Group Discussions - Challenges

It is always a challenge to work with a team. There are time constraints and, in this case, there is remote and the virtual classroom. We have dropped from a team of 6 to a team of 3, although this is much more manageable for us, it also adds to the work load of the project. However, there are 3 strong people in this team and I have every confidence that we will meet, if not exceed, the expectations of the project.

We seem to all be on the same page and easily agree on everything. We all have life's challenges with work and family and I believe we are respectful of each other's time and other commitments.

There is a lot of give and take in a team, sometimes a lot more give than take. You need to be respectful, considerate, open-minded and a team player. So far all of the interactions that I have had with my classmates have been great!

Comm - Chapter 10

Person to Person Interviewing

Flash backs of fear, sweat and nerves... sure wish that I had read this chapter first!

The interview process can be very stressful for a lot of people. Will they like me? Am I dressed appropriately for the job? Do my qualifications match the job scope? What do I say, how do I answer those questions?

Typically, technical applicants will rely on their resume and credentials. Others, however, rely on education and experience. Now, there’s a catch-22 for you, what if you have a lot of experience but no degree or a fresh degree with no experience? In some cases the company will look to pay scale and/or need at the time of hiring. One might hire the more experienced, knowledgeable person if they need someone who can take the reigns and push forward. However, they may decide on the college graduate as they have the technical aptitude for the job and are willing and eager to learn and grow.

Having a great resume and cover letter helps with the job seeking process. There are many resume writers to help with this task. Sometimes it’s hard for an individual to ‘talk’ about themselves and these professionals can help. A resume should be written for the job that you are seeking. What I mean by that is, not fabricating, but looking at your experience to emphasize for the job. For example, if you are interviewing for a manager’s position and you have never had direct reports before but have run large-scale teams, emphasize the work with the teams, the coaching and responsibilities you had to the team members. If you Look at your past experiences and accomplishments, this will help with the resume and cover letter content.

I do have to say that I am glad to be with my company and I know that I will be with them for a very long time. However, I am planning on an early retirement and then consulting so I will still be in the interview process with my clients. Now, I will need to tout my abilities and ‘sell me’ to secure my clients. My clients will be essentially, interviewing me!

Great Chapter – I may have to flag this one and keep it at hand. ;-)

Avatar Communications

1. When communicating through your avatar, do you feel less inhibited and more free to say what's really on your mind? Does the anonymity that an avatar provides make you more comfortable?
   a. I do feel a little more free with the Avatar that I would otherwise. However, I'm not one who is too intimidated anyway...
   
2. How does it feel to communicate with others using your avatar? Do you feel authentic, or is your avatar a "character" for you?
   a. I do feel that the Avatar is a character; however, most folks will create the Avatar in the image that they either see themselves or wish to see themselves. Mine is representative of who I am.
   
3. Do you identify with your avatar? Do you feel as though it's an extension of you? Why / why not?
   a. I definitely identify with my Avatar as I trained in martial arts for 10 years, I live near the beach and take my beautiful black lab to dog beach a lot. I don't think it is an extension of me or who I am; I am much more than an animated version of self.
   
4. What, in your opinion, is the value of having an avatar (if any) and why do you think they're becoming so popular in the world of online communication?
   a. The value of the Avatar is that it allows you to communicate without inhibitions, you are free to express yourself in ways you would not in person. You can be anything or anyone that you want - even an animal! They are popular because they are fun and a virtual 'mask

Comm - Chapter 9

Friends

As in my post about Chapter 8, you can nearly mirror the progression of friendship with the progression of a lover, without the intimacy. Even the breakup is very similar, no communication, less interaction and then just dissolving the relationship.

It appears to me that more and more people are not willing to work on a relationship, whether an intimate or a friendship. Why is that? Doesn’t it seem that more people are becoming loners, willing to do things on their own than ever before? Or is it just my perception of my own circle of friends?

Another observation is the need of a friend. There is an innate sociological need to have friends outside the circle of your immediate family. What void do these friends fill? What is it that makes the friends nearly more important, at times, than family?

Is it the ‘tribe’ affect?

We seem to need close relationships in all aspects of our lives; family, friends, associates, groups, etc.

Feelings

Another hot topic when it comes to relationships. Expressing or suppressing, which do you exhibit in a particular relationship? Some folks say that they are emotional around their family while others suppress. We will suppress our emotions at work most of the time, which is where some of us build up a lot of stress! Then there are those that are emotional all the time and others that will never show emotion. I believe that both of these are unbalanced personalities.

