tools at your fingertips CMI creates workplaces full of inspiring Leaders with its on demand resources network of mentors and Industry leading accreditations search CMI confidence today this session is recorded and will be available on the CMI website and YouTube channel join the conversation by using the live chat box for your questions and comments we'll answer as many as we can during the C and day good evening everyone and welcome to the communicating and influencing key skills for Success digital event my name is Mary and I am the events coordinator at CMI don't forget to join the conversation by using the live chat box and we'll answer as many questions as we can during the Q&A I'll now hand over to Kamaya who is the first vice president of CMI Sri Lanka regional board to be in today's event hi good evening hope I hi Kamaya it's now over to you so thank you so much and we're good to start I suppose can I just have a heads up again yes we're all good to go let over to you now Kaya thank you Mary thank you so much so good afternoon good evening everyone joining in from different parts of the world uh so welcome to our exclusive webinar dedicated to exploring the pivotal role of effective communication and influencing in navigating today's complex Global landscape so we're in an era marked by unprecedented challenges in global politics be it business governments and individuals who face a my of uncertainities geopolitical tensions tra trade disputes and shifting alliances which create a volatile environment where communication breakdowns are all too common so whether it's just merely misinterpretation information overload or cultural differences these failures can hinder collaboration Innovation and progress especially for us as managers so in today's webinar we hope to dwell into the challenges amidst global politics dissecting the root causes of communication breakdowns and offer practical techniques to bridge The Divide and Foster meaningful connections so through real world examples and case studies and discussions we hope to provide the insights for you today so on that note let me just quickly introduce to you our emminent panel uh who are going to add value and contribute to today's discussion so we have um all the way from Malaysia uh Mr taranjit Singh who is the CEO of conton tech advisory in Malaysia and uh he has over two and a half Decades of experience in a variety of sectors including working and residing in various geographical regions and having had the opportunity to see how different societies and cultures operate and work uh we also have today um the president of CMI Sri Lanka regional board Professor ajanta dharmasiri who is a rare combination of being chartered manager chartered HR professional and a chartered electrical engineer he is an acclaimed as a confid conference speaker corporate trainer strategy consultant author and academic uh we also have joining us today from the SRI CMI Sri Lanka regional board our very own secretary Dr tar ja and she was the head of the Department of industrial management and is also the Director of Business Research Unit of the faculty of business of the University of modat so she holds a degree uh BC engineering degree in materials and process engineering from the University of guato in New Zealand and she obtained her PhD and mill in entrepreneurship from the University of Aldersgate she is an attorney at law of Sri Lanka with an LLB honors from the University of London and has a master of arts in drama theater from the University of Galler so this is your eminent panel for today and on that note let me start off the discussion with driving uh and dwelling into understanding the framework and the structure for effective communication so on that let me pose a first question to challenge it to you um do you think that having a structured framework which enhances communication uh will also influence strategies you think the structure and having a proper framework is essential what would be your thoughts on that thank you thank you Kamaya first of all it's such a pleasure to be here amongst these distinguished speakers so thank you for having us um let me address your thoughts Kamaya um yes um there is definitely a need for us to have a structured approach there there is a framework that we need to look at simply because if we don't have that structured approach we tend to be shooting all over the place our thoughts are very uh irregular in nature so especially for something as critical and important important uh as communication messaging and the way in which we message the type of purpose that we are using to address these messages are absolutely crucial um to your point um what would be some of the things that we should be looking at and I'm sure we will Deep dive into this over the course of the next half an hour um a couple of things would be making sure that there's Clarity making sure that there is clear Direction in the messaging that we're putting across making sure that the messaging is engaging and we need to be you know able to inspire uh the type of audience that we're looking at whether it be at a board level or whether it be at an operational level and the list will continue and we can talk a little bit more about that over the course of the next 45 minutes Kamaya but to your point absolutely there needs to be structure and a framework back to you Kamaya so adding on tanit just a little bit more I know you touched on on the word purpose so what does this role purpose have to do with communication and how can it improve uh the level of communication and influencing that we uh undergo as managers on a daily basis what does this mean yeah so um as a strategy consultant I am in human capital advisory I've been in this space for some time I played in strategy um you find that the need for purpose is absolutely critical why because as Leaders we are there to inspire we are there to promote we are there to enable to engage our our people our team members um and one of the things that comes out is the area of clarity if I don't have Clarity of thought I don't have Clarity of purpose my messaging is all over the place how am I going to inspire if I don't have that level of clarity I talked about