempts to communicate efficiently and effectively, have been going on for at least 5 million years now. This is how it progressed, over thousands of centuries.
I have tried to cover almost all the stages of Communication and Communication skills:
Let us start with the evolution of Communication:
1. Non Verbal Communication: Was the first natural spontaneous way that people communicated. Cave men and women communicated non verbally with one another, through facial expressions and gestures and were driven by their emotions. There was no skill involved, just a means of expressing what one felt. With no thought of the outcome.
2. Basic Verbal and Non Verbal Communication: As the number of people started living together in groups they had to evolve to a better mode of communicating so that it could reach more people and cover distances. Hereby, came the idea of a messenger, shouting or running with messages till he reached the target destination.
3. Written Communication in the form of carvings and drawings: People had started moving out of their homes in search of better food, water and other supplies. They would leave their families behind and go. They knew, they had to develop a better way to communicate. They started with signs and symbols and drawings, that could be carved out on a stone or leaf, and conveyed to the person concerned. Carvings were also made inside caves, to depict their culture and means of livelihood. We have the Ajanta Ellora in Aurangabad and Elephanta caves, in Mumbai, India, which have beautiful carvings and paintings, dating as far back as the 2nd century, as examples.
4. Improved Verbal Communication: Using sounds: People are by nature creative and innovative. As they became more cerebral, they realized that some kind of spoken language is needed. They were not just confined to their caves and jungles now. They were discovering new people, lands and food everywhere. They had to find a way to interact with these people, and communicate all their discoveries, to their own tribe or community. And so, began the experimentation of new sounds that they could make with their vocal chords. The Egyptians came up with 22 hieroglyphs, which represent syllables, that begins with a single consonant of their language, followed by a vowel (or no vowel), combining them, to form words, and assigning meaning to them.
5. Courier: Somewhere between 522 BC and 486 BC the idea of a courier system became popular. Persians were among the first to start a courier system, and the language was Aramaic. They focused on developing the roadways to get the message across in minimum time.
6. Homing Pigeons: Do you remember movies set in the bygone era, where they show pigeons carrying love letters from one person to another? Pigeons were used as message carriers because they could fly. Pigeons were trained to reach the destination and fly back to the owner. Though this system was not very reliable, it worked well for centuries, not only in India, but also in Egypt and Asia.
7. Invention of the Printing Press: People were travelling and settling down hundreds of miles away from their hometowns. They some times got into hostile territory, where they were trapped. They had to convey messages to their country or town people to rescue them, or may be spread news of some impending danger. Thus, started the invention of the printing press, around the year 1439 by Gutenberg and Westerners Printing Company. This solved the problem of manually creating thousands of copies, copies of the same message could be printed and circulated to over thousands of civilians.
8. Improvisation of the Postal System: The new world order slowly started to set in, where kings and queens were being gradually replaced by democratically elected leaders. The Communication process had to evolve, to accommodate the opinions of the people. Governments of countries had to develop confidential means of communication, since not all communication could happen openly. So thus, started the task of enhancing the postal system, with couriers, registration letters etc. during the 17th century.
9. Invention of the Telescope: By the 18th century the telescope was invented and it became possible to send optical signals, which could be seen over a long distance. These were especially used by sailors to spot a lighthouse, which is used as a navigation aid and to warn sailors of dangerous spots in the sea. It could also be used during war times as a warning or to alert the soldiers of the enemy submarines approaching them.
10 . Morse code: Is a method of transmitting text messages through on/off notes, clicks of light short or longer, sounds depicting dots and dashes. Code word for dots were "dits" and for dashes were "dahs" these were used to convey secret messages through electricity about the war and enemy positions or attack plans. This system was still being used till a few centuries ago.
11. Advancement of Telecommunications: Once the basic concepts and infrastructure of the communication process was put in place, technology developed rapidly. New means of mass communication were invented, like the television, computers, emails, mobile phones and smart phones. The speed with which telecommunication is growing today is unimaginable. We are living in the super-fast age, we now have companies like Apple, pampering its customers by coming up with a new more advanced communication tool almost every 6 months or even earlier!
This informative brief 1 min video by Timbuktoons the link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ay2Qy3wBe8, will help you visualise the stages in the History of Communication.
