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Day 1:
Before we start our session let’s watch some videos
What you find in the videos and why did I show two videos?
Well, What do you mean by Business?
What do you mean by Business Communication?
Purposeful Communication
Importance of Communication
SLIDE 6
Communication is important to you and to the business you will work for. For you, good communication skills can lead to advancement.
Your performance will be judged largely by your ability to communicate. The
higher you advance, the greater your need for communication skills will be.
For the business for which you will work, communicating is important because it is a major part of the work of the business. Communication is essential for organized activity. Much of the work done involves the processing of information.
Unfortunately, many business people do not communicate well. You might
share highly publicized communication blunders that companies have made, or ask students to share stories they may have about how good or poor communication in a company had a significant result, either for a particular communicator or for a company in general.
Multiple surveys find communication skills as highly prized in job applicants,
along with such related traits as a strong work ethic, an ability to work in a team, and initiative. Employers rate leadership, ability to work on a team, written communication skills, and problem-solving skills as the top attributes they look for in applicants’ resumes. Oral communication skills and a strong work ethic were rated just under the top four choices.
Ask students: Can you think of a time when you were part of an unsuccessful project at school or work because of ineffective communication? SLIDE 8
Almost no business problem can be solved without communication. But
communication itself—figuring out what to say or write, and how—is a form of problem solving. This means that, for most situations, the business communicator will need to take a unique set of circumstances into account and generate a unique solution that will achieve the desired business goals.
Most significant business communication problems are ill-defined—because
they involve dealing with people, who are complex and unique. To solve these problems requires research, analysis, creativity, and judgment.
Research: interview the players and understand the history of the
communications situation Careful analysis: to gather and interpret the relevant information Creativity: to think of possible solutions Judgment: to pick the solution that will fit this situation best
You might ask your class how it’s possible that, when there’s no single “correct” answer to any business communication problem, it’s still possible to say that some solutions are better than others. If you’re not lucky enough to have a savvy student who “gets” this, you can make the point by showing them different handlings of a simple business situation and discussing what makes some better than others.
You might also share examples of how analysis, creativity, and judgment work during the business communication process.
For instance, in addition to gathering and interpreting the relevant information,
analysis often involves analyzing the culture’s expectations for communication (formal vs. informal), considering the current climate (are there sensitive/hot button issues, such as limited resources, that shouldn’t be brought up?), and looking at the individual audience’s needs and fears. For example, if you’re asking your boss for a vacation day via email, and you know that he or she is already afraid a project isn’t going to be completed on time, at some point in the email you need to mention this, reassuring your boss that you’ll still meet the project deadline. Many factors go into analysis.
Creativity often means looking at a communications issue from multiple
angles. At its most basic level, the following questions need to be asked: What is the correct medium for this communication? What is the correct venue? For instance, if you’re in internal communications for a major company and rolling out a new company brand internally, a memo is probably not the most creative execution. But having the IT department turn every employee’s desktop background into the company’s new logo and look, so they’re greeted with it in the morning when they come to work, is a surprising and fresh way to make the announcement.
Judgment is making sure you always pick the solution that will fit the situation and the long-term goals and values of the culture. It also means always sending a message at the right time, in the right tone. You may let students know that, believe it or not, this can be tricky in a business environment. It’s common to inadvertently slip up or step on someone’s toes, but they’ll learn strategies for exercising excellent judgment in this course.
Test Your Judgment
Now you consider the scenario presented on the slide: two employees have reported sexual harassment, but no formal policy is in place. As Director of HR, you need to announce the new psychological harassment policy. What is the best medium for this in this context?
The scenario presented on this slide will help students consider how to use communication skills to work successfully together with partners of very different backgrounds.
Communication has always been central to business, but in the 21st century, people in business are encountering new challenges. Living in the Information Age means that information is now the hottest commodity. Whoever capitalizes on the changes in information technology stands the best chance of creating the most profitable innovations, and so keeping up with the constant developments of new technologies becomes increasingly important. To be an effective knowledge worker today, one needs several kinds of literacy.
Ask students to explain and give examples of how each of the following skill areas is involved in communication.
Verbal literacy: The greater your vocabulary and familiarity with language, and the stronger your knowledge of grammar and mechanics is, the better you will be able to communicate with a variety of people.
Visual literacy: Thanks to the Internet, readers are now used to graphics-rich content that is inviting and easy to read. Studies have shown that visually enhanced text produces more effective learning than text alone. Interpersonal skills: Of particular interest to employers these days is employees’ ability to work on a team. The respondents to the latest NACE survey ranked this trait second in terms of the skills they like to see indicated in a resume.
Analytical ability: Ask students what kind of thinking is especially valued by
employers for processing data. Besides interpreting data, what other interpretive skills are useful in figuring out business solutions?
