communication in the workplace

To understand the principles of effective communication processes in the workplace

What is it?

• The exchange of information
• A transfer of information resulting in action (in the workplace)

Communication process

Idea > encode > transmit > receive > decode > take action

Failure is most likely between transmit and receive and also in the decoding.

Components of communication

• Sender
• Message
• Receiver
• Feedback
• Results of receiving message
• Visual feedback – body language

ABC of Communication

In order to achieve results communication needs to be:

• Accurate
• Brief
• Clear

Be aware of the human element: when giving instructions people have a tendency to say that they understand the instruction when they might not. This can lead to mistakes being made.

Develop ways to make sure that people understand exactly what it is you want.

Develop relationships with people where they are not afraid to say that they don’t understand.

Encourage an atmosphere where good feedback is the norm.

Challenge any language being used that you don’t understand.

Always bear emotional intelligence in mind when communicating – especially when by email, phone etc.

Exercise: Methods of communication

In groups we discussed various methods of communication. These all fitted into the following catergories:

• Oral
• Visual
• Written
• Internal
• External

Advantages and Disadvantages of the different methods of communication – [hand out]

Listening skills

Active listening

If you want good relationships with colleagues and staff active listening is a very important skill to develop. Be aware of and use both body language and verbal affirmation to show the person talking to you that you are listening.

Barriers to active listening. Think about the environment in which you are communicating does it put up barriers eg Physical – furniture – boss behind big desk etc

Questioning skills

Open questions

Obtain information eg. 'Tell me about the main duties in your last job’

'Tell me about a time when…'

Where, when, who, how, and why

Closed Question

Confirm details eg ‘You worked there for 2 years?’

Probing Questions

Clarify an issue

Help you get a fuller picture

Eg ‘How did you…?

Questions to avoid

• Double headed questions, 2 part questions Eg 'what skills did you are need in your last job and why?’
• Multiple choice
  
• Leading Questions: Giving the person the answer you’re looking for eg 'Do you work well under pressure?'

The funnel technique 

Broad, open ended

Probe

Narrow down

Close

Summarise

http://www.faculty.londondeanery.ac.uk/e-learning/appraisal/skilful-questioning-and-active-listening

Cross Cultural Communication

A very lively car crash scenario was acted out with true Shakespearean prowess by Tom and Michelle to rapturous applause. The demonstration of victims in a car crash was to show how subtle behavioural traits caused by differences in culture can influence communication.

Communication styles

• Assertive
• You’re OK I’m OK
• Passive
• You’re OK I’m not OK
• Aggressive
• I’m OK you’re not OK

Transactional Analysis

Conversations are a transaction

Ego states

Everyone has a number of parts to their personality called ego states Parent, Adult, Child

• Parent
• Nurturing
• Critical
• Adult
• Rational
• Deals with facts
• Collects information
• Evaluates alternatives
• Thinks before acting
• Behaves logically
• Child
• Natural
• Rebellious
• Compliant

Adult isn’t always the most natural reaction

Adult to adult is often the most effective

Adult can be cold and unfeeling – not always the most appropriate

Nurturing Parent and Natural Child can be effective

Other states very rarely effective – but Critical Parent very common in managers

Crossed transaction lines mean potential conflict

I might just not be getting this but a) I’m not comfortable in the analytical labelling of people and b) I don’t like the labels as describing the behaviour of Adults as being [n]Child seems to carry negative connotations.

Things you can do to improve communications in your workplace

kernackered

I have learned during this course that dominance and bossyness <> team leader.

I'm happy with that.

This takes ages. I would appreciate all comments.

dealing with change in the workplace (conflict)

Conflict

Vic and Bob exercise

To demonstrate the complexities involved in dealing with conflict. These are varied and many, the overall answer seeming to be: 'It Depends'

Martin’s dream. Get them into a room and ask them to draw up a list of 10 things that are good about the other person. Recognise the positives and recognise the value in each other.

Recognise that the causes of conflict are many and varied.

Esprit d’escaliera

Slides – expected standards of performance

Accept that the standard you set originally is the one you should keep – Don’t raise the standard because a person constantly performs higher than the standard you have set. The same is also true regarding lowering standards.

