Week 8: Informative and Persuasive Presentations

This week, I picked up some exteremely useful tips for getting the most out of communicating by means of presentation. Both informative presentations and persuasive presentations were covered. I'd like to touch on my most important takeways from each in today's blog post.

The purpose of informative presentations, as the title suggests, is to transfer information from the speaker to the listener, which is typically an audience much larger in number than the individual speaker. Techniques for mass transferral of information are therefore relevant. The presentation may or may not involve direct feedback from the audience, but either way, techniques for effective group communication (covered earlier in this blog) are a good starting point for finding what will work in an informative presentation.

Informative presentations are primarily for sharing information and ideas, shaping perceptions, or setting agendas and goals. They require the most organization and logical description of ideas (this can be done topically, chronologically, or in other novel fashion). They can also answer "why" questions, by way of demonstration and explanation.

Planning and preparing well in advance is the best way to ensure success. Since accurate information is the most important part of this sort of presentation, research should be conducted seriously and facts should be memorized and internalized before public presentation. Paying proper respect to your listeners by sharing perspective and adapting to the needs of the audience ensure the best information absorption. Paying mind to appearance and environmental factors minimizes distraction and noise that can distract from the transferrance of information.

Persuasive presentations are about promoting ideas and opinions in an attempt to guide a course of action. They are generally less formal and so occur more frequently, even without notice. Functions of persuasive presentations include reinforcement of already existing ideas, refutation of others' ideas, attempts to change the beliefs of those in the audience, and calling the audience to action on a particular choice of course. Perspectives on which method(s) are being employed, interestingly, can differ amongst audience members and the speaker themselves.

It is useful as the speaker to take the perspective of the listener into account in anticipation of the presentation. Most people are not easily persuaded, so a "scouting" of general sentiment can help to inform the things that need to be said to successfully persuade. It's important to be sympathetic, minimize differences, emphasize shared perspectives, and so on to sway an audience (or reinforce your perspective). Whatever the purpose of the presentation, cohesiveness and ultimately unity are the goals that should be promoted, and knowing how to be persuasuive is the best way to rally for a cause.

References

O'Hair, D., Friedrich, G. & Dixon, L. (2011). Strategic communication in business and the            professions (7th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.

Week 7: Negotiation and Conflict Management

Negotiation skills are useful in all walks of life. As they apply to business, they entail the successful navigation and settlement of the wants and needs of multiple parties, aka stakeholders. To put it into my own words, I would say that negotiation is a form of positive conflict resolution in which the outcome is mutually beneficial for all parties. Successful negotiation takes a dedication and practiced skill for all of the interpersonal skills previously discussed on this blog, especially active listening, non-verbal communication, and situational knowledge.

A new skill that I learned in relation to negotiation skills is managing argumentativeness versus verbal aggressiveness. Per the textbook Strategic Communication in Business and the Professions, “An inclination to argue or a fondness for arguing is called argumentativeness…the tendency to attack other people instead of other points of view is termed verbal aggressiveness” (O’Hair, Friedrich, & Dixon, p.323). To find out where I fell on this spectrum, I personally completed the Argumentativeness Scale and Verbal Aggressiveness Scale Assessments available in the text. I found that my argumentativeness rating was a -3, corresponding to a moderate-low level of argumentativeness. My verbal aggressiveness rating was 15, corresponding to a moderate level of verbal aggressiveness. I learned from this exercise that I am very much down the middle when it comes to conflict, and this is true in the sense that I don’t enjoy conflict but also don’t strive to avoid it. I recognize the benefits of conflict when it is leveraged constructively, but I am not the type that will argue for the sake of the art. Mastering negotiation and conflict management skills will help me use the inevitability of conflict to the greatest advantage.

References

O'Hair, D., Friedrich, G. & Dixon, L. (2011). Strategic communication in business and the            professions (7th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.

Week 6: Meetings

I learned several highly applicable concepts on the topic of meetings this week. In my future as a manager at Boeing, meeting s comprise a significant part of the workload. Making the most of each and every meeting is therefore extremely important as a way to efficiently and satisfactorily solve problems collaboratively.

Properly preparing for meetings is Step One. Agendas, Goal Setting, and establishing suitable facilities are all a part of this process. It’s also important that getting to know the group in advance and establishing rules of order are done right from the start. Though meetings are called for myriad purposes, our focus here is on problem-solving meetings, and as such, critical thinking skills are of primary importance. My own prior knowledge of analysis, reasoning, interpretation, and evaluation, gathered and reinforced from past experience and education, will inform my ability to successfully run and contribute to problem-solving meetings in the future.

I also find the Reflective Thinking problem-solving method to be of particular use to my career. The method is straightforward and efficient, and leverages the advantages of face-to-face, cohesive communication. It is a five-step process of introducing the problem, defining and analyzing the problem, establishing criteria for the solution, generating possible solutions, and finally evaluating possible solutions. Since meetings involve multiple people gathered for a unified purpose, they provide an ideal forum for collaborative problem definition, analysis, and especially solution generation. I plan to use this method wherever appropriate to accomplish meeting goals.

Week 5: Interviewing

I learned a number of useful facts about interviews this week.

When one hears the term "interview", an employment interview is usually the thing that instantly springs to mind. This was precisely the case for me when I began this week's studies. I was somewhat bewildered to find that the term "interview" covers many more broad but also specific forms of communication, especially as they relate to business. In addition to employment interviews, there are also orientation interviews, research interviews, appraisal interviews, grievance interviews, problem-solving interviews, and persuasive interviews, just to name a few. I learned that interviews are not simply one person asking questions of another, but specifically are communications that are "planned, dyadic, and interactive" (O'Hair, Friedrich, & Dixon, p. 212).

