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page updated/reviewed 8 Dec 09


Communications, in GeneralBack to Top

SpeakingBack to Top Malapropisms, Eggcorns, Mondegreens, etc.Back to Top

Storytelling & Use of NarrativeBack to Top

  • The Use of Storytelling in the Department of the Navy (local copy)
    • Conveying information in a story provides a rich context, remaining in the conscious memory longer and creating more memory traces than information not in context. Therefore a story is more likely to be acted upon than normal means of communications. Storytelling, whether in a personal or organizational setting, connects people, develops creativity, and increases confidence. The use of stories in organizations can build descriptive capabilities, increase organizational learning, convey complex meaning, and communicate common values and rule sets.
    • Description capabilities are essential in strategic thinking and planning, and create a greater awareness of what we could achieve. Fictional stories can be powerful because they provide a mechanism by which an organization can learn from failure without attributing blame.
    • With the advent of the Internet and Intranet, there is a larger opportunity to use stories to bring about change. Electronic media adds moving images and sound as context setters. Hypertext capabilities and collaboration software invites groups, teams and communities to co-create their stories. New multiprocessing skills are required to navigate this new world, skills that include the quick and sure assimilation of and response to fast-flowing images and sounds and sensory assaults.
    • In summary, when used well storytelling is a powerful transformational tool in organizations, one that all of our managers and leaders across the Department need to utilize.

  • NASA's ASK Talks with Dr. Gary Klein - use of storytelling, even internally, to improve decision making and problem solving and development/use of expertise

  • "Story Model of Decisionmaking" - explained with examples (starting on PDF page 30) in A Literature Review of Analytical and Naturalistic Decision Making (local copy), by Zsambok, Beach, and Klein, for Naval Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center, Dec 1992
    • According to the theory, the story coordinates three types of knowledge:
      • facts or information from the current situation
      • knowledge about similar situations
      • generic expectations about what makes a complete story, such as believing that people do what they do for a reason
    • Given a set of known facts in an unfolding situation, knowledge about similar situations, and expectations about what is needed to make a complete story, the decisionmaker can know when important information is missing, and where inferences must be made.

    • Construct a story
    • Evaluate story for coverage - concerns the extent to which the story accounts for evidence
    • Evaluate story for coherence
      • consistency - concerns the extent to which the story does not contain contradictions
      • plausibility - concerns the extent to which the story is consistent with real or imagined events in the real world
      • completeness - concerns the extent to which a story has all of its parts

  • Storytelling and Terrorism: Towards a Comprehensive 'Counter-Narrative Strategy' by Casebeer and Russell, in Strategic Insights, Mar 2005 (Local Copy)

  • Storytelling that moves people. A conversation with screenwriting coach Robert McKee, abstract with PubMed, at National Library of Medicine
    • In this conversation with HBR, Robert McKee, the world's best-known screenwriting lecturer, argues that executives can engage people in a much deeper--and ultimately more convincing--way if they toss out their Power-Point slides and memos and learn to tell good stories. As human beings, we make sense of our experiences through stories. But becoming a good storyteller is hard. It requires imagination and an understanding of what makes a story worth telling. All great stories deal with the conflict between subjective expectations and an uncooperative objective reality.

  • Malignants in the Body Politic: Redefining War through Metaphor, SAAS paper, 2004

  • The Center for Narrative Studies

  • The Art of Trial Advocacy: the Art of Storytelling (local copy), in The Army Lawyer, Oct 1999
    • recommends three ways to enhance your storytelling for effect
      • use the present tense
      • speak in clear, active English
      • engage the senses of the audience

  • Storytelling and the Art of Teaching, by Pederson, in State Department's Forum, Jan-Mar 1995

  • Deep Impact Storytelling, by Deacon and Murphey, in State Department's Forum, Oct-Dec 2001

  • Storytelling: Passport to the 21st Century, by Brown et al

  • Narrative Psychology Internet and Resource Guide, by Hevern, Le Moyne College

  • Learn Storytelling - including their use to communicate complex ideas

  • Tell Me a Story: Why Stories are Essential to Effective Safety Training (local copy), NIOSH Publication No. 2005-152, August 2005

  • "Story Telling" - in the National Park Service Community Tool Box
    • Use it if ...
      • You want to help people begin working together: An engaging story will serve as a unifying emotional and experiential tool.
      • You are trying to develop a vision and need to first find agreement as to what people believe is important.

