PI Brief Update

A Breakthrough in Understanding Communication - Dr Mark Burgin

19/09/25. Dr Mark Burgin introduces the Relational and Proactive Conversational (RPC) Framework and explains how it can be used to improve good to exceptional communication.

Communication is one of any professional’s key skills and training has become the norm. This has led to substantial improvement in professional performance and expectations from the public. Some of the most important insights in communication skills are from the 1970s and 80s. General practice was at the leading edge, but apart from emotional intelligence EQ there has been slow progress. Now a new approach has emerged that promises to transform the way we communicate emotions.

A current belief is that there is no solution for the emotional communication process. The currently best approach is Emotional Intelligence (EQ) which uses the idea of having competence in handling emotions. The person can be trained to improve perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions which would improve their emotional communication. 

General practice uses the biopsychosocial model which is a holistic approach to describe psychological phenomena. Systems analysis finds solutions by breaking down a problem into parts. This article attempts to bring together and simplify the current research findings by using a Relational and Proactive Conversational (RPC) Framework. The framework

A Relational and Proactive Conversational (RPC) Framework in its simplest terms describes the way that people interact in psychosocial situations. People change how they speak to personalise the interactions, remember previous conversations and what the person likes. They guide the conversation to make it easier for the person and guess what might the person might find interesting or useful.

"Older" Insights

• The move from passive to active listening was pioneered by thinkers such as the GP Roger Neighbour. He used terms such as summarising and handing over to describe how listening can become a two way process. This insight challenged the traditional views of a professional understanding by listening to the person. Instead they would create an understanding in a collaborative process.
• ‘Chunk and check’ was another insight that transformed the communication field. The information was broken down into smaller parts that are easier to understand. The professional would then check that the person has understood before proceeding. People were able to ask relevant questions and be part of the learning process.
• The concept of cues started with observations that nonverbal communication carried important information. Increasingly professionals recognised that there were missing important communication. The person might use an odd way of wording or repeat a word as a signal that there were things they wanted to say.
• Rapport was a different insight as it was less about the transmission of information and more about emotional state. The importance of a sense of connection and trust in the professional has been examined in issues such as compliance. Rather than developing emotional connections the focus became on a defined set of observable skills.

These insights have been transformative in many fields for instance, the change from doctor centred to patient centred care. They showed that it was possible to systematise knowledge communication and hinted at a possible solution to emotional communication. The concept of rapport suggested that it might be possible to identify the core features of emotional communication.

Why emotional communication has been a complex challenge

Neuroscience has shown that brain contains a social circuit that allows humans to read other people’s emotional states. Mirror neurons create the same emotional state in the observer allowing them to read the person’s feelings. This means that the brain has a built-in mechanism for communication of emotions. This model of emotional communication helped understanding but has not led to a solution.

This in built emotional communication system is not perfect. People vary in their ability to read other people’s emotions for several reasons. Lack of practice is a common problem and training can improve performance. Unfamiliar emotions can be difficult to recognise, particularly the emotion disgust. Observers may struggle to distinguish between their own emotions and the other person’s if they are triggered.

The key problem is that saying the word ‘angry’ does not activate the social circuit in this way. This causes a disconnect between the words that are used and the experiences of the person. if an observer cannot communicate their experiences of the person’s emotion using words an impasse will have occurred. Understanding how to reliably generate emotional responses would advance the field.

It is known that particular groups of words can evoke an emotional response in art but it has been difficult to translate this into professional practice. Misunderstandings are frequent, if the words and delivery appear inconsistent, they feel inauthentic and any changes to context can change the message. This means that previous attempts to systematise emotional communication have been unstable and difficult to understand.

Relational and Proactive Conversational (RPC) Framework

Professionals currently focus on ensuring that the information they give is relevant to the subject, complete, factual and safe. This leads to a dry but highly reliable style of communication. The information is objectively unambiguous but fails to recognise that humans respond emotionally to messages. There is often a disconnect between the subjective message and the objective intent of the professional.

The framework as its name suggests, recommends that the professional focuses on a proactive conversational style of communication that relates the topic to the person’s experiences and viewpoints. Ensuring that the information relates to the person means that it is inherently more interesting. Using a proactive style means that conversation has direction. The key is to improve the quality of the interaction so that it is interesting and enjoyable.

A universal framework that moves the emotional communication from an art to a science would be profoundly important. There are opportunities to improve communication particularly those with disabilities, better understand mental health problems and perhaps improve advertising. These are likely to be the tip of the iceberg of use cases if the promise is realised.

How the Framework was constructed

Research in primary care has focused on emotional communication with people with mental health problems. The techniques have largely been specific solutions in individual cases and lack generalisation. Research in systems by contrast has been focused on good and bad responses and being helpful. EQ sees emotional competencies as trainable.

In the overlap between these areas of research a seven-step framework emerges as a single solution. Each of the seven share features of each, they are emotional, are ‘good’ responses and they are trainable. These findings now require robust testing and further research to ensure that there are no missing steps, no other solutions and the logic is accurate.

These seven steps that systematise the objectives for the professional when communicating. These seven steps are all learnable techniques to make information both relatable and proactive. The professional tries to create an answer that is 1 individualised and 2 open to new ideas, 3 uses different types of interaction, 4 adjusts emotional tone, 5 recognises areas of uncertainty, 6 clarifies ambiguity and 7 generates options. 

Conclusions

The Relational and Proactive Conversational (RPC) Framework changes our understanding of emotional communication. The seven steps show that emotional communication can be constructed systematically. The steps are not new but the way that they are combined and the implications of that combination are. The seven steps allow emotional communication to be controlled.

The framework can allow excellent communicators understand and share their unique solutions. It can also help predict whether a communication technique is likely to be effective and how to improve partially effective approaches. The framework’s greatest potential is standardising emotional communication. It provides a system for analysing the emotional elements of communication.

All lawyers learn common errors that people make and the types of people who make up their clientele. They know what is uncertain, what legal options are available and what objectives meetings can halve. They can be surprised and know how people react in interactions. It is likely that as lawyers become familiar with the framework they will create generalised solutions to specific emotional communication issues.

All legal teams should ensure that their communication skills training is up to date as this is a professional’s key skill. Those who wish to expand can start by using the seven steps to analyse why for instance a letter failed to communicate their intended message. As the framework develops it will become required training for lawyers and other professionals who deal with the public.

Doctor Mark Burgin, BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP is a Disability Analyst and is on the General Practitioner Specialist Register.

Dr. Burgin can be contacted on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 01226 761937 websites drmarkburgin.co.uk and gecko-alligator-babx.squarespace.com

This is part of a series of articles by Dr. Mark Burgin. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own, not those of Law Brief Publishing Ltd, and are not necessarily commensurate with general legal or medico-legal expert consensus of opinion and/or literature. Any medical content is not exhaustive but at a level for the non-medical reader to understand.

Image: public domain from https://pixabay.com/en/doctor-medical-medicine-health-563428/