I found the discussion of anxiety management to be particularly useful. I have had anxiety on both sides of the interview process, even as many times now as I have had to sit in on one. The most important aspects of managing anxiety in an interview setting are being prepared, conducting research prior to the interview, creating a comfortable atmosphere (if you are the interviewer), and to practice techniques for increasing self-confidence.

Many professional interactions qualify as interviews. Therefore, strategic and effective communication in the form of strong interview skills is very important to success in business. Interview skill development is high on my list of priorities.

Week 4: Mentors and Proteges

This week, I will focus on what I find to be an important but frequently overlooked topic: the professional relationships between mentors and their proteges. I personally have always sought out these sorts of relationships as I have developed my own career. At my current age of twenty-nine, I have mostly been on the protege side of the equation, seeking out the lessons to be drawn from the knowledge and experience of my more seasoned counterparts. As I look forward to the rest of my career, particularly my chosen specialty of management, I aim to prepare myself to take on the mentoring aspect.

From my own diverse work experiences in aerospace, across many disciplines such as maintenance, assembly, and quality assurance, I am able to personally confirm that the benefits outlined in the textbook are very real. The textbook lists the following benefits available to any protege driven enough to seek out a willing mentor:

• Receiving support from the mentor
• Having the mentor influence others on behalf of the protege
• Getting public recognition from the mentor
• Having the mentor as a friend and role model
• Obtaining greater knowledge of the politics of the organization
• Being promoted by the mentor

 (O'Hair, Friedrich, & Dixon, p. 195)

Mentors also stand to gain from these relationships, as they demonstrate the value to the organization of the mentors abilities and skills to lead. Mentorships are not always available to every employee, but new employees should always seek out the opportunity to become a protege. When and where possible, the benefits for all parties, including the company itself, are immense.



O'Hair, D., Friedrich, G., & Dixon, L. (2011). Strategic communication in business and the professions (7th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. 

Week 3: Listening, Verbal, and Nonverbal Skills

This week, I learned much about not only the concepts of effective listening and nonverbal skills, but even more importantly, my own relationship and abilities in regards to these concepts. The focus of this week's blog post will be on how I assessed my own strengths and weaknesses in these areas.

One fact of importance I learned from the text is that, "the first skill necessary for interactive listening is the ability to diagnose your own listening behavior" (O'Hair, Friedrich, & Dixon, p. 102). With this taken to heart, I was led to take the Personal Listening Profile, also made available by the authors of the text. This is a brief survey which when taken, provides the participant with a basic yet useful understanding of how well they effectively listen. Listening effectively, I also learned, is instrumental in so much that makes one successful in life, whether it's academically, professionally, personally, or developmentally. I went into the test expecting to score fairly averagely, but perhaps slightly above, as I consider myself a quiet, thoughtful, and open-minded person overall. The test provides a scale that goes from twenty-seven at the most competent all the way down to negative sixteen, the least competent. My score, much to my surprise and chagrin, was a negative three! This set off some alarms and caused me to do a more thorough reassessment of my self-perception of my listening skills.

After doing this reassessment, I found that I do have some areas in need of improvement. One area that I will put every effort into improving is my tendency to impatiently insert my own thoughts and opinions on a subject brought up by another speaker, without allowing them to finish their own thoughts and musings. In fact, I know that my wife has chastised me multiple times for this, yet I haven't yet made much proactive improvement in the area of active and patient listening. This will be a primary focus of my Improvement Plan, and I will start implementing my own mental checks while I am listening to others speak as to whether or not it would be beneficial or not to interject. Probably more often than not, it is not.



O'Hair, D., Friedrich, G., & Dixon, L. (2011). Strategic communication in business and the professions (7th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Week 2: Diversity and Positive Cultural Conflict

The topic of discussion this week is Diversity in Business and the Professions. I learned much from the text and the discussion boards. I first wish to discuss the concept of high-context and low-context cultures. It was determined through a study and discourse of the subject the essential difference between the two. The following is a brief explanation of the concept.

High-context cultures, as the name implies, are very much reliant on the context of the conversation rather than the direct and literal meaning of the words spoken. More important than the literal meaning of the words are gestures, implications, relationships, formalities, and non-verbal cues. Collective achievement is prized more highly than individual achievement.

On the other side, low-context cultures rely more on the literal and factual meaning of the words, and less so on what they or the speaker implies. Individuality, identity, and personal achievement are more highly prized. Low-context cultures are also more procedural and rule-driven.

I was very much intrigued this week by the concept encountered in the textbook that cultural conflict can be positive and indeed is necessary to be both diverse and successful in an organization. My primary takeaway on this interesting topic was a tool to be used anytime conflict arises as a result of cultural differences: the Cultural Communication Conflict Triangle.

The three points of this triangle represent (1) cultural self-knowledge, (2) knowledge about the context, and (3) discourse from the conflict (O'Hair, Friedrich, & Dixon p.86). To summarize, conflict can actually be made positive by first examining one's own cultural assumptions, then examining the context in which the conflict is taking place, and finally by examining the topics of conversation and the actual meanings of each party both overtly expressed and implied. By applying this model when conflicts arise, the experience can serve to allow for differences to co-exist and improve communications even when the parties have very different styles and viewpoints.

O'Hair, D., Friedrich, G. & Dixon, L. (2011). Strategic communication in business and the professions (7th ed., p. 86). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.