Now let us proceed to the History of Communication Skills:
Communication skills, is one of the most sought after skill all over the world. It was, not until a few years ago, sometime, in the late 90's, that communication skills started becoming popular in India. I remember conducting my first Effective Communication Skills and Personality Development training in the year 1997, for the students of a well known IT company. Now, communication skills, are a part of the regular curriculum, in many schools and colleges.
According to the book "Handbook of Communication in Oncology and Palliative Care" by David Kissans,Barry Bultz, Phyllis Buton, and Ilora Finlaya, communication skills training, first became necessary, and evolved as a process of finding ways to compassionately communicate, with cancer patients.
With so much of progress in the field of communications, we have finally arrived at the present times, where, by using these modes of communication, we can convey our messages, more effectively and get the desired results. The audience today is the whole world, people with different languages and cultures. To communicate effectively with each other we need to understand the basic needs of one another.
Furthermore now, we have fine tuned our communication skills in order to optimize the response we get from family, relatives, friends and colleagues, bosses.
The components of Communication Skills are:
1. Verbal Communication Skills: Language, words, grammar, punctuation.
2. Non Verbal Communication Skills: Gestures, posture and body language, eye contact.
3. Listening Skills: without proper listening the message can be misunderstood.
4. Written Communication Skills: Letters, emails, reports.
5. Social Media Skills: Whats app, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc...
5.Telephone skills: As we knew them before, have changed, because now we can actually see the person we are talking to, if we want to.
The rapid growth of the telecom industry, has made it so much easier to connect, exchange ideas, feelings and share real life stories, with people all over the world. We need to exercise caution and safeguard our security at all times, while doing so.
In conclusion...I cannot emphasize enough, the importance of integrating new technology, with communication skills, to make connecting with people an enriching experience. In this is post on the history of communication and communication skills, we have seen how both have evolved immensely, over hundreds of centuries, from where they were, to where they stand as of now.
Hope you found this post informative and interesting. Do let me know if you have any suggestions, in the comment section below. Please share if you liked it.
Till we meet in the next post bye and take care! :)
Welcome to my blog!
As we all know, man is not an island, he needs fellow humans to exist and thrive. That is why, the struggle to discover ways, to communicate and develop communication skills, became a necessity. However, communication skills, as we know now, is very different from, what it was when it started. There were many challenges, that had to be overcome, before acquiring this stage of exertise in communication skills. Attempts to communicate efficiently and effectively, have been going on for at least 5 million years now. This is how it progressed, over thousands of centuries.
I have tried to cover almost all the stages of Communication and Communication skills:
Let us start with the evolution of Communication:
1. Non Verbal Communication: Was the first natural spontaneous way that people communicated. Cave men and women communicated non verbally with one another, through facial expressions and gestures and were driven by their emotions. There was no skill involved, just a means of expressing what one felt. With no thought of the outcome.
2. Basic Verbal and Non Verbal Communication: As the number of people started living together in groups they had to evolve to a better mode of communicating so that it could reach more people and cover distances. Hereby, came the idea of a messenger, shouting or running with messages till he reached the target destination.
3. Written Communication in the form of carvings and drawings: People had started moving out of their homes in search of better food, water and other supplies. They would leave their families behind and go. They knew, they had to develop a better way to communicate. They started with signs and symbols and drawings, that could be carved out on a stone or leaf, and conveyed to the person concerned. Carvings were also made inside caves, to depict their culture and means of livelihood. We have the Ajanta Ellora in Aurangabad and Elephanta caves, in Mumbai, India, which have beautiful carvings and paintings, dating as far back as the 2nd century, as examples.
4. Improved Verbal Communication: Using sounds: People are by nature creative and innovative. As they became more cerebral, they realized that some kind of spoken language is needed. They were not just confined to their caves and jungles now. They were discovering new people, lands and food everywhere. They had to find a way to interact with these people, and communicate all their discoveries, to their own tribe or community. And so, began the experimentation of new sounds that they could make with their vocal chords. The Egyptians came up with 22 hieroglyphs, which represent syllables, that begins with a single consonant of their language, followed by a vowel (or no vowel), combining them, to form words, and assigning meaning to them.
5. Courier: Somewhere between 522 BC and 486 BC the idea of a courier system became popular. Persians were among the first to start a courier system, and the language was Aramaic. They focused on developing the roadways to get the message across in minimum time.