motivating absolutely in all the messaging that we are and I've been privileged to be uh working with some of the uh the board members some of the chairs uh of multinationals as well as public listed companies here you find that motivation is critical because in every messaging that they put across there's an underlying theme that comes on and that is engaging and motivating and it's not done um off the top of your head is not done off the cuff there is an innate purpose that comes into play more critically the issue of trust I feel today in the world that we live in there's a trust deficit we are devoid of trust more often than not people are saying a variety of things leaders are coming up and are talking about a variety of messaging at times they're inconsistent and that's where purpose comes into play if I have a level of consistency it builds on credibility we we're not even going down the path of being authentic we're not even so all that is a given yeah but if we talk about the level of trust the level of consistency of messaging credibility is built and in that regard you're now building on this sense of purpose and finally the ability to influence we must be able to go out there to influence the type of uh people that we have whether it be internal or external and if I don't have an underlying purpose what am I influencing for where am I going to head in this discussion that we are having does that make sense Kamaya absolutely I mean anything done without a purpose well we won't get anywhere in in the journey at all so thank you for that I'm going to move on to Professor so we talked a little bit about uh some aspects purpose trust uh Professor do you think you could outline the components of an effective communication and influencing framework what what are your thoughts on that thank you Kamaya and may I say ioan may you have long life that's how we greet each other in Sri Lanka to begin with I think we need to be brilliant on Basics Kam to be I mean to have effective communication we need to understand the fundamentals and we need to be fantastic with regard to fundamentals so if you go to the roots of communication it comes from the Latin word communicare which means to have something in common to share so some other words like Community uh communion and so on and so forth we talk about this sharing aspect so there's a person who starts communication the sender and there's a person who in who is at the receiving the receiv there's a mode in between and we talk about an exchange of information it's all about an exchange and then how Effectiveness in is this exchange of information depends on in my view three C the contents of the message and the context in which the message is shared and then the conduct of the share contents context and the conduct so all three are equally important in order to ensure Effectiveness if the contents are cluttered and if they're not clear if they are not concise if they are not uh comprehensive then the reader will not get anything at the same time the context has to be understood the way we communicate in one culture might not be relevant to another culture there are cultural constraints there can be language barriers there can be some ethical things where we need to be conscious of certain religious restrictions we need to respect those so the context matters the way we freely communicate in a party we will not do uh in a religious place so there the context is different and and of course the conduct in terms of the confidence and the competence of the speaker as well as the receiver so we need to be very much open about what is taking place as tan is very correctly said we need to we clearly have a purpose we need to be purposeful we need to have a clear meaning in terms of communicating the whole issue I see Kamaya in the world is that we communicate for the sake of communicating and we have lost the real sense of community sometimes we have information overload we have Tik Tok Tik Tok we have a WhatsApp we have Instagram we have uh Facebook and sometimes we are overloaded with information so are we really really sensing the uh communication are we really enjoying the communication and are we really influencing others with the proper communication are we doing it in a professional manner we can talk about this uh as we move along or to come thank you professor and just before I get to you Dr Tara I would also like to remind our listeners that if you have any questions please feel free to put it on the live chat and we would be happy to take it up with the panel who's here so just a quick reminder on that and Dr Tara moving over to you so for you uh especially being in the field of academics how do you see it as a manager in an academic institution how does this communicating and influencing take place Dr you're on mute sorry my mic was on mute I hope I'm clear sometimes there's a bit of a delay um yes definitely there communication and influencing in the context of management like within an academic institution involves um effectively conveying information ideas and directives to uh various stakeholders like we have AC mics the students non academics the administrators while also influencing their thoughts decisions and actions towards achieving the organizational goals of the University at large so um as a former head of the department and um director of a Research Unit uh in an academic institution I can actually share some skill sets which I find uh crucial for several reasons uh one is we must have faculty collaboration effective communication Fosters collaboration among faculty members uh promoting inter interdisciplinary research um sharing of best practices and alignment with institutional objectives then the student engagement we must have clear communication with the students to ensure they understand the academic expectations policies and resources available to them and influencing student Behavior positively impacts their learning outcomes and overall satisfaction and also engaging with uh parents alumni donors and the community at large requires persuasive communication to Garner support for the institutions Mission programs and initiatives and leadership development managers serve as Role Models