What do you think?

Comm - Chapter 8

Interpersonal Relationships

One of the more complex of communications is interpersonal relationships. Whether it is with your immediate family, a lover, work associates or friends, relationships can be varied and full of misconceptions. Have you ever experienced someone asking "why did you give me that look?" When you didn't even know it was a look or why? Then an argument ensues and after a while, you don't even remember what you were fighting about but you do know that you were right!

What interested me was the stages of relationships: from beginning to end to beginning...

Initiating:
First contact, the flirting, discovery an onset of hope.

Experimentation:
In this stage there is small talk, light conversation, perhaps an acknowledgement that there is common threads on which to build a relationship.

Intensifying
Bonding, sharing and more in depth conversation. This is the stage where relationships make two people act as one.

Integrating
Allowing relationships to include individualism. Now there is joint companionship and a strong bond, a feeling of being one and not being whole without the other.

Bonding
Commitment, a phase where you are building a solid base for a couple's future

Differentiating
Going back to the 'me' stage, finding an identity within a relationship

Circumscribing
Decreasing conversation, topics that are skirted, a mental withdrawal from communication

Stagnating
Silence is not golden, not at this stage, however, there is feeling of no communication is better at this point.

Termination
Ending the relationship. A mutual agreement that communication and the relationship has stopped and is better in separation.

Depending on what stage a relationship is in, there is still a process of reinitializing the relationship, although at some stages it is more difficult than others.

Communication on the Internet

Well, I've been 'blogging' and using MySpace now for two weeks. I haven't really met anyone online (interesting or not) but I've chatted on the phone with interesting people from my class! I am enjoying our classroom discussions, they are insightful and beautifully written, what an awesome class!

On MySpace, I have had to delete requests for friends as they are from sites with which I would not typically associate. I haven't had any conflicts as yet. My social network is still good and intact and my sons have contributed to my sites, very supportive!

I am having a blast in this class! At first I thought that using the Internet to communicate was going to be challenging and just crazy but I now know that it is what you make of it. It is certainly an interesting experience but it sure is a lot of work! ;-)

Now, if I can just get others to answer my blogs... (hint, hint)

How has your experience been?

Group C Project

Greetings Team!

Here are my notes from our conference call today:

We will be creating a 10 - 12 page PowerPoint presentation (includes cover, Agenda and summary) on diversity training. Our company is a medium sized marketing firm in San Diego county that provides services county-wide as well as our border neighbor, Mexico.

Our objective is: Train on diverse cultures within the workforce and customer base.

Topics of discussion:
People (workforce)
Community
Suppliers

We'll each do 3 slides, collaborate on the cover, Agenda and Summary. The summary will include information on how we measure our success.

URLS
http://www.diversityinc.com
http://www.diversityjobs.com/node/977242
http://equalopportunity.bet.monster.com/articles/retain/
I know there's more!

Let me know if I missed anything! Great Chating with you!

Chatting with Bea!

Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Bea.

It was a great conversation! Since Bea is a teacher, I interviewed her to come and teach my kids. Her answers were great well thought out and she provided me with her background in Spain and her recent job history in the U.S. teaching part time. She is at National completing her requirements to be certified to teach full-time. Bea is a Spanish teacher but she is very interested in continuing her Masters program to become a History teacher! Go Bea!

When I asked about her future endeavors post the degree she stated that, beyond, teaching, she is keeping her options open for anything that comes along that is interesting! Great answer!

Bea is very interesting and I was excited to be able to speak with her and get to know her better.

And I love her accent! I said she was hired - ;-)

Communication Assessment

Identify the types of communication in the workplace. Under each heading, identify the significance of each. Evaluate these types of communication in your own organization. How would you rate your company’s communication practices? What is done well? What should be improved? How would you recommend improving these practices?

1. Internal Communication:
Overall, we do a really good job of communicating! However, since we are a very large company, headquartered in the south and with operations in select areas of the country, we have a challenge with internal communications. As noted in Chapter 7 there is a top-down filtering process of information. There is also a challenge with horizontal communication; we could use a stronger cross-functional development of end-to-end process communication.

Significance: A way of providing company information about the company progress, benefits, etc.

Improvement: A central communication source - the Intranet, a common repository for all communications.

2. Downward Communication:
Noted above - this is filtered, miscommunication occurs frequently. Our Senior Team tries to deliver messages personally throughout our business, either via face-to-face or electronically as in our video announcements, email, Intranet, etc. There are many different groups and all receive information differently so we need to be cognizant of the delivery methods used.