6. Homing Pigeons: Do you remember movies set in the bygone era, where they show pigeons carrying love letters from one person to another? Pigeons were used as message carriers because they could fly. Pigeons were trained to reach the destination and fly back to the owner. Though this system was not very reliable, it worked well for centuries, not only in India, but also in Egypt and Asia.
7. Invention of the Printing Press: People were travelling and settling down hundreds of miles away from their hometowns. They some times got into hostile territory, where they were trapped. They had to convey messages to their country or town people to rescue them, or may be spread news of some impending danger. Thus, started the invention of the printing press, around the year 1439 by Gutenberg and Westerners Printing Company. This solved the problem of manually creating thousands of copies, copies of the same message could be printed and circulated to over thousands of civilians.
8. Improvisation of the Postal System: The new world order slowly started to set in, where kings and queens were being gradually replaced by democratically elected leaders. The Communication process had to evolve, to accommodate the opinions of the people. Governments of countries had to develop confidential means of communication, since not all communication could happen openly. So thus, started the task of enhancing the postal system, with couriers, registration letters etc. during the 17th century.
9. Invention of the Telescope: By the 18th century the telescope was invented and it became possible to send optical signals, which could be seen over a long distance. These were especially used by sailors to spot a lighthouse, which is used as a navigation aid and to warn sailors of dangerous spots in the sea. It could also be used during war times as a warning or to alert the soldiers of the enemy submarines approaching them.
10 . Morse code: Is a method of transmitting text messages through on/off notes, clicks of light short or longer, sounds depicting dots and dashes. Code word for dots were "dits" and for dashes were "dahs" these were used to convey secret messages through electricity about the war and enemy positions or attack plans. This system was still being used till a few centuries ago.
11. Advancement of Telecommunications: Once the basic concepts and infrastructure of the communication process was put in place, technology developed rapidly. New means of mass communication were invented, like the television, computers, emails, mobile phones and smart phones. The speed with which telecommunication is growing today is unimaginable. We are living in the super-fast age, we now have companies like Apple, pampering its customers by coming up with a new more advanced communication tool almost every 6 months or even earlier!
This informative brief 1 min video by Timbuktoons the link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ay2Qy3wBe8, will help you visualise the stages in the History of Communication.
Now let us proceed to the History of Communication Skills:
Communication skills, is one of the most sought after skill all over the world. It was, not until a few years ago, sometime, in the late 90's, that communication skills started becoming popular in India. I remember conducting my first Effective Communication Skills and Personality Development training in the year 1997, for the students of a well known IT company. Now, communication skills, are a part of the regular curriculum, in many schools and colleges.
According to the book "Handbook of Communication in Oncology and Palliative Care" by David Kissans,Barry Bultz, Phyllis Buton, and Ilora Finlaya, communication skills training, first became necessary, and evolved as a process of finding ways to compassionately communicate, with cancer patients.
With so much of progress in the field of communications, we have finally arrived at the present times, where, by using these modes of communication, we can convey our messages, more effectively and get the desired results. The audience today is the whole world, people with different languages and cultures. To communicate effectively with each other we need to understand the basic needs of one another.
Furthermore now, we have fine tuned our communication skills in order to optimize the response we get from family, relatives, friends and colleagues, bosses.
The components of Communication Skills are:
1. Verbal Communication Skills: Language, words, grammar, punctuation.
2. Non Verbal Communication Skills: Gestures, posture and body language, eye contact.
3. Listening Skills: without proper listening the message can be misunderstood.
4. Written Communication Skills: Letters, emails, reports.
5. Social Media Skills: Whats app, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc...
5.Telephone skills: As we knew them before, have changed, because now we can actually see the person we are talking to, if we want to.
The rapid growth of the telecom industry, has made it so much easier to connect, exchange ideas, feelings and share real life stories, with people all over the world. We need to exercise caution and safeguard our security at all times, while doing so.
In conclusion...I cannot emphasize enough, the importance of integrating new technology, with communication skills, to make connecting with people an enriching experience. In this is post on the history of communication and communication skills, we have seen how both have evolved immensely, over hundreds of centuries, from where they were, to where they stand as of now.
Hope you found this post informative and interesting. Do let me know if you have any suggestions, in the comment section below. Please share if you liked it.
Till we meet in the next post bye and take care! :)
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