so as academics as heads directors there should be effective communication and influence within the university so by demonstrating these skills which this will inspire and develop Future Leaders among the faculty and staff and students and of course crisis management uh during crisis or conflicts effective communication is very important to mitigate uh negative consequences to maintain trust and guide the institution through challenging times and um so to excel in such communication and influencing as an academic in an um academic institution and a manager there uh I believe we must be clear and transparent so that we ensure messages are concise coherent and transparent to avoid misunderstandings and to build trust and we must tailor communication we must adapt communication Styles and content to different audiences considering their preferences their backgrounds and their needs and communication involves listening actively listen actively listen to concerns the feedback perspectives from all these um students academic stakeholders that I mentioned and we must demonstrate empathy and understanding while listening and of course everyone every manager should lead by example we must model effective communication and ethical influence behavior setting a standard for others to follow and build relationships we must cultivate positive relationships within stakeholders through regular meaningful interactions fostering trust and credibility thank you doctor for those uh Insight communicating this and so this will credibility and pureness so overall I feel that effective communication and influence are indispensable skills for any manager especially for academic institutions which will enable us to navigate cre complexities Foster these collaborations and drive positive changes within each organization that we work for thank you very much doctor and very insightful thank you so much so moving on uh and and having explored this framework structure key components let's move on to seeing how this can be applied in the real world so today's world is full of disruption and we're we're presently working on and living in a very chaotic and constantly Dynamic world so how planful do we have to be about our communication and our messaging uh Taran would you like to add on to that and and give us your insights sure thank you thank you for the question and it's um it's a very wide question question touching on a variety of areas um Let me let me think about this as I'm responding to you Kamaya um so I started out by being planful I started out with the communication being clear that's absolutely uh uh an I think a base fundamental area we need to look at um but one of the things that then drives from that simply because of the magnitude of disruption that we are facing the ambiguity that currently exists the inability to and this is to Professor ajanta's point the inability to have an attention span that is longer than 90 seconds as an example uh with Tick Tock and what have you um one of the things that then comes across is this level of consistency I cannot stress that enough uh small concise consistent messaging that is going out that prevents dilution we we don't want to dilute this messaging but more importantly also that prevents Distortion simply because of the ambiguity that we're in there is a lot of distortion there's a lot of noise how can I now cut across that noise and provide you with the true Essence that I want to put across so so that's the first one um the second thing that comes across very effectively in this disruptive environment is the ability and Dr Tashara talked about it is Crisis management uh how do I go away to maintain my composure whilst managing and we are seeing crisis all around us you know as we as we speak as we act as we uh work um and with that comes brand Imaging the the implication on our brand image the implication on the way we are coming across the market there needs to be some level of reassurance reassurance from us to the stakeholders to the shareholders whether it be at a board level or otherwise that then talks about you know what we know what we're talking about and through this consistent messaging I'm putting these ideas in a simple clear undiluted form we're not diluting it in any fashion uh the area of strategic alignment Kamaya is absolutely critical we need to ensure that there is some level of thought from the strategies that we had identified all the way down to the implementation of these strategies and in the course of that communicate what is it that we're trying to put across so that strategic alignment is absolutely critical and lastly in my mind it's about full engagement disruption brings with it a level of uncertainty innately and with that level of uncertainty there's a level of fear innately there's a level of uh untrusting uh feeling that I come in so if I now come in and I talk about bringing you on this journey with a full level of Engagement I start to move away from that Mist that we call disruption to provide you with this level of clarity so to your point uh what can we do I believe that there are these five six things that we can look at but it has to be done in a very planful dare I say it purposeful fashion over to you Kamaya thank you so much so purpose and planning for it and execution uh seems to be required to get the desired results but I'm going to direct a question from uh which has been now raised by our audience today and Professor I'm going to come to you with that so with the insights from taranjit as well the question is how to manage the impact of cultural influences on interorganizational decision making so an another Dynamic here we're talking about cultural influence and interorganizational decision making how do we tackle that in communication effective communication thank you kamay I think that's a very pertinent and very relevant area where culture is all about a system of shared meanings the way we do things the way we do things in one um country might be different to the way we do things in another country so we need to be conscious about certain restrictions certain constraints certain peculiarities sometimes we might be seen as negative if we are not aware of those things so