Active Listening in Communication

Communication involves listening in to all the parties in an active or passive way. Listening to what another party is saying is an obvious way to learn more about their positions,

interests, concerns, and fears. Passive listening gives no sense that you are taking in what is being said or even paying attention or not.

Active listening is a conscious way of showing the other party that you are listening and paying a close attention to what they are saying. Practices such as positive body language, summarizing and paraphrasing serve to show the other party respect and that you have understood their message.

The examples of paraphrasing in active listening are: "It sounds like...", "Do you mean...?", "I guess...", "In other words...", "So, you're saying..." etc. This does not mean you agree with it. Rather, these techniques can set the stage for a good working relationship with the other party.

Communication patterns may still provide a useful structure, but outlook would probably not be characterized as the most open outline is this situation. The makers of future communication systems need to be strongly aware of how users take advantage from different communication patterns in special circumstances.

How we communicate to different social circumstances becomes further complex when users of inter-connected communication systems have to make a number of noteworthy decisions about information.
Initiatives should add to information to citizens by presenting information through government websites, improve consultation for participatory procedures by making it possible to argue public policy topics, and support decision–making by being acquainted with the value of citizen participation to decision–making.

Commercial information sources have another association to the excellence and sustainability of information. They always have to consider whether the presentation of information is going to sell their product, and if it is going to improve the customer’s experience of the product in which they have decided to invest their time and/or money.