Communication as a Design Tool: Listening, Integrity, and the Work Ahead
Most days, communication looks ordinary. It’s emails, meetings, and conversations that don’t feel especially notable while they’re happening. A quick call with a parent. A follow-up message to a teacher. A planning meeting where the agenda keeps shifting as new concerns come up.
Over time, I’ve realized that how I handle those moments matters more than I used to think. Not because every conversation is high-stakes, but because small choices like when to pause, when to ask a question, when to wait and change the direction things take.
When I step back and look at my own practice, some communication habits feel solid and familiar, while others still feel like work. This course has pushed me to examine communication through four specific areas: active listening, persuasive writing, visual storytelling, and AI-assisted communication. Looking at them side by side has helped me see where I’m most confident and where I’m intentionally pushing myself to grow.
Communication Strength: Active Listening and Persuasive Writing
I didn’t always think of listening as a strength. It’s just how I tend to operate in meetings.
A lot of my work puts me in conversations that feel heavy before they even start—IEP meetings, student support calls, planning meetings where compliance and real student needs are both on the table. There’s usually pressure in the room, and people come in already braced for conflict. I’ve learned that if I jump in too quickly, I miss things. So I usually don’t. I listen longer than feels comfortable, ask questions to make sure I understand, and let the conversation slow down.
After one leadership meeting connected to LCAP planning, a colleague reached out to me later that day. She had been a principal for years, which made her comment stick with me. She explained that over time, and across a few different settings, she had started to notice how I show up in conversations and can see things from both the top down and bottom up. She said that when I speak now, she leans in and pays attention.
She has years of experience as a principal and now works in a leadership role, so I understood the context behind what she was saying. It wasn’t tied to an evaluation or any formal expectation. It was simply something she wanted me to know.
That same approach shows up in my writing. When something I write lands well, it’s usually because I’ve spent time listening first—both to people and to the situation. I try to think about what questions might come up or where someone might push back. Most of the time, I’m not trying to persuade someone to agree with me. I’m trying to make things clearer so we can move forward without unnecessary tension.
Growth Area: Visual Storytelling
While listening and writing feel natural to me, visual storytelling is where I am stretching most intentionally. I rely heavily on text, and while that strength serves me well, it can also limit accessibility and engagement for different audiences.
As a learning designer, I know that visuals often communicate before words do. Layout, hierarchy, spacing, and imagery all influence how information is received—and whether it feels inviting or overwhelming. I understand this conceptually, but applying it consistently still takes conscious effort.
What makes visual storytelling challenging for me is that it requires letting go of control. For me, visuals support the words rather than replace them. I still rely primarily on writing, but I’ve learned that layout, spacing, and visual structure affect how that writing is received. Because visual communication isn’t my area of expertise, I have to be more intentional about it. It’s something I think about deliberately, especially when I want information to feel clear rather than dense.
Developing Practice: AI-Assisted Communication
I use AI sometimes as a check when I’m unsure about tone. This usually comes up when I’m writing report card comments or drafting a message that feels emotionally charged. If I’m on the fence about whether something might come across as defensive or too sharp, I’ll pause and have AI check my tone. Sometimes I adjust a sentence. Sometimes I don’t. What’s helpful is slowing the moment down before hitting send.
My focus this term is not on mastering tools, but on being intentional about when and why I use them. AI supports my thinking best when it helps me slow down, not rush forward.
Action Plan
There are a few habits I want to be more consistent about during this Communications course:
- Slowing down before responding, especially in meetings where emotions or pressure are already high.
- Being clearer about the purpose of a message before I start writing it.
- Thinking about layout and visual flow earlier in the process, not after the text is finished.
- Intentional AI use: I will use AI to gain perspective or clarity, while maintaining ownership of my voice and final decisions.
These habits give me practical ways to grow without losing the integrity of how I already communicate.
Connection to Professional Identity
I’m still figuring out how I want to communicate as my role shifts. Some choices come easily. Others take more effort than I expect. Paying attention to that difference has been more useful than trying to label strengths or weaknesses.
The image I chose of the path matters. The feeling it evokes for me is standing still long enough to notice where you are before deciding what comes next. Ultimately, communication is how my values become visible. Pausing, like the path in the anchor image, allows me to notice where I’m stepping, where I’m growing, and how I want to move forward with purpose.