for me the starting point is clear awareness to whom am I communicating with in other words a clear understanding of your target audience a little bit of homework would be very very handy now there are plenty of culture studies done so certain cultures are more open certain cultures are more closed certain cultures they encourage people to behave more like teams interactive certain cultures they are more individualistic so you need to be aware as to whom you are communicating with and as I said Kam it depends on the type of communication the mode of communication sometimes for example I'm speaking right now and you are listening right now and tanit is writing something right now and someone is reading so listening speaking writing reading particularly the neglected component of listening we might take it for granted I think all four forms should be very much consciously looked into and as you said the second part of the question the interorganizational communication it can be formal it can be informal it can be a formal mail going from a CEO to the other CEO or it can be a call by one CEO to the other CEO so whether it's formal or informal and whether it's oral or written it depends so the starting point is be conscious about the other side of your communication the other partner in your channel second thing is identify similarities as well as differences there are plenty of case studies if you deal with the uh uh Arabic countries for example you be certain um practices certain rituals we have to be conscious and if you deal with Western Country versus versus if you deal with the South Asian country there might be cultural differences the way people greet one another the way people treat one another some cultures are more relationship building or so then you spend more time in building the relationship some countries are more uh results oriented so then cut and dry you go for it I'll give you a real example I have a friend in Japan when he sends me an email he's he spends uh about two paragraphs asking about my family describing his family about the weather about the country and then he get to the topic whereas I have a friend in Sweden he sends an email just one line have you done that is the project over is that document finished so you see one culture more relationship oriented another culture more results oriented so you have to be conscious and then as I mentioned whether they are more individualistic or they are more collectivistic these are from G Hof States cultural Dimensions I will not uh get into the details so the idea is that to be aware to be open and interorganizational communication the effectiveness depends on this and again Kamaya let me emphasize when communication breaks down conflicts begin to avoid conflicts we need to have clear communication clever communication the right crafted communication so that it will fulfill the desired expectation as San said in a very strategic manner in a very purposeful Manner and in a very meaningful manner that's how I would look at it Kam thanks Professor so Professor you also mentioned um and uh it was also mentioned by Dr Tara the importance of effective listening but uh I'm going to move on to tangit again so how does this emotional aspect or what role does emotional intelligence play in effective communicating and influence is it important so I'm now going to put on my Master coach hat so I am a master coach with ICF I've been a coach now with them for many years and one of the fundamental things that we are thought as coaches is for you to have the ability to listen and the ability for you to question those are the fundamental there are other things but those are the two fundamentals let's talk about listening there's a lot that plays out when we look at nuances nuances from the and to Dr ajanta's Point Professor ajanta's Point nuances on how the individual commences the discussion what are some of the nuances that he uses the sensitivity of those words now as individuals we come to the table with this level of appreciation in the language that we are most proficient in um what now happens as you're moving up and we're talking about leaders and managers specifically as you're moving up the levels and you're entering into the leadership roles you cannot underestimate and you should not underestimate the value that these emotive views bring to the table because if you're not sensitive to it it just goes over your head and you are now talking about things that really don't matter to the re of the message this is exactly what Dr aanta Professor aanta just stated um why is it important fundamentally a lot of the feelings and a lot of the emotive thoughts and the emotive uh perspectives are driven by these couple of words the moment I get a feel of these words I can already start to purposefully respond to the not react but respond to those messaging and um I think it comes with a level of maturity it also comes with a level of uh you uh purposefully wanting to grow in that area and if you're not intentionally growing in that area it becomes uh it becomes a very um superficial discussion which is not what this is about it has to be purposeful it it has to to be uh intended for those messages that we're trying to put across does that make sense Kamaya absolutely and again we come back to that key word purpose so everything revolves around it if we don't have a purpose in anything we do everything is going to collapse so T absolutely agree so Dr theara you're you're back with us I think we lost you for a few seconds or a few minutes there um I'm going to the next next question to you am I audible to you Doctor um yes I am I hope I'm speaking from a different device hope you can hear me we can hear you loud and clear thank you right so I'm going to direct the next question to you so doctor how often do you negotiate as a leader as a manager and what do you think are the common mistakes that we make during negotiations um negotiation comes I suppose I mean when we talk about negotiation it is like a day-to-day thing I mean if you look at a person even going to lunch you would have to negotiate with your colleagues but um as a manager uh it comes on a frequent occurrence um when your role is involved in