12 minutes
Share responsibility for understanding Use a specific clarification request without global criticism.
What you’ll be able to do Use a specific clarification request without global criticism. Identify a listener or environmental adjustment. Check mutual understanding without patronizing the speaker. Share responsibility for understanding Clear communication is a shared activity. A speaker can rephrase or slow a complex explanation, while a listener can reduce distractions, ask a specific question, and check understanding. The environment may need better audio, captions, or a written reference. Starting with shared responsibility avoids treating the speaker's identity as the defect. It also makes the repair more precise: a poor microphone requires a different response from an unfamiliar term or a missing step in the explanation.
A useful clarification request names the content: 'Could you repeat the date?' or 'I understand the first two steps; what happens before the approval?' Avoid broad statements such as 'Your accent is too hard' when the actual gap is a number or term. Do not exaggerate your own pronunciation or speak to an adult as though they are a child. An unfamiliar accent does not establish that the person has limited understanding of English. Likewise, offering an interpreter should follow the actual language-access need and the person's preference, not an assumption based on appearance or accent.
Check the result by summarizing the action, not by demanding that the person prove competence. 'I will submit the request Thursday and wait for approval before booking; is that the sequence?' gives both people a chance to correct an error. Written support can help many participants and need not be singled out as a remedy for one speaker. If a repeated task genuinely requires a communication change, discuss the observed difficulty and possible supports using the same standard across staff. Shared responsibility does not eliminate role requirements; it improves the chance that the real requirement, rather than an irrelevant preference, guides the response.
A fictional practice case During a fictional remote meeting, several listeners miss a date while a colleague's microphone cuts out. One person asks the colleague to fix their accent. The chair recognizes that the audio dropped for everyone and asks for the date in chat, then checks the deadline aloud. Later the team tests the microphone. The correction addresses the actual conditions and avoids converting an equipment failure into a judgment about the colleague's speech or background.
Private reflection Which listening condition could you improve before asking another person to change?
Applied practice Write a clarification request, a listener adjustment, and a mutual-understanding check for the fictional meeting.
Carry this forward A specific request identifies the gap without assigning a defect to the person or group.
This restores the information and addresses the cause visible in the interaction.
Write a clarification request, a listener adjustment, and a mutual-understanding check for the fictional meeting.
A specific request identifies the gap without assigning a defect to the person or group.
Write a clarification request, a listener adjustment, and a mutual-understanding check for the fictional meeting.
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Previous lesson Next lesson Carry this into practice Separate understanding from familiarity, examine how listeners judge credibility, and share responsibility for clear communication.
Return to the experience: What did you notice or try, whose perspective informed it, and what would you keep or adjust?
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