Media literacy: All the forms of communication that comprise what is known as new media require employees with social intelligence. Ask students to talk about the analogy of the organization as a brain with employees as sensors. What kinds of things do employees have to be aware of?
Cultural awareness: Different kinds of diversity impact the workplace and
business communication in different ways. The next slide focuses more on the issue of diversity.
Ethics and social responsibility: Ethical scandals have hurt many businesses, and social responsibility has become a buzzword and marketing strategy for many companies. Let students discuss the reasons companies need to provide new transparency regarding their business practices. What are the pros and cons of this situation? How does this play out in the individual worker’s performance? What impact does that have on the workplace as a whole?
You can have good conversations with your class about technological innovations that your students have seen in their own lifetimes, about the international nature of business these days, about diversity in places where students have worked, and about the growing presence of ethics and corporate- responsibility-related issues in the news. During the discussion of each trend, ask how it might influence business communication practices.
More questions for discussion:
Expanded media literacy—How are apps, Skype, tweets, social networking,
and virtual meetings changing business? How are telecommuting situations, where your first meeting takes place over email, and you never meet in person, changing business interaction? How does this change “the stakes” of your first email and subsequent emails? Is it really possible to form a professional relationship over email? Have you ever experienced a business relationship like this? Was it successful? How would you prepare for an online interview vs. an in-person one? Increased globalism and diversity—Diversity can happen on many levels. Consider the differences between a Baby Boomer who has been in a business for decades and a Millennial who was recently hired into a similar position as the older employee. Does growing up with technology give the Millennial an advantage in the workplace? Why or why not? How might being a digital native affect that person’s view of doing business in the world? What might these two employees be able to gain from one another?
Increased need for strong analytical skills—Your book mentions that many work tasks now require “the ability to determine the deeper meaning or significance of what is being expressed” and that “high-value work . . . has an imaginative component.” Do you agree? Can you recall a project at work where you were required to add value through deep thinking and imagination, even if it was analyzing and presenting a simple report?
Increased focus on ethics and social responsibility—Do you agree, as your
book states, that “The more an organization builds trust among its employees, its shareholders, its business partners, and its community, the better for the business and for economic prosperity overall”? Can you think of companies that have failed because they’ve failed to do this? What about those companies that are still successful despite breaches in ethics and poor products? Why do you think they’ve survived?
Workplace Diversity
Diversity programs are becoming more and more widespread. A web article by American Express outlined these diversity benefits: It builds your employer brand, it increases creativity, it encourages personal growth, and it makes employees think more independently. (See the Communication Matters box, “Why Companies Promote Workplace Diversity”).
Possible questions for discussion:
1. Do you agree that diversity increases creativity in the workplace? If so, how? 2. Does diversity make an organization stronger or weaker as a whole? Explain your answer. 3. Diversity isn’t just cross-cultural. It’s also cross-generational. Have you noticed any differences between the younger generation (generally classified as Millennials, and now the upcoming Generation Z) and Baby Boomers in the workplace? What about you and Gen X? Different attitudes toward work, technology, etc.? Do you feel a mutual professional respect? What do you feel you have learned/can learn from one another?
Workplace Diversity Analysis
Encourage students to share examples from their own work experience or from those of companies they know well.
If you don’t have a lot of work experience yet, meeting the expectations of a professional environment might require some adjustment.
SLIDE Professionalism is the quality of performing at a high level and conducting oneself with purpose and pride. Professionalism can be broken down into six distinct traits: Striving to excel Being dependable and accountable Being a team player Demonstrating a sense of etiquette Making ethical decisions Maintaining a positive outlook
Understanding What Employers Expect from You
Today’s employers expect you to be competent at a wide range of
communication tasks: Acquiring, processing, and sharing information; key skills include Digital information fluency—recognizing information needs, using efficient search techniques to locate reliable sources of information, and using gathered information appropriately and ethically Critical thinking—the ability to evaluate evidence completely and objectively in order to form logical conclusions and make sound recommendations Using communication to foster positive working relationships; key skills include Listening Practicing good etiquette Resolving conflicts respectfully Communicating with people from diverse backgrounds Efficiently using the tools at your disposal SLIDE The Conventional Communication Model You can view communication as an eight-step process: 1. The sender has an idea. 2. The sender encodes the idea as a message. 3. The sender produces the message in a medium. 4. The sender transmits the message through a channel. 5. The audience receives the message. 6. The audience decodes the message. 7. The audience responds to the message. 8. The audience provides feedback. The distinction between medium and channel can get a bit murky, but think of the medium as the form a message takes (such as a written message) and the channel as the system used to deliver the message (such as Twitter or email).
Note that this description captures only one cycle of the communication process; a conversational exchange could include dozens of these cycles.
Considering the complexity of this process, it should come as no surprise
that communication efforts often fail to achieve the sender’s objective.