ListeningBack to Top
  • See also building rapport

  • See also Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)

  • "A man who listens because he has nothing to say can hardly be a source of inspiration. The only listening that counts is that of the talker who alternatively absorbs and expresses ideas." -- Agnes Repplier

  • spiffy Listening Effectively (local copy, HTML), by John Kline (local copy, PDF)

  • spiffy Practice Listening Skills (local copy) - a quick checklist from the Office of the Dispute Resolution Specialist, Dept of Veteran Affairs

  • spiffy Ten Commandments of Good Listening - as posted by the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program
    • the first ten - from K. Davis, Human Behavior at Work, McGraw Hill, 1972
      1. Stop talking. Obvious, but not easy.
      2. Put the speaker at ease. Create a permissive, supportive climate in which the speaker will feel free to express himself or herself.
      3. Show a desire to listen. Act interested and mean it.
      4. Remove distractions. External preoccupation is less likely if nothing external is present to preoccupy you.
      5. Empathize. Try to experience to some degree the feelings the speaker is experiencing.
      6. Be patient. Give the speaker time to finish; don't interrupt.
      7. Hold your temper. Don't let your emotions obstruct your thoughts.
      8. Go easy on argument and criticism. Suspend judgment.
      9. Ask questions. If things are still unclear when a speaker has finished, ask questions which serve to clarify the intended meanings.
      10. Stop talking. In case you missed the first commandment.
    • additional listening techniques - from P. Bradley and J. Baird, Communication for Business and the Professions, Brown, 1980
      • Preparation. If you know what the topic is ahead of time, learn something about it so you will not be an ignorant listener. Even some careful thinking will allow you to listen more accurately when the communication actually begins.
      • Seek intent. Try to discover the intent of the source; why is he or she saying these things?
      • Seek structure. Look for an organizational scheme of the message. If the speaker is an accomplished one, you won't have to look very hard; it will be obvious. But if the speaker is less skilled, the responsibility falls to you.
      • Analyze. Do not accept what you hear at face value; analyze what the speaker is saying and pay attention to body language.
      • Focus. Keep the main topic of the message in mind at all times, using it to bring focus to the information which the speaker supplies.
      • Motivate yourself. This may be the most important. Listening takes work, and to do that you may have to "psych yourself up."

  • International Listening Association

  • Listening Skills - Self-Evaluation Test
  • Listening Skills Self-Evaluation
  • Listening and Empathy Responding

  • Crisis Intervention: Using Active Listening Skills in Negotiations (local copy), by Noesner and Webster, in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, August 1997

Virtual Collaboration, Video Teleconferencing (VTCs), Audioconferencing, Computer-Mediated CommunicationBack to Top
  • Challenges in Virtual Collaboration: Videoconferencing, Audioconferencing, and Computer-Mediated Communications, by Wainfan and Davis, RAND report, 2004
    • This report summarizes the research literature on virtual collaboration, focusing on interactive virtual collaborations in real or near-real time. In particular, it reviews how the processes and outcomes of virtual collaborations are affected by the communication medium (videoconferencing, audioconferencing, or computer-mediated conferencing). It then discusses how problems in such collaboration can be mitigated and opportunities realized. Problems include increased “us vs. them” divisions and misunderstandings, as well as shifts toward risky options. Opportunities include broadening the range of views and options, as well as broadening the range of available experts. The report suggests a strategy for choosing the most effective medium, including face-to-face communication and hybrid systems, as a function of task and context (e.g., convergence on a decision or brainstorming).

  • Video Conferencing Tips, Montana Office of Public Instruction

InterviewingBack to Top Being Interviewed by the MediaBack to Top InterrogationBack to Top
  • See also interviewing

  • See also NLP

  • See also deception detection

  • See also interrogations and interviewing on Lessons Learned page

  • See also torture on Law page

  • Educing Information: Interrogation: Science and Art - Foundations for the Future (local copy), Intelligence Science Board, Phase 1 Report, National Defense Intelligence College, Dec 2006

  • Field Manual 2-22.3, Human Intelligence Collector Operations, Sep 2006 - replaced FM 34-52 Intelligence Interrogation (1992)
  • FM 34-52 Intelligence Interrogation, 1992 version
    NOTE: some sources believe the 1987 version below was more permissive than the 1992 version above - however, even in the 1987 version below you can see the prohibition against force.
  • Principles of Interrogation, in Chapter 1, FM 34-52 (1987 version, now superceded) - included the following

      Interrogation is the art of questioning and examining a source to obtain the maximum amount of usable information. The goal of any interrogation is to obtain usable and reliable information, in a lawful manner and in the least amount of time, which meets intelligence requirements of any echelon of command.

      ...

      The use of force, mental torture, threats, insults, or exposure to unpleasant and inhumane treatment of any kind is prohibited by law and is neither authorized nor condoned by the US Government. Experience indicates that the use of force is not necessary to gain the cooperation of sources for interrogation. Therefore, the use of force is a poor technique, as it yields unreliable results, may damage subsequent collection efforts, and can induce the source to say whatever he thinks the interrogator wants to hear. However, the use of force is not to be confused with psychological ploys, verbal trickery, or other nonviolent and noncoercive ruses used by the interrogator in questioning hesitant or uncooperative sources.

