ABSTRACT
The purpose of the regulating skills is to protect the order and clarity of the conversation. Table 1.1 gives an overview of the skills that are discussed in subsequent paragraphs.
Opening the conversation, setting goals
When you take the initiative in a conversation, for efficient continuation it is usually important to supply your conversational partner with your intentions fairly soon after beginning. How exactly you open the conversation is naturally dependent upon the situation. When you want to discuss the progress of a project with a colleague who drops in now and then, you would start this conversation differently from when you meet a new client for the first time, or in a selection interview when you meet an applicant. In the first case, you would start fairly informally, whilst in the last case you would usually begin formally. In order to create a relaxed atmosphere, one often begins a conversation by discussing generalities. This can work well, but we must realize that there are many people who do not feel at ease when discussing generalities. These feelings of unease are on the one hand brought about because one has the idea that time is not being efficiently used, and on the other because one does not know exactly how to end the generalities. Such people only begin to feel at ease when you get to the point, namely when the conversation about the important subjects begins.