leadership or decision making and uh managing people so in an academic setting uh this can arise in various contexts like um when we are having faculty recruitments budget allocations um curriculum development student grievances um when we are having collaborative partnership signing anou um what I can tell you kamay is that there are common mistakes people make during negotiations um especially in the academic settings first one is uh failure to prepare one of the most common mistakes in entering negotiations is without adequate preparation which includes uh researching relevant information understanding the interests and priorities of all parties involved and developing a clear negotiation strategy and another thing is lack of active listening which comes with what Dr taranjit and Prof aant mentioned the this communication involves lack um active listening and the lack of it is coming as a minus for negotiation because effective negotiation requires active listening by all parties to understand the concerns needs and uh perspectives of the other party so failing to listen attentively can lead to misunderstandings uh miscommunications and even a breakdown in trust and also neglecting a win-win solution sometimes you want win for yourself only some negotiations Focus solely on achieving their own objectives without considering the interests of the other party which leads to a win lose outcome um resentment um it could be a damaged relationship so instead negotiators should strive for win-win solutions that address the needs of all parties involved like bend a little backwards to give that win-win solution and inflexibility being overly rigid or inflexible during negotiations can hinder progress and impede collaboration it's essential to remain open-minded adaptable and willing to explore all ative Solutions uh that meet the interests of both sides and also poor communication this is what you're talking about effective communication is crucial in negotiations yet many people struggle to um Express their ideas clearly concisely and persuasively so miscommunication or ambiguity leads to confusion frustration and as St negotiations and lack of empathy failing to understand others failing to think from their point of view their concerns the emotions of the other party leads to um you know lack of Rao building lack of compromise so empathy actually helps negotiators to understand the underlying motivations and interests driving the other party's position and overlooking nonverbal cues like nonverbal Communications like body language or the tone of voice can convey important signals during these negotiations so ignoring these cues can result in a missed opportunities to address underlying issues or concerns so as a head of the department with lots of academic staff and students um alike it's crucial for me to be mindful of these common negotiation pitfalls and strive to avoid them um so building um strong relationships or fostering open communication prioritizing collaborative problem solving having teamw workk for these facilitates more productive and mutually beneficial negotiations in um our academic context thank you doctor so I'm going to pick your brain on whether you could actually give us a real life example um with with your vast experience and dealing with people uh of of of different aspects you have your own academic staff you have your students of varying ages just coming into their higher studies so would you be able to share with us an example of a time when you had to convince person or a group of persons to maybe do something what they initially were reluctant to do how did you negotiate with them and get them um to go for the goal all right all right actually I can uh think of the time where it was covid-19 when the pandemic just started Sri Lanka went for a full lockdown and um Professor aanta would uh watch for me um we as academics we had to uh teach online fully 100% because everyone is locked down and we didn't want to stop the students from studying so now um as a head of the department now I have to tell people okay no more physical lectures um um everyone is in distress but still we have to start online lecturing it was a hard task um to get this team of Educators to actually come online to a online platform to deliver lectures to have these virtual classes because everyone was hesitant they were resistant to this idea because um some were questioning the effectiveness of online teaching um compared to traditional methods they wanted to write on the board they wanted to have um proper Powerpoints and ask questions face to face and there were technical challenges some of them were not really Tak savy they were not really um ready to really go um online and then they were thinking you know our digital literacy is not sufficient and we don't want to look bad in front of the students so there were a lot of resistance but we didn't have a choice because we can't um you know close the university um the academic activities so um therefore I thought okay somebody has to come up with some ideas of how to um address address the so um I spoke to the um it Division and organized a comprehensive training sessions workshops like few hours but so that our lecturers will be familiarized with the online platform and whatever their technical concerns we provided Solutions and provided guidance of to how to utilize these digital tools for teaching so this sort of empowered them um in fact I myself learned digital signing on Fe F during the covid time I must admit and then U we brought people and spoke about success stories we have seen how Malaysia Dr taranjit will share with us in Malaysia and Singapore they were already doing online teaching in a hybrid mod most of the time so we spoke about such um um case studies we spoke about other Educators who had successfully transition to online teaching we highlight the benefits uh like um the increase student engage M the doctor you're on mute doctor uh you're on mute we can't hear you Dr Tara please unmute yourself there something went wrong yeah perhaps uh Dr cannot hear us so uh we'll we'll come back to do doctor you were on mute we we lost the last part of your oh really have I been mute all along no no no we