Mastering Team and Interpersonal Communication

In chapter 2, we learn about working as a team and how it is important to business communication.
- Teamwork is an essential part of business and uses communication as a top priotity --> includes teams, problem-solving teams, task forces, and committees.
- A successful team can: increase information and knowledge, increase diversity, increase acceptance of a solution, and high performance levels

- Disadvantages include group think, hidden agendas, and cost
- Effective teams have a clear objective, open communication, reach decisions by consensus, creativity, and effective resolutions

- Collaborative communication is important in business but can involve special effort. Guidelines involve select collaborators carefully, agree on project goals, give time for bonding, clarify responsibility, establish a clear process, avoid group writing, make sure tools and technologies are compatible and check along the way.
- Technology for all collaboration inclues multi-author blogs, content management systems, and wiki.

The following website shows a great way to of how to build a successful business team:
http://humanresources.about.com/od/involvementteams/a/team_one_stop.htm

-Group Dynamics: interactions between a group. Each group member makes decisions in the outcome of the group activities that include self-oriented roles, team-maintenance roles, and task oriented roles. Team evolution, or the growing and changing of a team a a whole is about orientation, conflict, brainstorming, emergence, and reinforcement
- Conflicts in groups can be destructive or constructive.. However, for a conflict to beconstructive everone must believe it is possible to find a solution that both parties accept, coorporation over competition, all parties can be trusted and greater status cannot influence a decision.
- To overcome resistance by group members, all of the members of a group need to express understanding, bring resistance into the open, evaluate objections fairly, and hold arguments until all parties are ready.
- Social networking communications redefine teamwork and communication by erasing the constraints of geographic and organization.
- Productive communication will take place in meetings--> where most of the business communication takes place. The best way to prepare for meetings is to identify your purpose, select participants, choose time and prepare, and set an agenda.
- All people share responsibility for successful meetings by keeping the discussion on track, following rules, engourage participation, actively participate, and close effictively.
- Meeting technologies like virtual meetings, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, and web based meetings, can promote interaction and participation from all participants
- One of the most important parts in communication is listening. It can strengthen relationships, enhance product delivery, and alert an organization for innovation.

- Four types of Listening
1. Content listening: understand and retain the speakers message
2. Critical listening: understand and evaluate the speakers message on many levels
3. Empathic listening: understanding the speakers feeling, needs, and wants so you can appreciate his point of view
4. Active listening: making a conscious effort to filter one's own biases to know what the other party is saying

- Five steps ot the listening process
-->Receiving --> Decoding -->Remembering -->Evaluating -->Responding

- Good listeners try to overcome barriers for successful listening. Selective listening, or only hearing what you want, is one of the most common barriers. There is a need to focus on listening effectively
- Nonverbal communication is also a huge part in business communications. It is the non-spoken language including facial expression, gestures and posture, appearance touch, and use of time and space.
- Nonverbal communication needs to match the tone an content of what is spoke to be effective.
- Business etiquette is also an essential part of business communication. It can include many behaviors, habits, aspects of non-verbal communication. A very large part of it would be personal appearance as well.
- In public as well inside the company, etiquette is extremely important as you are always representing your business. Making your appearance and actions appropriate and know the customs of the people you will be meeting

- Media and technology usually are a breeding ground for poor business etiquette. To avoid these problems:
1. Avoid personal attacks
2. Stay focused on the topic
3. Do not present opinions as facts
4. Follow basic expectations of spelling, grammar, and punctuation
5. Use virus protection
6. Watch use of language and control emotions
7. Never assume privacy
8. Do not use "reply all" unless everyone can benefit from your reply
9. Don't not waste time of others with sloppy or incomplete messages.

Interesting Sites:
http://humanresources.about.com/od/involvementteams/Team_Building_Employee_Empowerment_Employee_Involvement.htm
This site gives information about building teams in the workplace and how important it is to the communication of the business. It also speaks about how teamwork can empower employees.

Achieving Success through Effective Business Communication

In chapter 1, we learned about how important communications in business is and how to effectively communicate.

