Why does communication sometimes succeed effortlessly and sometimes one misunderstanding follows the next? Why is it that with some people you understand each other straight away, get into conversation easily and communicate without any problems, while communication with others is always difficult and simply doesn't want to succeed?

Since ancient times, good and intelligible communication has been seen as the sine-qua-non for a fulfilling and successful life. Aristotle and Plato had already understood this human quintessence. The question is: why do people still find it so difficult to communicate clearly in their professional and private lives today?

Although communication has been scrutinized for thousands of years and there is a plethora of offers for learning and perfecting the craft of successful communication in this day and age, one aspect is often ignored: There is no one-size-fits-all recipe for successful communication. People are wired differently in terms of their personality and social behaviour, and this fact is reflected in the acquisition of communicative skills as well as in interpersonal interaction. In this respect, communication is not only both a craft and an art, but also a unique, personal footprint as well.

People communicate very differently due to their personalities, and statements and messages are not interpreted according to generally accepted principles. For this reason, people often feel that they are not understood by their fellow human beings. This is why a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to teaching the craft, let alone the art, of communication is not really promising.

The course programme 'Communication and Personality' is people-centred and combines craft with art and furthermore offers the unique opportunity to get to know and apply different approaches from the fields of the psychology of communication and personality psychology.

The course programme

• provides compact theoretical knowledge and is practice-oriented at the same time.
• is based on the fundamental assumption that there are certain universal human needs and behavioural tendencies that can manifest themselves in very different ways. This 'same-but-different' approach is the key to understanding interpersonal communication and social interaction with all its pitfalls.
• provides a comprehensible insight into various approaches and models of communication, social psychology, and personality psychology which are usually only discussed in isolation.
• conveys the basic features of common personality typologies (DISC, MBTI) and scrutinizes their potential and limitations. The course also focuses on the (often unconscious) cognitive processes that underlie both information processing and decision-making processes and thus influence human communication.

The course participants

• get familiarised with the complexity of interpersonal communication and learn to analyse and prevent misunderstandings.
• get to know their own cognitive preferences.
• reflect on their own communication and action patterns and learn to understand and change them if necessary.
• have the opportunity to analyse their own experience and thus perfect their communication skills.

The course programme ‘Communication and Personality – How to understand yourself and others better’ comprises five modules over a period of approximately ten months.

• Module 1 – Interpersonal Communication Basics / Psychology of Communication I
• Module 2 – Psychology of Communication II: Approaches and Models
• Module 3 – Psychology of Personality I: Human Tendencies and the DISC Matrix
• Module 4 – Psychology II: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
• Module 5 – Integration and Transfer

The course is aimed at anyone who is interested in interpersonal communication and would like to improve their communication skills in a professional and/or private environment. In particular, it is also aimed at those who have set themselves the goal to better understand their own personality and individual communication patterns as well as those of other people.

The course programme ‘Communication and Personality – How to understand yourself and others better’ comprises five modules over a period of approximately ten months.

The modules 1-4 can also be completed separately and outside of the study programme ‘Communication and Personality’.

Dates and Times

• Module 1: 10.-12.10.2024
• Module 2: 05.-07.12.2024
• Module 3: 13.-15.02.2025
• Module 4: 24.-26.04.2025
• Module 5: 12.-14.06.2025

9.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and 1.45 p.m. to 5.00 p.m., Saturday until 4.00 p.m.

Kursprogramm