just lost the last few seconds of what you were saying uh which part was itth that I was mute Kamaya we we we lost you at the latter part of your example you were talking about what was going on uh in terms of convincing the people to come and the reluctance to take on technology yeah so um very very briefly we um I highlighted the opportunities brought in uh some examples from Malaysia and Singapore and encouraged that uh we will go back to physical teaching and we everyone worked in collaboration so through these efforts like we managed to overcome this reluctance and sort of the skepticism towards the online teaching and over time I can say that confidently they are really proficient in this so much that they demand nowadays that we have the lectures online fully but we are now we are going behind and saying no no we must have physical lectures as well so I think um in um in a very small sense it's the communication and how to communicate effectively how to negotiate with people because everybody had their concerns I had my concerns the university had their uh concerns so um I think effective communication is addressing all the needs and finding a win-win solution which benefits all the parties involved thanks doctor so being assertive and coming to a win-win conclusion uh key aspects I'm going to pick up a quite an interesting question dropped by one of our audience members a little different as well and I'm going to direct it to all our panel members to see what there is response would be the question is if you could communicate one message to humanity uh they would accept without question what would it be and why who'd like to go first can I try yeah Professor please do Live and Let Live nice simply because we are we are all humans we have to be Humane we have to uphold Humanity when there's war and destruction around the globe and when we are eroding the resources uh for the future uh generations and then so it's all about we are self centered we are selfish we are looking only at our needs so we need to ensure that we live at the same time we allow others to live we encourage others to live we help others to live we support others to live so my message is Live and Let Live thank you Professor would anyone like to add on yeah please do um can I need your mute I think you're mute yes you're mute we cannot hear so this is something which I've always abided by and the IR rational is around being vested in the success of others if everyone is vested in every body's success we as a collective whole will lift ourselves to the next level but unfortunately this is to Professor J's point we are selfish what's in it for me before I give it to you and when that is the case we are always putting the other guy down no let's be vested personally vested in the success of others that's my message and you do that in my mind everything will move up whether you like it or not it will naturally move up that's a communicating message I'll put across Kamaya beautiful I think I'm going to quote you going forward on that that's amazing set of words super to live by uh Dr Dr Tara would you like to try well yeah I think U after those uh beautiful thoughts I just have to add my two s which I live by uh be grateful for each day because somebody Somewhere Out There is not as um lucky as you so I'm always grateful I'm always empathetic I always think U so my message would be to treat others the way you would like to be treated so always put you in that uh their shoes and then it will make sense to you and you will have more empathy more kindness more compassion so being grateful and being empathetic will um lead the day for me to be peaceful in the end I think it's a great question I mean we live uh we live in a in an environment where what's in it for me is the first question you get from anyone you work with before anything gets done and that seems to be the norm uh which leads to lot of barriers so so all your points are um well taken and well noted and I think it's something that we really need to think about uh in our lives as managers As Leaders of organizations and of other various institutions as well so thank you very much so I'm going to pick another question and I would like to put it to the panel uh in total again and let's discuss uh your varying views on this uh so the next question is how does one balance response and reaction in the areas of handling conflict or pressure at work any volunteers in the ABS of any oh sorry sorry T please go ahead no no sir please go ahead please go ahead sir ahead so uh okay uh response and reaction so they say uh uh response and reaction area of handling conflict of pressure at work I think conflict handling is I think is one of the commonest areas that we need to face in our uh stressful workplaces which are under pressure either we are Target driven or we are surrounded by kpis sometime the key performance IND indicators ended up as key political indicators or key pressure rise indicators so what happens is we need to uh uh the balance between response and reactions I think as tanit mentioned and I think Dr Tara used one key word empathy so we might have an emotional reaction rather than and empathetic response so what happens is if you look at the way we emotionally getting charged and we have the negative emotions we are getting angry we are getting hungry and we try to react with those emotional impulses instead if you can respond with a mature manner if you can respond in a way that we understand the whole thing so let me reiterate what Dr Tara said the importance of empathy looking from the others point of view sometimes we are selfish looking only from my point of view my way is highway so I'm right you have to align with my thinking so that will be the okay instead you need to be open enough have that abundance mentality you willing to listen to other person empathic listening is very very rare you have to listen from another's point of view and then why that conflict has arose so far so what is the stake that the other person is insisting can we reach a win-win situation as we say so my um two cense worth response is basically rather than reacting emotionally you need to have that mature response with a broader understanding