Significance: A way of providing company information about the company progress, benefits, etc.
Improvement: Again, a central communication source - the Intranet, a common repository for all communications.

3. Communication in Meetings:
I have to say we do a great job communicating, listening and coming to full agreement or consensus in meetings. We are a company that values communication and strives to be better always.

Significance: To socialize ideas and information to be assured that we are working cohesively

Improvement: More folks could learn to actively listen

4. Feedback:
We have many opportunities to provide feedback, surveys, email, Intranet, Internet and an open-door policy. The feedback is heard and paraphrased in company meetings and noted with suggestions and resolutions.

Significance: providing everyone to have a voice in the company. Some of our best ideas come from our employees

Improvement: Keep encouraging the active participation of all.

5. External Communications:
We have a Public Relations and Legal team that reviews everything. They also work with the marketing team to facilitate our public communications are accurate.

Significance: Marketing/Sales, branding

Improvement: We're good with this one... ;-)

6. Cultural/Gender Communications:
As a company that embraces diversity, many of our CEOs sit on the council and communicate and educate.

Significance: To understand that diversity in the workplace. Understanding other cultures and values helps us communication better.

Improvement: We are currently creating a comprehensive training program

7. Electronic Communication
The company utilizes video conferencing, email, the Intranet, video mail, IM and much more. True, funny story - we had someone doing a presentation for about 20 people. He was using his PC with the overhead Proxima, displaying the PowerPoint on the screen. In the middle of the presentation we see an IM that says "I Love You." He had forgotten to turn off his IM for the presentation - he turned beat red!

Significance: We are an electronic world - we need to learn how to communication effectively by the written word.

Improvement: In the past we have done some business writing courses and continue to offer these to employees.

8. Nonverbal Communication:
We have posters all over the business about our goals, ethics, values, charities that we sponsor. We also have information on the teams and on-going projects on the posters. There is a lot of information on the company Intranet, company newsletter and even the way our General Manager walks through and smiles, and wears business casual clothes, makes a nice comfortable statement.

Significance: To keep communication on the forefront, keep the employees informed and excited

Improvement: We need to switch it up, keep the posters fresh by changing up the color and design!

9. Written Communication:
I think that I have covered a lot of that above. Although, we value face-to-face more, we do have many avenues of written communication.
Significance: Again, we are an electronic world - we need to learn how to communication effectively by the written word.
Improvement: We offer a lot of educational courses to our employees including business writing classes.

10. Interpersonal Communication

We have many off-site activities, charities that we sponsor, Habitat for Humanity, ball games, etc. Where folks feel at ease and can socialize with each other.

Significance: Camaraderie is so important in the work place, we need to work effectively and having the off-sites and/or activities is important for moral and state of mind!

Improvement: We do these often - and they're always different, keeps our employees engaged.

11. Visual Communication
I believe I have covered this as well but I will add that the way an office looks reflects how we will behave. We allow our employees to personalize their cubes with personal items and have many interesting items to talk about when we approach someone! It also provides some insight to who they are and may give a glimpse of something in common with you!

Significance: Happy employees are more productive!

Imrprovement: We are in the process of restructuring areas now to foster better cross-functional communication by locating input/output groups together as much as possible.

Comm - Chapter 7

Listening and Communicating

Here is something I think everyone can do better, listening. I remember my mother yelling at us that we are 'hearing but not listening.' I never understood that phrase until I started to work in the corporate world. When I first started college (pre-kids) I worked as a waitress, the only listening skill I needed was rote memory, write the order, send the order, pick up the order, and deliver the order. Was I really listening? I don't think so.

Lately, I have found myself really trying to actively listen. This is certainly a learned skill and one that is not easy to accomplish! There is a lot of noise that you have to filter through in order to affectively and actively listen. In my office we are all in cubes, only VPs and Directors have offices - this is by design. So, as managers, we sit in these cubes along side our teams. The distractions are many, not only the conversations that the customer service reps are having with customers, but other conversations in other cubes, cooler conversations, meetings, printers, faxes, phones ringing, laughter, wind, the air-conditioner, paper shuffling, coughing, sneezing, the hum of the florescent lights, and many more. You would think that I work in an awfully noisy environment but just close your eyes and listen to the noise that surrounds you - really listen.

