Now that you have discovered the component parts of communication and its formula, how do you use this knowledge? How do you put into practice what you have just studied on the formula of communication? How do you apply the laws of communication so easily and naturally that they almost seem to be a part of you? How, in fact, do you become effective in communication?

In Scientology there are drills that enable anyone to improve his or her level of communication skill. A drill is a method of learning or training whereby a person does a procedure over and over again in order to perfect that skill. These communication drills, called Training Routines or TRs for short, deal with the various parts of the communication formula.

The TRs were originally developed to train Scientology practitioners in technical application, as a high level of communication skill is vital for this activity. However, by drilling each part of the communication formula with these TRs, any person’s ability to master the communication cycle and thus better communicate with others can be vastly improved.

By doing these drills you will learn how to make your communication understood by others and how to truly understand what they say to you, how to be what is sometimes called “a good listener,” how to guide a communication cycle you are having with another person and how to recognize and rectify failures in the communication cycles of others.

These are all skills of immeasurable value in day-to-day life. No matter what your occupation or what kind of activities you are involved in, the ability to communicate with ease and certainty is essential.

The TRs cannot be done alone; you must do them with the help of another person. The way that this is done is that you pair up with another person and do the drills together. This is done on a turnabout basis: when you are doing the drill, the other person helps you become skilled on that drill. Then you switch around and help the other person while he or she does the drill. The action of helping another through the drill is called coaching.

The drills give directions for the roles of student and coach. When you are practicing the drill you are called the student, and the person helping you get through the drill is called the coach.

It makes no difference whether you start out first as student and your partner as coach, or vice versa. You both take turns being student then coach, to get each other through the drills. By helping each other through the TRs on this alternating basis, you are both able to learn how to fully use the communication cycle.

So, before you embark on doing the TRs, find another person to do the drills with you on this turnabout basis of student and coach.

It is very important that both you and your partner read through and understand all these drills before beginning to practice them. Also, another section follows the drills which explains how to coach someone correctly. This too should be thoroughly studied and understood before the drills are started, as coaching is a very precise procedure. It is vital that proper coaching is done in order to achieve the best possible gains from the TRs.

Each of the TRs has a Number and a Name, which are simply designations to refer to them by.

The Commands are the spoken directions used in starting, continuing and stopping the drill in coaching, and the questions or statements used while doing the TR.

Each drill also states the Position you are to sit in.

The particular communication skill that you are aiming to achieve on each TR is stated under its Purpose.

The Training Stress outlines how that drill is to be done and gives the important points to stress or emphasize in coaching.

Patter is included in some of the drills to show how the various commands or questions are used during the procedure. In Scientology, the word patter simply means the special vocabulary of a drill.

When done diligently and exactly as written, these drills lead to successful communication—for anyone.