and the right purpose in mind that is tough and that needs uh experience that needs exposure and that needs little bit of expertise thanks Professor tanik would you like to add on sure sure um there's really nothing much to add now but let me give it a go um so thank you Dr ajanta so my take on this is um is always looking at it from the ability to respond positively in everything that happens you talk about Conflict at work as a manager of people there is always an ability to respond positively even when having difficult conversations you do an injustice to Dr ajanta's point if I approach it em emotionally you do a Injustice not only to yourself but to the other guy who's receiving these comments so we need to take a step back and it's easier said than done I admittedly it requires practice it requires training which is why you go through different courses as managers I mean I grew up in the in the price water houses of the world I grew up in the A on hwit of the world and you know hey groups they actually put you through purposeful training and development to build these sort of skills and to this respon to this aspect resilience becomes a critical area how do I ensure that I'm resilient when I come to handle these sort of things I'm not reacting but I'm approaching from a holistic perspective and when that plays out you do just Justice to the other person because you're you're putting across a point of view which is well considered and that balancing act that you come up with has to be done intuitively I mean you've got to think about this from a from an apathetic perspective before you are now responding to this so I would actually take that you know let me count to 10 type of a rule before I respond to the discussion that we are having if it's a really uh emotionally charged discussion in this regard I hope that makes sense it does Dr thara what is your take um yeah well just looking at the question from mrm response sometimes we respond uh you know just automatically like as a um but a reaction could be sometimes an initial like a sudden one or it could be something that we can think and react so I believe uh we can vice versa we can um um interpret it in a different manner but especially in Conflict handling as a counselor I myself do a lot of conflict handling or at least listen to them as a mediator there are I can we can say like there are assertive ways of handling there are mediators ways of handling or we can be like a judge like in a Judiciary way of handling so as you can see like in the UK um court system is different from USA where um we follow the same from the Dutch time the UK L we listen to both parties and give a judgment sometimes um in the USA the judge is involved he asks further questions for clarification so especially when you're looking at the conflict handling or perhaps the pressure a person or a group is having so it's always good to use um different response or a different reaction according to the situation but how do you balance it again is up to the person who's going to be the negotiator or the mediator or the communicator you have to really understand where each party is coming from adding to what Dr tanjit and Prof aant mentioned and um so reacting accordingly to the um situation given understanding the situation uh identifying both parties and then all the more parties involved and accordingly deciding whether to respond or or react as a in respond to that thanks doctor so uh Professor there is a question directed to you uh the question is what is the solution in influencing through communication when the three C's you mentioned fail that is conduct context and content what is the solution okay my simple answer is commitment you need to commit yourself to have that perseverance keep on communicating keep on having faith in your process never leave away from the process keep on trying as wiinston Churchill said never never give up communication is tough it's a tough terrain sometime there can be a lot of mismatches lot of misunderstandings lot of misgivings so there you need to have that persistence so when uh when your contents are not good enough when the context you have not understood enough when your conduct has some problems so it's again revisiting and Reviving and refreshing and starting the process so uh it's still worth so my point is commitment commitment ensure that you have the three C's intact and three C's together will give you the coherent result thanks Professor so the solution is another SE commitment which would basically engulf in guide the other three C's to make it successful um thank you for posing that question and thank you Professor for the answer so we can't really leave any discussion today without moving into technology and how we can adapt with it so on that note uh Teran I'm going to ask you this question so in this world of AI and all technology different types of agile technology that keeps popping up that we live in and of course we can't now forget chat GTP and the others uh how how how does it effective communication play a part in this everchanging technological Advanced World good question let me chat GPT it no no and and um so that's a very good question and I I play in this field um we talk about disruptive leadership we talk about Innovative platforms and as part of the work that I do is actually building the capabilities of leaders and of organizations to drive that so allow me an opportunity to respond to that Kamaya um I think we cannot leave it purely to the AI platforms to craft out messages it's already playing out but we cannot leave it entirely to the AI platform why why is that uh several reasons one the conceptualizing of messaging is not fully appreciated by the platforms we contextualize as man or woman or humans we contextualize that message so there is a sensitivity that comes into play when we are talking about contextual understanding as we're crafting the purpose of that message the second one is around emotional intelligence and empathy what Dr Tashara had mentioned earlier followed up by Professor aanta if I don't have a level of empathetic uh slant in my messaging I'm not able to connect with you very simple and that connectivity is important because that