• Identify the gap
• Explore the reasons for it
• Take corrective action
• Don’t assume an instant result
• Has the person got the correct resources to do their job
• Training and development – do they know what they are supposed to do
• Change the nature of the work they are doing – let them play to their strengths
• Closer supervision – spend some time with them, do some joint work with them
• Final resort one of the 3 Ds
• Discipline
• Demotion
• Dismissal
• Review progress

Exercise

Building lego house with a subversive in the group  This ranged from destruction to lack of input.

Too focused on the task (again) though I did try - successfully - to draw the group away from the task and deal with the person causing the conflict.

Be mindful that mistakes can be made in identifying the person creating the conflict.

We noticed a discrepancy within the interpretation of the task. Once we had identified the source of the conflict we tried several methods for dealing with it. None of these worked and it resulted in the dismissal of the perpetrator. Even after we had discovered the ‘set up’ it was very difficult to deal with the conflict.

motivating the work team to perform day 2

Remember: If new ways of working can take up to 2 months before the results begin to appear. Too much concentration on the launch and lack of focus on follow up is a common mistake.

Plan for wba – important to have objective

Motivating the team to perform.

What gets you started and keeps you moving.

“Spare time”

Usually a reason for doing the things we do. All motivation theories revolve around:

• Reward
• Enjoyment
• Risk of consequences
• Curiosity
• Needs
• Commitment
• Just felt like it…

We all have our own drivers when making these choices but to a large degree they are our choices. The situation is different when at work.

Exercise comparing our key motivators and how they compare to what we think our managers think motivate us.

The post industrial revolution era brought about an emphasis on efficiency and production line mentality. It wasn't until the 1930/40s that the thought of how workers felt might also increase efficiency.

Old school - Purely a business relationship/contract between manager and workers

New theory –

Maslow: Hierarchy of needs.

(nnn) how these relate to the workplace

• Physiological needs - Hunger, thirst, sleep (money)
• Safety (physical / emotional) - Shelter, police, pension (Job security)
• Social Needs - Belonging to a group, social activities, love, friendship (Team)
• Esteem Needs - Self respect, status, recognition (Praise)
• Self actualisation - Growth, personal development, success (Development)

Herzberg

Hygiene	Motivators
If exists	If
Pay – short term Working conditions Pension funds Dignity at work policy A lack of any of these factors may cause job dissatisfaction	Are related to the content of the work and can cause job satisfaction Responsibility Sense of achievement Challenge Self improvement recognitions

McGregor

2 types of managers: theory X and Y

X – the old style believe that workers are lazy, lack ambition, resist change and not very bright and need to be organised, controlled, rewarded or punished.

Y – Active, ambitious, able to accept change, resourceful. And need to be organised, encouraged, to be given objectives.

Ouchi

• Z – share decision making
• No artificial barriers between staff and management
• Better comms
• Individual responsibility
• Encouragement and recognition

E – Empowerment theorists.

• Give people the authority to make decisions
• Emphasis on team work
• Information sharing
• Clear boundaries – removal of boundaries
• Encouragement and recognition

Wikepedia

Under performance – performance discrepancy

Formal approaches – the policy and HR route

The difference between what we expect and what we get. = performance gap

Why does it happen?

Exercise – airport leaflet not being delivered to customers. To identify possible reasons. All reasons fall into 3 categories:

• Lack in knowledge, information or skills
• Too busy
• Staff not informed
• Staff turnover
• Attitude
• Too busy
• Appropriate / important
• complacency
• Environment
• No leaflets
• Too busy
• Self check in
• Customers don’t understand
• Staff turnover
• Monitoring fail
• Customer refusing to taking leaflet

Solutions

L: Training, coaching

A: Coaching, motivating, discipline (all dependant on individual – can not insist on staff changing attitude but we can insist upon change in behaviour)

E: Change the environment to address the issues.

Exercise to recognise the complexities of situations where under performance is occurring: Scenario – Jo, an admin worker with problems completing assignments.

motivating the work team to perform

David brought in some big green bags full of big mechano. 

In this task we were split inot 2 teams each of which recieved instructions to build a hoist to certain specifications which had to lift a 'bomb' in a prescribed manner. After doing this we had to dismantle the hoist and instruct the other team how to reconstruct it successfully.

