Business Communications (lecture 3 and 4) Team Communications презентация

Formal and Informal Teams
Companies create formal and informal teams
Formal teams become part of the structure of the organization (e.g. the HR Team; the Safety Committee)
Informal teams are established to solve specific issues and then are disbanded (e.g. project teams; team responsible for implementing a change initiative).

Advantages and Disadvantages
Talk to the person next to you. See if you can think of 2 advantages of having teams and 2 disadvantages of teams.
Then we will talk about this as a whole class

Advantages of Teams
Good teams improve productivity, creativity and employee involvement
Sharing ideas and resources among people makes everyone better informed and better skilled
Increased diversity of views. More solutions to a problem can be found
Teams facilitate the building of strong professional relationships between people

Disadvantages of Teams
Groupthink – quiet members allow dominant members to run the team. Some people just conform to expectations
Can be slow to make decisions – over consult or over debate issues
Poor performers can hide more easily in a team
When 2 people don’t get along in a team, everybody is affected

Effective Teams
What is an effective team?
What kinds of things do effective teams do?

Effective Teams
Recognize and value each person’s unique skills and knowledge
Share the work and the responsibility
Recognize each person’s right to have a meaningful role and input into the team’s efforts
Help each other to achieve team goals
Put the team’s goals before personal goals
Trust between individuals to do what is needed

Team Communications Technology
Teams can work together to communicate using shared authorship blogs (a L&D blog where all L&D team members can regularly inform and exchange views with others, promote events and add links to other sites)
Wikis – allows teams to update and edit information for the benefit of all others… no individual credit.

Team Communications Technology
Teams can work together to communicate using shared authorship blogs (a L&D blog where all L&D team members can regularly inform and exchange views with others, promote events and add links to other sites)
Wikis – allows teams to update and edit information for the benefit of all others… no individual credit.

The Team Development Process
1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing
5. Mourning

The Team Development Process
Forming = team members come together
Storming = they debate and consider rules and processes
Norming = they agree on a set of operating principles
Performing = they work towards their goals
Mourning = team member leaves or team is disbanded

Team Roles
Dysfunctional
Functional
Controlling: dominating others by exhibiting superiority or authority
Withdrawing: retiring from the team by becoming silent or refusing to deal with a particular task / issue
Attention seeking: calling attention to one’s self and demanding recognition from others
Diverting: focusing the team’s discussion on topics of interest to the individual rather than on those relevant to the task
Encouraging: Drawing out other members by showing verbal and non- verbal support and praise
Harmonizing: Reconciling differences among team members through mediation or by using humour to relieve tension
Compromising: Offering to yield on a point in the interest of the team reaching an acceptable decision
Initiating: Getting the team started on a topic
Information seeking or giving: Offering or seeking information relevant to questions facing the team
Coordinating: making links between ideas, clarifying, summarizing
Procedure setting: Suggesting decision making procedures that will move the team towards a goal

Conflict in Teams
In every team, at some time, there is likely to be conflict between some team members.
What causes conflict in work teams?
Is conflict always a bad thing?

Conflict in Teams
John is the manager of a team of 6 IT consultants. A month ago, 2 of the consultants had a big argument at work. Now they ignore each other at work. This makes the other 4 team members uncomfortable and productivity has dropped. Team morale is low and people now avoid the IT team. John’s boss has told John he must fix the problem “once and for all.”
If you were John, how would you solve the problem?

Resolving Team Conflict
Proaction – deal with minor conflict early before it becomes major conflict.
Communication – Get those directly involved in the conflict to help resolve it.
Openness – Get feelings out in the open before dealing with the main issue.
Research – Seek factual reasons for the problem before seeking solutions
Flexibility – Don’t let anyone lock into a position before considering other solutions

Resolving Team Conflict
Fair Play – don’t let anyone avoid accepting a fair solution.
Alliance – Get opponents to fight together against an ‘outside force’ rather than against each other.

Resistance to Change
Organizations are always changing. Change processes are one of the most common causes of workplace conflict
Some resistance to change is irrational; some resistance is logical. Either way, there will be conflict within and among teams.
Calm, reasonable communication helps to overcome resistance…

Overcoming Resistance to Change
Be understanding….be empathetic. Legitimize reasonable fears or complaints.
Encourage resistance to be out in the open. Have 2-way communication channels.
Listen and provide feedback on complaints people have…don’t just keep stating the corporate line.
Address emotions and fears before pushing change on people. Communicate first; change second.

