Effective face-to-face oral communication is crucial for organizational performance. Managers must communicate effectively with their subordinates, their peers and superiors to link organizational direction to those at all levels of the organization. In addition, face-to-face oral communications are fundamental to the messaging process between business entities (e.g., suppliers, vendors, customers, etc.), whether a person is acting for oneself or representing his/her company. Face- to-face oral communication that builds empathic trust and mutual confidence is essential in business, especially in light of the recent “crisis in trust” caused by the 2008 financial market “meltdown” and the widely publicized ethical failures in business that have occurred in the past decade. This need is now being successfully addressed and taught to business executives using the neuro-scientifically-based communication technique of compassionate communication, in which two or more people speak slowly and briefly as they remain in a deep state of relaxation and nonjudgmental attentiveness.

 

The twelve components of compassionate communication are reviewed along with the supporting research of earlier studies, with emphasis on a unique inner values exercise that appears to be a key to its successful use in business situations. The authors discuss how compassionate communication is being taught in Loyola Marymount University’s Executive MBA program and report on their experience from three years of training Executive MBA students to do an inner values exercise over a 10-day period.