will then lead to inspirational perspective it'll lead to uh motivational perspective and everything else in between which platforms today at least right now are not able to do that it's very flat the way their Communications is done the third one is around ethical considerations now in all the work that we do in the stuff that there are we intuitively touch on ethical considerations whether it be biasness or whether it be diversity or whether it be inclusiveness there are these things that we innately talk about which platforms at least at this point in time because of the way the algorithms are written are not able to respond to and the last one I would imagine um if we talk about this would be the area of relationship building uh I'm a computer scientist myself and and like Dr Tashara I'm also a lawyer so I did law and computer science as my undergraduate I went on to do my masters in law specializing in IP and one of the things that came came out of that is how far can we push the platforms to build relationships platforms don't build relationships because they're governed by ones and zeros they're governed by algorithms whatever I give to you is what comes out where else the relationship aspect is more innate it's deeper and that's about the area of humanity that we are now trying to exude so to your question can I chat GPT it of course of course I can but will it make the same sense no it won't that's my response to you ma'am thanks if I to add one thing to what tanit said to summarizing AI EI Harmony is what we need High Tech High touch Harmony otherwise Hightech without high touch will not work good AI without EI will not work that's my summarizing of what I like it thank you so H as a very last question for the session unfortunately we've run out of time and I'd like all of you to very quickly contribute to this last question which is we've we've looked at inhibiting factors of Technology but how can technology be transformed to basically influence and effectively communicate what are the opportunities that technology would would add to to how we do things and how we can communicate so like to end on a positive note and technology is key so we' like to do a around with you contributing to the question answer to this question uh Dr perhaps Dr Tara perhaps I'll start I think because I think the two wise gentlemen would have more wise the things to say um I think technology should not be seen as an enemy I mean uh compared to decades ago we are in a much better place of communication because of technology I think it's the misuse of it whether it's technology or environment or um whatever it is it's the mankind the human that goes and misuses it but the P people who discover it have actually done um a great service by discovering all these platforms all these um tools and methods of technology so I think um in terms of communication it's a blessing that we have all these ways to communicate it's a blessing that we have this uh right for our communication the right to um understand the right to truth right to um see what what other things we can pinpoint Injustice if there is any so I think it um we while teaching the younger generation the future generation about the ways to use the technology and the tools we might we must also uh teach them the ways of properly using these tools to ensure that it's not mishandled it's not misused but it's used with the proper diligence and with Integrity so that um it will be a great asset for everybody thanks thanks Dr professor over to you to very quickly share your thoughts well technology can be a versatile servant but a volatile master so don't start with technology I I think you should have the mindset skill set and then the tool set don't start with the tool set start with the mindset then the skill set then comes the tool set which is the technology tanit wow I love that I swear to you I'm GNA take that away Dr aant um so so I've learned a lot today so my my two cents worth if it's worth anything uh Kamaya is is the fact that um we cannot do away with the platforms that we see today and to ignore it does you an injustice not only for you as a leader but for you as an organization which therefore means I have to utilize it in order for me to drive productivity or to drive Innovation or and everything else in between but the point now means is do I have the necessary thinking process do I have the necessary thought process for me to ask and I like Dr ajanta's point it is a tool and that's all it is do I have the necessary thought process that allows me to effectively utilize this tool in as best a fashion that I possibly can and if I don't have that skill set it becomes very awkward because I'm now dependent on the technology to provide me with answers and by golly half the time and Chad GPT says this do not um take these answers as is please go away and validate it there's a little caveat that they have right at the bottom so you know we have to take that into account and uh as Leaders as managers and as upcoming students who are entering into this field we need to ensure that those skill base are there the necessary competence are there in order for us to effectively utilize the platform I will leave it at that thank you very much uh taranjit and to every eminent member of this panel today for sharing your insights and experience and so from building strong relationships and inspiring change to driving business growth and shaping public opinion the ability to communicate and influence effectively sets the stage for achievement and impact so with those concluding remarks and thanking all of you uh for spending your afternoon evening with us today uh I'll hand it back over to Mary from CMI over to you thank you thank you thank you so much um so that's it for today's session thank you to Prof aanta tarangi Dr tessara and Kamaya for your Insight and expertise um please stay tuned to hear more about CMI membership and thank you all for joining us don't forget as a CMI member you can find the latest management and Leadership insights at managers.org do.uk if you're not yet a member join our community to discover CMI confidence with OnDemand resources our network with mentors and industry-leading accreditation sh