A little late on the discussion, but working on catching up where I left it.

How can you listen for what is being communicated through informal language?

Listening to what is being communicated through informal language, goes hand by hand with thinking out loud. I believed it is productive for a team to be able to have open communication. I understand that “thinking out loud” can’t be done in every scenario but you should be able to discuss your ideas out loud with your team and get feedback. Now, this is hard to achieve when your team does not practice active listening. Practice active listening is a good quality to develop to be able to listen and understand what other people are saying even when they are not communicating formally or directly. On chapter 14 of the book (Turning the ship around), the importance of informal communications is stressed out. Constantly, (Not only in the Navy) but in the Army as well we are so focused on communicating clearly and formally, but sometimes we missed that through phrases like; “I think..”, ” Is unlikely or “maybe” we can have a better sense of what our Soldiers, peers, and superiors are telling us. Is easier to identify gaps and possible breaking points if we learned to communicate directly, utilized informal language when is appropriate and practice active listening.