Ron Kernahan's Test Wordpress site

The degree of success a person will achieve depends on the skill he/she has to communicate.

Just the other day a friend told me, “Don’t send me text messages on the phone. I prefer you call.” I took a note of that. I have another friend, who says, “Any time you want to ‘talk’ to me, just send me an email.” People are different. Not everybody likes to communicate the same way. Here are the top tips in a nutshell for you.

General guidelines for Communication

1. Take genuine interest in the person you’re talking to. Ask people about themselves and they’ll talk for hours.

2. Make eye contact. It is the window to a person’s heart.

3. Master the art of listening.

4. Use body language. Researchers say 70% of what you communicate is in the body language.

5. Ask the other person’s opinion on the subject.

6. Speak in short intervals. Do not monopolize the conversation.

7. Be enthusiastic when you speak or listen to someone. Lean forward.

8. Be curious and show empathy.

9. Express your sense of humor and laugh at theirs (even if you’ve heard it before.)

10. Shut up. Harness the will to remain silent after you’ve asked a question.

Communicating by phone

1. Prepare before you call.

2. Smile and say something positive. It puts the person on the other side at ease.

3. Get personal. Give your name and ask for his/hers.

4. If you’re making the call ask permission, “Do you have a minute or five to talk?”

5. Know and state the purpose of the call. “…the reason I’m calling is …”

6. If you’re receiving the call, first, listen.

7. Agree as much as possible. Never argue.

8. Ask questions. Understand before you seek to be understood.

9. End conversation on an “up” note.

10. Speak clearly, slowly and repeat your phone number if you leave a voice mail.

Communicating by Email/Letters

1. Make the email subject line clear and interesting. Otherwise it may not get read.

2. Stick to the topic. Multiple themes and requests get ignored. Better to send multiple emails.

3. Reply to personal emails. It confirms to the sender that you’ve received it and eliminates misunderstanding.

4. Keep your inbox clean. Reply, forward or delete messages as quickly as possible.

5. Include the previous message when replying to questions for clarity.

6. Don’t send BCC email to people in CC.

7. Do not send email when you can communicate orally.

8. Ask for permission before putting them on mass mail list, and offer a way to “unsubscribe.”

9. If you are writing to a larger audience, pick one person you know and write to that person.

10. Add signature with your name and contact information.

Keep communicating!

See more Life Lessons at www.buildinternational.org

Last month was a busy month!

While media interest wanes somewhat on the issue of H5N1 Avian or Bird Influenza, the last month was actually a busy month. It was also a very sad month for the families who lost lives due to the virus. And for many people, the economic toll of having to cull – a nice way to say kill – Read the rest of this entry →

I had a touch of the flu … it is going around the area. That is one reason I haven’t posted much recently (not to mention traveling and being busy in general).

This bout was a bit strange, lost my voice (some were happy), stiff neck (some agreed) and a few other not-so-normal flu symptoms. Others around the area had the identical problems so it was just the particular flu strain or virus which caused the extra complications. Read the rest of this entry →

UNITED NATIONS — Experts suspect the current spread of bird flu in Asia, Africa and Europe is mainly a result of trade in infected live birds rather than transmission through wild birds, the U.N. official coordinating the global fight against avian influenza said Friday.

Example: the outbreak in Nigeria was caused by the import of poults Read the rest of this entry →

And this should be a good New Year …

This New Year has brought with it a heavy toll as far as Bird Flu is concerned. More deaths in Indonesia with the alarm bells sounding as to another possible cluster (human to human transmittion but on a small or confined area).

Japan, Nigeria and of course Vietnam also reporting Avian flu in their regions – not a pretty sight at all. Here are some of the headlines:

Bird Flu Infects Indonesian Teenager, Creating New H5N1 Cluster
Bloomberg – USA

Indonesia reels from two new bird flu deaths, outbreak feared
The Brunei Times – Bandar,Brunei,Brunei Darussalam

H5 bird flu strain confirmed at poultry farm in Miyazaki; Japan
The Japan Times – Japan

Caribbean countries urged to strengthen bird flu-fighting capabilities
Jamaica Observer – Kingston,Jamaica

New Outbreak of Bird Flu Hits Nigeria
Today’s THV – Little Rock,AR,USA

Vietnam faces Bird Flu resurgence
Spero News – USA

Don’t count on the Avian flu as having flown the coup just yet, we have a long 2007 in front of us. We can be glad that God is in control.

Officials in southern Vietnam have confirmed that the recent bird flu outbreak is the lethal H5N1 strain.

And, experts say a fresh outbreak of avian influenza in Nigeria is more widespread than thought.

Meanwhile, the University of Maryland School of Medicine will begin testing its cell-based bird flu vaccine in January in preparation for a possible flu pandemic in the near future although it is still too early to build up stockpiles of bird flu vaccine in preparation for a human flu pandemic, flu experts say. Read the rest of this entry →

Are youth more susceptible?

A set of activities identified in the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) new Global pandemic influenza action plan to increase vaccine supply requires immediate and sustained action and funding, if the world is to be prepared for an influenza pandemic to which there would be almost universal susceptibility.

A report on last winters cases in Turkey seem to indicate that children and youth may be particularly susceptible to the virus.

“To some extent, this reflects the same age distribution observed globally, where 50.5% of cases occurred among people aged <20 years, and it suggests that age-related factors may influence susceptibility to the disease,” the report states.

Meanwhile, WHO reports that, “We are presently several billion doses short of the amount of pandemic influenza vaccine we would need to protect the global population. This situation could lead to a public health crisis,” said Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, Director, WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research. “The Global Action Plan sets the course for what needs to be done, starting now, to increase vaccine production capacity and close the gap. In just three to five years we could begin to see results that could save many lives in case of a pandemic.”

Of the case-patients described in the report, all of those who died in Turkey were teenagers, while all the survivors were younger children, aged three to nine years. “This reflects closely the global situation where the highest case-fatality rate (73%) has been observed in the 10-19-year age group,” the article says.

Turkey was the first country outside Southeast Asia to report human cases. A total of 21 human H5N1 cases had been reported in January on the basis of tests in a Turkish laboratory, but only 12 of these were confirmed by the WHO because the remainder were not confirmed in reference labs recognised by the organisation.