Of course forgetting that we were not there to learn how to play with giant mechano, we fell into the trap of becoming completely task focused omitting to put into practice the theories we had been learning.

Upon completion of the task we discussed what happened.

Feelings

• Some people needed help visualising the end product
• Left out
• Feelings of being ignored
• Energetic
• Felt pressures of time limit and focused on the task not the team
• Frustration caused by a lack of coordination
  

 What happened

• Initially enthusiastic / subsequent frustration
• People diving in / lack of coordination
• Stronger personalities took over
• Not playing to or assessing strengths
• Signs of frustration – detachment
• Lots of role swapping
• Suggestions ignored / domineering personalities
• Teams broke down into groups
• Conflict of time v quality panic
• Swapped team leader

Competitive

• Too many leaders / noise
  

Did you have a clearer idea of the taks the first or second time round?

Most people felt the first instructions were better though in theory the 2^nd  time of building the hoist should have been easier as the teams had already had the experience and vision from the first time.

What were our objectives what do we want to achieve? Did we want to win the competition or build something fit for purpose? No right answer but is something that needs to be clarified at the start.

Looking back at the theory that we had discussed before the practical application, we all said we would have a team meeting, consultation, get feedback analysise skills etc. We all forgot this when the big mechano came out.

Team leading isn’t always about being the engineer or the one with ideas but the one who facilitates and makes sure everybody contributes and adds value.

We didn’t implement our theory into the practice. The excersise demonstrated well these issues. Doing the practical exercise was a 'step back into reality' after all the theory.

We could all be better planners and keeping your nerve when you need to spend a little time to save a lot later can reap rewards.

Monitoring the Team’s work

Keep control of what’s going on but don’t be overbearing.

Why should you?

Hersey and Blanshard

Directive and Support behaviour

How

Observation, discussion, checking outputs

Which areas of work should you monitor?

Pick out the key areas of the role – customer related aspects, risks, complaints, key performance problems, hidden areas

What to measure against

PIs, targets, standards

What do you do with the results

Feedback to individual, keep in your own records, escalate up to your boss.

Monitor to develop individual and  to cover your arse.

planning & monitoring work

Organisational Skills > creativity(brainstorming – mind mapping) > analytical (listing)

• Planning & monitoring
• Deadlines
• Timescales
• Priorities
• Resources

 Good Plan

• Listing activities
• Realistic
• Flexible
• Achievable
• Who does what – make sure there is no duplication and make sure people are working to their strengths
• Build in contingency
• Assess risks
• Contains some form on consultation with all key parties
• SMART

If staff don’t know what is expected of them how can they achieve anything?

Issuing tasks – who does what and why?

Priority / importance of task may influence who you give the task to but you shouldn’t make a habit of always giving the important work to the same person. This can lead to negative effects eg. overloading or feelings of favouritism in other team members leading to resentment and maybe conflict.

Try to make sure that a team has the right mix of skills to give it the flexibility to cover a range of tasks efficiently. The right skills mix can be achieved through focused recruitment, training & development. Using a skills audit matrix can help you to analyse the skills mix of a team and identify where possible areas of development may exists. 

[pic of skills matrix]

Action plan

An action plan should have: Clear objective, Clear objective, Clear objective

Try to think what your objectives are for each component of your plan. For example if you need a meeting with your manager be clear what it is you want from that meeting? Focus on the ultimate objective. 

WBA

Break projects down – micro manage every aspect for work based assignment. First few points put in points about consultation with manager/team and at the end commit to some sort of evaluation (organise meeting/ get team together, research figures, analyse results and research if project is achieving what it set out to achieve. Step back and review and monitor

Team Leader application task

After the coffee break we to part in a group exercise where we considered a scenario in which we were being applying for the role of a Team Leader in charge on floundering project - (home access to council services via TV). We had to consider the situation and present a plan as to how we would solve the issues. Plans involved: 

• Consulting existing staff
• Identifying problems
• Establishing solutions
• Creating a vision
• Training staff
• Allotting tasks
• Reviewing

Lunch

Presentations from scenario exercise.