Communicating through Change
You are corporate communications manager for a large hotel and resort. Your company is introducing a new compensation and benefits structure and a new rewards scheme. Many staff are angry. They do not know why this is happening or how they will be affected. Some want to strike, some good staff are talking of leaving.
How will you communicate to all staff about this change? What methods will you use? What will be your approach?

Business Communication
MGT3201
Listening Skills
Non Verbal Communication

Listening Skills Test
We will begin this topic by testing your listening and comprehension skills.
Take a piece of plain A4 paper and a pen.
Your task is to re-create a picture that will be described to you.

H

Listening Skills Practice
We will complete two other short listening skills activities.

Types of Listening
Content Listening – the goal is to understand and retain the speaker’s message. The emphasis is on information.
Critical Listening – The goal is to understand and evaluate the meaning of the speaker’s message. The validity of the argument; strength of evidence and logic of conclusions

Types of Listening
Empathetic Listening – the goal is to understand the speaker’s feelings, wants and needs so you can appreciate their point of view.
Active Listening – Whatever mode you are using you should be an active listener. The goal here is to engage with what the other person is saying and truly hear what they are saying.

The Listening Process
Listening is a far harder process than you think. Most people are not so good at it.
Most of us listen at or below a 25% efficiency rate.
We remember only about 50% of what is said in a 10 minute conversation and forget half of that within 24 hours.
Listening is a ‘real-time’ 5 step process…that’s why it is not easy.

The Listening Process
RECEIVING
EVALUATING
DECODING
REMEMBERING
RESPONDING
DECODING
Hear and acknowledge
Interpret and understand
Sort and store
Analyze and evaluate
React

Internal and External Barriers
Internal
Selective listening because we are:
Bored
Uninterested
Tired
Confused
Distracted
Emotional
Busy
External
Blocked by
Noise
Visuals
Language
Environment
Knowledge
Body language

The Listener’s Mind
Our minds find it hard to remember what we hear because…
Most people speak at 120 – 150 words a minute, but the brain has capacity for 500 words per minute. So the brain has a lot of free time when it is listening…it gets distracted and thinks about other things.

Business Communication
MGT3201
Non-verbal Communication

Non-verbal Communication
What do we mean by non-verbal communication?

Examples of Non-verbal Communication
Facial Expressions
Gesture and posture
The use of silence or pauses
Personal appearance
Touch
Time, space and proximity

Facial expressions
Facial Expressions communicate how people are feeling. The speaker and the listener exchange facial expressions during a conversation. Often they say more than the words…sometimes they contradict the words.
Happy, sad, confused, angry, disappointed, afraid, concerned, love, dislike…all easily conveyed with facial expressions.

Gesture and Posture
We show gestures mostly with our hands. Politicians and news reporters use hand gestures when they speak to emphasize an important point.
We also have hand signals…a wave for goodbye; thumbs-up for ok or great; a closed fist can be waved in anger. Folding one’s arms can be seen as defensive. Moving our head or raising our shoulders are also gestures.

Gesture and Posture
Posture is how we stand or sit. It is how we hold ourselves.
We can stand straight or we can slouch; we can stand in a relaxed posture or sit / lean on something.
Posture says how comfortable we are with / how we feel about ourselves, the situation and the person we are talking to.

Personal Appearance
Our clothes, neatness, grooming and personal hygiene also send messages about how we feel about ourselves, others and the situation.
Good personal appearance might suggest pride. Poor appearance might suggest disrespect or low self-esteem.
We use clothes to attract interest in ourselves, to impress others and to show how we see ourselves. Uniforms also express authority.

Silence or Pauses
We can use silence to show people we do not like what they have said or that we are angry with them…especially when used in response to a question.
Couples often use silence as an alternative to arguing to show anger.
A pause can show someone you are thoughtful; carefully considering what they have said.

Touch
This is more cultural. Americans and British people usually only touch people they know well. Some Europeans / Latin Americans use touch with strangers.
A kiss or a handshake or pat on the back all convey non-verbal messages
Touch is used to convey intimacy and show someone you care about them. Politicians use touch to try and connect personally with others.