-Without actually implementing your new skill in real life situations, this entire project is nothing more than a theoretical exercise. You should be satisfied with nothing less than real change in real situations, which means that you will need to choose and plan specific situations in which you will use your new skill.
A Planning: Plan particular times, places, and people with whom to try your new behavior. Of course, when an unplanned opportunity arises, you obviously should use it as well. The important thing is for you to get in to the pattern of planning your communication behavior.
Almost any behavior can be planned: compliments, questions, agreement statements, or requests. The more frequently you plan communication behavior, the more skilled you will become at managing what you do and at having an impact on the interpersonal communication situations in which you participate.
A1, A2, A3. Create a list of not less than three specific planned situations in which you will implement your new behaviors. Note: You should also implement your new behaviors in any unplanned situations when you have the opportunity to implement your new behaviors.
B Evaluation of Planned Conversations: Evaluate your performance each time you attempt your new behavior in new planned situations.
Be sure to record your progress as you proceed. Maintain a journal in which you describe each occurrence of your target behavior, planned or unplanned.
As you proceed with this phase of the project, be prepared for potential problems. You may reach periodic plateaus in which you are not changing as dramatically as you would like. You may discover that your goal statement is not accurate and that you were trying to increase the wrong behaviors. You may also find that by merely monitoring the frequency of your goal behavior, your problem disappears. In any case, remain flexible and keep working. If necessary, revise your goal statement, change your target behavior, and promise yourself a reward for reaching some goal. The goal is communication behavior change, and there are many avenues for achieving and maintaining that change.
B. Evaluation of Planned Conversations: Evaluate your performance each time you attempt your new behavior in new planned situations. Write a dated narrative journal evaluation that describes in detail what occurred upon implementation of your new communication behaviors in planned circumstances. Address the three or more planned opportunities as you described them in 7A. Be sure to address the following questions in your evaluation:
B1. What seemed to work for you?
B2. What did not seem to work?
B3. In what situations were you most successful?
B4. What behaviors would you like to perform again?
B5. What will you do differently the next time?
C. Evaluation of Unplanned Conversations: Evaluate your performance each time you attempt your new behavior in new unplanned situations.
Write a dated narrative journal evaluation that describes in detail what occurred upon implementation of your new communication behaviors in unplanned circumstances. Aim to explain 2 or 3 unplanned conversations. Be sure to address the following questions in your evaluation:
1. What seemed to work for you?
2. What did not seem to work?
3. In what situations were you most successful?
4. What behaviors would you like to perform again?
5. What will you do differently the next time?