- The new approach to business is know as business communications 2.0. It is a more social communication and is interactive. However many businesses are not using this new method to its full potential. They are adopting a hybrid method:
--- Traditional methods to strategic plans and policy documents
--- 2.0 method for project management updates and customer support messages
- Communications is the single best way to get noticed by an employer.
- Communication is the process of transferring info and meaning between senders and recievers using one or more written, oral, visual, or electronic channel. To provide info or data that benefits both parties who are communicating.
- It helps businesses grow and thrive in numerous ways.
- Communication strengthens connections and realtionships between a company and it's stakeholders

- Internal communications only takes place within a company VS. external communications takes place between the company and outside parties
The following is a link to tell the differences beween internal and external communications:
http://www.myownbusiness.org/s3/

- Formal Communication Network: ideas flow along the lines of command in the company's organizational structure
-Informal Communication Network: all communication that takes place outside of the formal network

- Five ways of Effective Communication:
1. Provide Practical Information: give useful info to make recipiants easily understand
2. Give facts: Use detail, specifics, and make sure info is clear and accurate.
3. Present info in a concise manner: Highlight and summerize essential points for the audience's easy understanding
4. Clarify expectations and responsibilities: create or layout a specific response for the audeince
5. Offer compelling, persuasive arguments and recommendations: show how the audience wll benefit

- Five Issues of Business Communications
1. Globalization of Business and the Increase in workforce Diversity
--- globalization is expanding your company internationally, most company's rely on exports for a majority of sales
--- Workforce diversity is also changing as more people and products are crossing boarders
2. Increasing value of business information
--- Provides competitive insights for the company
--- helps satisfy customer needs to create more useful goods/ services
--- Must follow many gov't regulations and guidelines
--- One of the more important resources
3. The pervasiveness of Technology
--- Heavily depentent on a growing array of technology
--- Influnces every aspect in the field
4. Evolution of Organizational Structures
--- Every firm has a structure that defines the relationship between parts of the company
--- Includes: tall structures, flat structures, matrix structures, and network structures
--- Corporate culture: mix of values, traditions, and habits that give a company its atmosphere and personality
5. Growing reliance on teamwork
--- businesses rely heavily on teamwork
--- Makes sure that a person is the most effective communicator they can be

- Connecting with your audience is the most important part of communication. It starts with a sender, continues through channels to an audience, then back to the sender.
- There are many barriers that can block or change messages including noise and competing messages, filters, and breakdowns
- Your audience should receive and decode your message easily and effectively to create a more easily understood message. It is personalized and the message can be distorted based on the audiences personality. If audiences receive your message effectively, they are more likely to respond--> if you tell an audience how they can benefit, they will respond more quickly

- To ensure powerful messages: minimize your audience's distractions, keept their needs in mind, make sure you have top-notch communication skills, and take constructive criticism and respond.
- Understanding and respecting business etiquette can help you succeed in communication including: repect, courtest, and common sense
- Technology is a huge part in business communication 2.0. It is a necesssity in today's business environment but oo much tachnology can take over the communication. It can lead to an imformation overload--> which is more information than the audience can process. Do not send unnecessary messages
- technology should be used productively to ensure and save time and money. It needs to be used effectively
- Communicating is about people connecting with people and technology can sometimes get in the way
- Ethical communications is a very important part of communication: it makes sure all the information is true in every sense and not deceptive
- Unethical includes plagiarism, omitting info, misquoting, misrepresenting, distorted visuals, misrepresenting privacy/ security.

- Ethical dilemmas: a choice between alternates that may be ethical and valid VS. Ethical Lapse: making a choice that you know to be unethical
- Employers should establish ethical guidelines for their employees and establish a code of ethics
- Communicating has to follow many laws and regulations including: promotional communication, contracts, employment communication, intellectual property, financial reporting, and deflamation.


Interesting Sites:
http://www.bus.wisc.edu/update/winter05/business_communication.asp
This website is an article giving why and how good communication is important in business.

Business Communications

Hello Class,
My name is Rebecca Imhoff and this is my first blog!! After this first business communications class, I have found that it will be a challenging yet very interesting class. I am very excited to learn more in this class, to grow in communications as it is the most important aspect in business. Also to learn more on the technological side of communications.

I am very excited to start this class! Feel Free to check out my blog and comment at any time as I sure constructive criticism will help me improve!
See you in class : )
Rebecca