1. have you ever wondered how the quite ones are often assumed to be the intellectual ones in a group?
2. have you ever wondered why somebody is not taken seriously when they talk a lot?
3. have you ever wondered about drawing the right balance between active participation and passive participation when in a group, to actually get your voice heard?
just like most questions, the answer for these also tend to be 'well, it depends'...
imagine scenario 1: you are in the middle of a group discussion session, and your primary objective is not to make your point favourable to the group but to make sure that your participation is visible to the judges, you DO forget about question 3 from above, and go full throttle...
imagine scenario 2: you are in the centre stage of a classroom, set to be an instructor helping a bunch of students over a certain subject... it becomes imperative to be communicatively effective, for starters... here, you DO forget about questions 2 and 3 from above, and selectively talk about topics per the audience/requirements...
while these imaginary scenarios are of frequent occurence and acceptably implementable, the tough scenarios are when we have to follow the thoughts from answers to question 1 from above. while maintaining the thin line between arrogance and humility, we learn to adapt based on the group members, context and sensitivity of the topic under discussion, knowledge and wisdom about the context and subject, all play important parts in our ways of expression... add to these, the natural inclination of an induvidual to be either introvertish or extrovertish or ambivertish, the actual outcome becomes unpredictable...
as we learn and adapt, we also tend to become opinionated, and hence influenced to choose how we want to respond in situations and then participate... the critical moment does arrive when one's actions either leads to a catastrophe in an inter-personal or professional relationship, OR leads to a lost opportunity... every chance not taken, is a lost opportunity to be heard... every bond broken is a chance wrongly taken despite having the power to choose...
