Below is all the information

Final Project

Now it’s your turn! Below is all the information given on a training program needed, called Effective Communication. You are a trainer in the given situation. Please submit the following:

1.    Training Needs Assessment (refer to part 1 of Week 2 assignment “DST Systems” for assessment template)

2.    Powerpoint covering information provided and your own research, 10 slide minimum, bullet format

3.    700 word APA formatted paper summarizing how this training will be effective and how it should be evaluated.

All three files must be submitted as attachments…three total.

(VERY IMPORTANT: READ MY WEEK 7 POST WITH MORE INFO AND TIPS ABOUT THIS PROJECT!!)

 

Situation:

Tim Smith the IT manager comes to you and says “My project coordinators are in a slump; they just are not producing their usual caliber of work. I need to find out what the problem is. No one on the project team knows what is going on. The communcation my project coordinators are giving is coming across as rude, which in turn keeps moral low and the teams are not doing the work. I was hoping you would be able to put together an Effective Communication training for them to help get everyone back on the right track.” There are 10 project coordinators in the IT department. Two of the project coordinator’s are in the organization’s Bangkok office. Tim wants the training to last no longer than 4 hours and wants it to be face to face in a class room with you, the trainer. He does not want to fly the Bangkok assoicates in and would like you to set up a Skype session with them during your training. He also wants you to set up weekly coaching sessions with each project manager and himself for a month after the training is completed.

Training Purchased from USA Training: Effective Communication

You are to use this information, but are not limited to it. Tim wants to make sure this information is covered in the training as he went online and bought it from USA Training, however he is open to what research you find. He wants the training to be interactive and requested that you included at least 1 activity around communication in the training.

Effective Communcation:

Introduction
People in organizations typically spend over 75% of their time in an interpersonal situation; thus it is no surprise to find that at the root of a large number of organizational problems is poor communications. Effective communication is an essential component of organizational success whether it is at the interpersonal, inter-group, intra-group, organizational, or external levels.
In this chapter we will cover the basic process of communication and then we will cover some of the most difficult communication issues managers’ face-providing constructive and effective feedback and performance appraisal.
The Communication Process
Although all of us have been communicating with others since our infancy, the process of transmitting information from an individual (or group) to another is a very complex process with many sources of potential error.

In any communication at least some of the “meaning” lost in simple transmission of a message from the sender to the receiver. In many situations a lot of the true message is lost and the message that is heard is often far different than the one intended. This is most obvious in cross-cultural situations where language is an issue. But it is also common among people of the same culture.

Communications is so difficult because at each step in the process there major potential for error. By the time a message gets from a sender to a receiver there are four basic places where transmission errors can take place and at each place, there are a multitude of potential sources of error. Thus it is no surprise that social psychologists estimate that there is usually a 40-60% loss of meaning in the transmission of messages from sender to receiver.

It is critical to understand this process, understand and be aware of the potential sources of errors and constantly counteract these tendencies by making a conscientious effort to make sure there is a minimal loss of meaning in your conversation.

It is also very important to understand that a majoring of communication is non-verbal. This means that when we attribute meaning to what someone else is saying, the verbal part of the message actually means less than the non-verbal part. The non-verbal part includes such things as body language and tone.

Barriers to Effective Communication
There are a wide number of sources of noise or interference that can enter into the communication process. This can occur when people now each other very well and should understand the sources of error. In a work setting, it is even more common since interactions involve people who not only don’t have years of experience with each other, but communication is complicated by the complex and often confliction relationships that exist at work. In a work setting, the following suggests a number of sources of noise:

·         Language: The choice of words or language in which a sender encodes a message will influence the quality of communication. Because language is a symbolic representation of a phenomenon, room for interpretation and distortion of the meaning exists. In the above example, the Boss uses language (this is the third day you’ve missed) that is likely to convey far more than objective information. To Terry it conveys indifference to her medical problems. Note that the same words will be interpreted different by each different person. Meaning has to be given to words and many factors affect how an individual will attribute meaning to particular words. It is important to note that no two people will attribute the exact same meaning to the same words.

·         Defensiveness, distorted perceptions, guilt, project, transference, distortions from the past

·         Misreading of body language, tone and other non-verbal forms of communication

·         Noisy transmission (unreliable messages, inconsistency)

·         Receiver distortion: selective hearing, ignoring non-verbal cues

·         Power struggles

·         Self-fulfilling assumptions

·         Language-different levels of meaning

·         Assumptions-eg. assuming others see situation same as you, has same feelings as you

·         Distrusted source, erroneous translation, value judgment, state of mind of two people

·         Perceptual Biases: People attend to stimuli in the environment in very different ways. We each have shortcuts that we use to organize data. Invariably, these shortcuts introduce some biases into communication. Some of these shortcuts include stereotyping, projection, and self-fulfilling prophecies. Stereotyping is one of the most common. This is when we assume that the other person has certain characteristics based on the group to which they belong without validating that they in fact have these characteristics.

·         Interpersonal Relationships: How we perceive communication is affected by the past experience with the individual. Perception is also affected by the organizational relationship two people have. For example, communication from a superior may be perceived differently than that from a subordinate or peer

·         Cultural Differences: Effective communication requires deciphering the basic values, motives, aspirations, and assumptions that operate across geographical lines. Given some dramatic differences across cultures in approaches to such areas as time, space, and privacy, the opportunities for mis-communication while we are in cross-cultural situations are plentiful.
Reading Nonverbal Communication Cues
A large percentage (studies suggest over 90%) of the meaning we derive from communication, we derive from the non-verbal cues that the other person gives. Often a person says one thing but communicates something totally different through vocal intonation and body language. These mixed signals force the receiver to choose between the verbal and nonverbal parts of the message. Most often, the receiver chooses the nonverbal aspects. Mixed messages create tension and distrust because the receiver senses that the communicator is hiding something or is being less than candid.
Nonverbal communication is made up of the following parts:

17.Visual

18.Tactile

19.Vocal

20.Use of time, space, and image

Visual:

This often called body language and includes facial expression, eye movement, posture, and gestures. The face is the biggest part of this. All of us “read” people’s faces for ways to interpret what they say and feel. This fact becomes very apparent when we deal with someone with dark sunglasses. Of course we can easily misread these cues especially when communicating across cultures where gestures can mean something very different in another culture. For example, in American culture agreement might be indicated by the head going up and down whereas in India, a side-to-side head movement might mean the same thing.
We also look to posture to provide cues about the communicator; posture can indicate self-confidence, aggressiveness, fear, guilt, or anxiety. Similarly, we look at gestures such as how we hold our hands, or a handshake. Many gestures are culture bound and susceptible to misinterpretation
Tactile:
This involves the use of touch to impart meaning as in a handshake, a pat on the back, an arm around the shoulder, a kiss, or a hug.