Other noise consists of my own thoughts, breathing, and any part of me that may be sore; maybe I’m not feeling well, allergies, even the thoughts of what we might respond with when the speaker has paused. Other distractions, even though you don’t literally think about them are home life, did I unplug the curling iron, is the dog okay, was it trash day today!

There is so much noise to shift through in order to be an affective listener. You really need to concentrate and paraphrase the sender’s message, keep eye contact, acknowledge and respond. This has been the most difficult to learn for me as I always have so much going on in my life my brain is forever processing information, dates, times and the like and, ok, I confess, I’m very controlling.

Listening on the Internet, comprehending a senders message, is entirely different; there is no inflection, body language or context for the sender or receiver to utilize. Therefore, most of our written communications can come off very differently. What would you think if your boss typed an email that simply stated “Come see me,” what would you think? Am I in trouble, did I get that report wrong, what did I do? Hey, it may be that long deserved bonus! You have to be very descriptive over electronic communications; I have incorporated some humor in my emails when communicating with my teams. If there is no humor from Jo – it must be a serious communications but I don’t send many of those serious ones! ;-)

What style do you use when you listen?

Group C Project

Group C is scheduled to chat tomorrow @ 6 pm. We have had some drops so we'll need to disseminate the work between the 4 of us. No worries - we can handle it!

I'll chat with all you lovely folks tomorrow!

Comm - Chapter 6

Ah... non-verbal communication. What does this picture say to you?

Oh, okay so I just wanted to get my grand daughter on my blog.




How about this one, what was I doing? What mood was I in? Where do you suppose I was and what was going on?






Non-verbal communication can say a lot about who we are - in someone else's perception. I walk very tall and straight, keeping my head held high, even when talking to someone shorter than me (I'm 5'8"). This is sometimes perceived as pompous, stiff, haughty, and even rude! However, I was taught to always walk straight and my posture is very straight, martial arts and yoga also helps with posture. I am relaxed but being very tall anyway - it just makes me appear to be taller. I try to approach everyone with a large smile and appear more approachable. I have been told that, when I am focused, I look mad! That's interesting - I'm just focused, so I force myself to smile when focused. I am a very easy going, friendly person - but my appearance says otherwise.

Here's another fun experiment - smile very broadly all the time. What results did you get?

"What is it we really fear?"

When we cluster in groups or "tribes" why do we exclude? What is it about others that we fear? Philosophically, we typically hold our fears of the unexplainable, the unknown and the differences that we just don't understand. We assume answers to quell our fears to keep ourselves safe but safe from what? What do we fear about others and their differences?

I can understand that prehistoric man would fear as he could not communicate with other tribes, thus fearing the loss of precious possessions. As they observed animal behavior, one may think that they assumed that other tribes would act like the 'tribes' within the animal kingdom and fight to take food. But, we can communicate today and still have fear of differences. We wage war out of fear, we discriminate out of fear and we create our own truths out of fear.

Take, for example, death and what we think might happen after our physical body expires. What happens to that energy or sole? People fear death - they consider we have after-lives, a kingdom in heaven, a rebirth into another living being whether that is human, animal or vegetation or maybe we are just in another dimension? Fear of the unknown, untested, intangible. This is a common fear.

Now, fear of another people, culture or difference, this is a unnatural fear. Why do we fear others? Is it a fear of a change from our already designed comfort zone? Let's make it simple, you are in your high school click, you are all jocks and talk of nothing but sports. A math wiz joins your discussion, how do you react? Typically, jocks would tease and harass the poor math wiz and/or say that they are not a fit in their click. Why is that? What is it the jocks fear from the math wiz? Why can't they accept the difference in their group?

How many times have we witnessed a mentally challenge person that loves everyone and is happy all the time? What were your first thoughts? Perhaps your thoughts are that they are simplistic, they just don't know, they don't understand what they should fear? Why do we think this way, and not, hey they accept everyone for who and what they are, why can't we be like that? I think we are all challenged in the way we perceive the world and the people on the planet - again, I say embrace the difference, accept and celebrate who we all are without assimilating or making everyone the same as you. We are challenged by our society and the way that we were raised, live, work and play.

What do you think?

Tribal Nature

Tribal Nature Impacts on verbal and nonverbal levels

Verbal:Each tribe has their own verbal communication, from the prehistoric era to today. Check out your own friends and relatives, is there acknowledgement of your own language? I know that my boys and I are famous for quoting movie script in certain situations (check out MySpace!). Hence the reason we have so many languages, dialects, etc. Even in the U.S., the southern language is much different than California, New York, Minnesota! There is even a difference in L.A vs. San Diego!