      The psychological techniques and principles outlined should neither be confused with, nor construed to be synonymous with, unauthorized techniques such as brainwashing, mental torture, or any other form of mental coercion to include drugs. These techniques and principles are intended to serve as guides in obtaining the willing cooperation of a source. The absence of threats in interrogation is intentional, as their enforcement and use normally constitute violations of international law and may result in prosecution under the UCMJ.

      Additionally, the inability to carry out a threat of violence or force renders an interrogator ineffective should the source challenge the threat. Consequently, from both legal and moral viewpoints, the restrictions established by international law, agreements, and customs render threats of force, violence, and deprivation useless as interrogation techniques.

  • Understanding Interrogation (local copy), by Boetig and Bellmer, in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, October 2008 - the differences in meaning between interviewing and interrogating, in US and overseas

  • Reducing a Guilty Suspect’s Resistance to Confessing: Applying Criminological Theory to Interrogation Theme Development (local copy), by Boetig, in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, August 2005 - discusses theme-based interrogation and criminological theories

  • Strategies to Avoid Interview Contamination (local copy), by Sandoval, in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, October 2003 - some good tips, strategies, and questions

  • Criminal Confessions - Overcoming the Challenges (local copy), by Napier and Adams, in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, November 2002 - includes following principles/tips
    • follow the facts
    • identify personal vulnerabilities
    • know the suspect
    • preserve the evidence
    • adjust moral responsibility
    • use psychology versus coercion
    • allowing suspects to maintain dignity is professional and increases the likelihood of obtaining a confession

  • Conducting Successful Interrogations (local copy), by Vessel, in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, October 1998
    • Obtaining information that an individual does not want to provide constitutes the sole purpose of an interrogation.

  • Magic Words to Obtain Confessions (local copy), by Napier and Adams, in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, October 1998
    • Magic words come from three commonly used defense mechanisms-rationalization, projection, and minimization
      • Rationalize Suspects’ Actions
      • Project the Blame onto Others
      • Minimize the Crime
      • Provide Reasons to Confess

  • Interviewing Self-confident Con Artists (local copy), by O'Neal, in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, March 2001
    - "with the proper preparation and strategic approach, investigators can take advantage of the character traits of con artists"

  • Investigative Techniques: Federal Agency Views on the Potential Application of Brain Fingerprinting" (local copy), GAO report, Oct 2001

  • Hypnosis in Interrogation, by Deshere, in Studies in Intelligence, Vol.4, No.1

  • "Truth" Drugs in Interrogation, by Bimmerle, in Studies in Intelligence, Vol.5, No.2

Deception DetectionBack to Top Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)Back to Top
  • See also building rapport

  • See also Van der Horst article about Edward T. Hall -- "A Great-Grandfather of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)" on Culture Center site

  • Communicating in Style: Discover How to Communicate with Everyone (and Like It!) (local copy), by Barrett, of PinnacleOne, presentation at 2003 CMAA National Conference, posted by GSA Project Management Center of Expertise - includes NLP as one of the methods

  • Subtle Skills for Building Rapport - Using Neuro-Linguistic Programming in the Interview Room (local copy), by Sandoval and Adams, in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, August 2001 - good short explanation of NLP basics (HTML version)

  • Model-Based Mind (local copy), by Kercel, Brown-VanHoozer, and VanHoozer, Oak Ridge National Lab, in Proceedings of SMC 2000: IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics. - using NLP to draw inferences and abstract meaning from data - also discusses internal decision functions, mental states, and visual, auditory, and kinesthetic cues used during interviews

  • Models of Reality (local copy), by Brown-VanHoozer, Oak Ridge National Lab, for ANNIE '99 Conference (Artificial Neural Networks in Engineering), Nov 1999 - includes discussion of
    • primary representational system (PRS) - the representational system we tend to favor most
    • feedback loops in decision strategies
    • neurological cues to thought processes
    • seven categories of an experience - "a framework from which an individual can elicit detailed descriptions of experience in order that sufficient, high quality, reproducible data, insofar as that it is possible when dealing with human subjects, is obtained for unpacking strategy patterns (Brown-VanHoozer, 1995)."
      1. External behavior - what the person is doing;
      2. Internal Computation - how that information is stored in sensory based distinctions in the brain;
      3. Internal State - what impact the experience has internally;
      4. Context - the precise situation in which the person is involved, which includes, but is not limited to: location, time, persons other than subject with whom engaged, etc.
      5. Criteria - how important the experience is in personal terms for the subject - a rank ordering;
      6. Cause-Effect - what, exactly, makes the experience occur, and
      7. Complex Equivalence - what it all means, to the individual.

  • Neuro-Linguistic Programming: A Basis for Language Learning, by Love, in The Journal of the Imagination in Language Learning and Teaching
      Some NLP Presuppositions
      1. The map is not the territory. [Our senses filter everything we experience.]
      2. What you believe either is true or becomes true.[Perceptions are individual and influence behavior.]
      3. The mind and the body affect each other.[Thought, emotions and behavior are interconnected.]
      4. Knowing what you want helps you to get it.[Identify your goals and break them down into manageable tasks.]
      5. The meaning of your communication is the response you get.[Communication is not your intention; it is an experiential process.]
      6. There is no failure, only feedback.[Stop blaming yourself if something isn't working. Try something else!]
      7. Communication is verbal and non-verbal.[You are always sending and receiving messages.]
      8. Modeling excellent behavior leads to excellence. [Find the model and follow the pattern.]
      9. There is a positive intention behind every behavior.[People respond in the only way they know how at the time.]

  • NLP Information Center

  • additional references
Building RapportBack to Top Effective FeedbackBack to Top Working with Difficult PeopleBack to Top MeetingsBack to Top ReadingBack to Top WritingBack to Top Writing for PublicationBack to Top Writing Op-EdsBack to Top Fallacies in LogicBack to Top Argumentative and Persuasive CommunicationBack to Top Inoculation TheoryBack to Top RhetoricBack to Top MetaphorsBack to Top
    We are prisoners of our own metaphors, metaphorically speaking...
    --- R. Buckminster Fuller

  • On Metaphors We Are Led By (local copy), by Paparone, in Military Review, Nov-Dec 2008

  • Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

  • Quinn, Naomi. “The Culture Basis of Metaphor.” Beyond Metaphor: The Theory of Tropes in Anthropology. Ed. James W. Fernandez. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991. 56-93.

  • Boundary of Metaphors, from MIT OpenCourseWare project

  • Effective Presentations (local copy), Army Corps of Engineers
    • Meet your listeners at their level of understanding. Use metaphors: Compare unfamiliar facts with something simple the audience already knows. An example would be comparing the flow of water in a pipe with the flow of electricity in a wire. People learn more rapidly when the information relates to their own experience.

  • Malignants in the Body Politic: Redefining War through Metaphor, by Stickle, 2004 SAAS paper

  • Metaphors and Paradigms of Team Cognition: a Twenty Year Perspective, by McNeese, Penn. State Univ., in Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 47th Annual Meeting, 2003, posted by Office of Naval Research

  • A Joint Task Force Staff Structure for the New Millennium: Leaner, Faster, and More Responsive, by Row, Wright Flyer Paper No. 4
    • Uses metaphors to describe organizational relations. Includes quote below.
    • "Metaphor is often regarded just as a device for embellishing discourse, but its significance is much greater than this. The use of metaphor implies a way of thinking and a way of seeing that pervade how we understand our world generally. . . . Metaphor is inherently paradoxical. It can create powerful insights that also become distortions, as the way of seeing created through a metaphor becomes a way of not seeing." - from Gareth Morgan, Images of Organization, 2d ed. (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1997), 4-5.

  • The Digital General: Reflections on Leadership in the Post-Information Age, by Harig, in Parameters, Autumn 1996
    • Just as there are plentiful examples where critical scientific breakthroughs have occurred while the right brain (our intuitive, pre-verbal cognitive resource) was operating ahead of the pack, strategic vision requires an ability to think in metaphors, to seek related patterns in unrelated objects, situations, and events. True, our future senior leaders will have access to more information. The successful ones will be those who are best able to sort out the important from the interesting. The development and testing of analogies--the patterns that allow leaders to see the important under data overload, is a skill that could waste away under a sterile diet of expert systems and virtual reality simulations.

Gender DifferencesBack to Top Citing Online SourcesBack to Top PlagiarismBack to Top Phonetic AlphabetBack to Top
    Alpha
    Bravo
    Charlie
    Delta
    Echo
    Foxtrot
    Golf
    Hotel
    India
    Juliet
    Kilo
    Lima
    Mike
    November
    Oscar
    Papa
    Quebec
    Romeo
    Sierra
    Tango
    Uniform
    Victor
    Whiskey
    X-ray
    Yankee
    Zulu



Negotiation Skills
Mediation and Facilitation
Consensus Building
Crisis Negotiation and Hostage Negotiation
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)Back to Top

Above topic areas have moved to the Negotiation Center of Excellence





English as a Second Language (ESL)Back to Top

Above topic area has moved to the Culture and Language Center





Cross-Cultural Communication, including nonverbalsBack to Top

Above topic area has moved to the Culture and Language Center







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