Nonverbal:Speaking of L.A. vs. San Diego, check out the L.A. city scene, very black and white - clothing that is! While in San Diego, we have adopted a much more relaxed business-casual dress in much lighter colors! There is also the way we walk, react, think and process. What do you think of when I state the word dope? Did you process it to be drugs, a silly person or a dwarf? lol! Okay, had to throw in a Disney reference!

In conclusion, the impact to our communication with 'other tribes' are very different. Where I may call my gal friends 'you guys' in the south, this would be offensive to a group of ladies. If I were to walk up and hug my Korean friend - they would take offense, this is not the way they great.

When you think about tribes - think about the different sections of work groups - how different are they? The I.T. group, finance, the front-line service group?
Interesting...

Emotional IQ Test

Okay - just finished week #2 task: Emotional IQ Test. It's a long one and, apparently, I'm an emotional mess!

According to your self-report answers, your emotional intelligence is somewhat poor. People who score like you may at times feel that they have trouble dealing with their own emotions and those of others. They sometimes struggle to overcome difficulties in their lives and they are not always able to control their moods. It may be hard for them to understand how best to motivate themselves to overcome obstacles and reach their goals. In addition, they find social interactions difficult at times, for several reasons. They may have trouble allowing themselves to get close with others, finding it difficult to be vulnerable enough to establish intimacy or perhaps lacking understanding of, or comfort with, social interactions. Perhaps by working on your problem areas, you can become more confident in dealing with your own emotions and those of others.
Did I really just post this on the Internet? Yikes!

How did you rate?

Avatar

Avatar: Wikipedia:
An avatar (abbreviations include AV, ava, avv and avvy) is an Internet user's representation of himself or herself, whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games,[1] a two-dimensional icon used on Internet forums and other communities,[2][3] or a text construct found on early systems such as MUDs. The term "avatar" can also refer to the personality connected with the screen name, or handle, of an Internet user.[4]

Avatar: Hindu pholosphy:
In Hindu philosophy, an avatar, avatara or avataram (Sanskrit: अवतार, avatāra), most commonly refers to the incarnation (bodily manifestation) of a higher being (deva), or the Supreme Being (God) onto planet Earth. The Sanskrit word avatāra- literally means "descent" (avatarati) and usually implies a deliberate descent into lower realms of existence for special purposes. The term is used primarily in Hinduism, for incarnations of Vishnu whom many Hindus worship as God. Shiva and Ganesha are also described as descending in the form of avatars, with the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana detailing Ganesha's avatars specifically.

The word has also been used by extension to refer to the incarnations of God or highly influential teachers in other religions, especially by adherents to dharmic traditions when explaining figures such as Jesus or Muhammad.

Avatar: Web Answer:
An Avatar is a small image used in Forums, Mobile Phones, Instant Messenger programs (IMs), PDAs etc. to identify yourself or your contacts.In Forums Avatars, are usually displayed to the left of your post, directly beneath your Username.In IMs, Mobile Phones, PDAs etc. Avatars are used to show your caller a graphical representation of who they are talking to and/or, as part of the phonebook/address entry.

Check out the description on "The Avatar Site"
http://www.avatara.org/essay.html

Comm - Chapter 5

Cultural Communication
Here's a story that will make you laugh! When I was working in Alabama, I was in an office with a young lady who is an Alabama native. She had very thick southern accent and used southern slang so often that I didn't know what she was talking about at all! Sometimes I had to have her spell the words for me! Don't be offended - we both laughed about it a lot. I soon was used to her slang and her accent - without our local interpreter! Truth! Someone in the office used to tell me what she said all the time. It was literally gut-busting funny. However, I respected her language and slang enough to learn it so that I could 'speak her language.' I think that's what made our work relationship so much fun. Neither of us tried to change the other, we accepted our differences and became great friends.

Meaning: Miscommunications:
When I worked in Atlanta, I would get very upset and offended when I was called sweetie or sugar, honey, etc. Coming from California I had a very different view of how people were addressed and these terms were known as degrading to women. I had to take a couple of steps back and realize that this is the way the south addresses everyone and it is not meant to degrade. I also had to get used to the very relaxed lifestyle of the south. You just don't run into a grocery store and 'grab-n-go.' No, you socialize, talk, chat - take a breath! So much for the laid-back California style - it is nothing like the south!

You know what they say... when in Rome ;-)

How about you - any stories about your adventures in languag and communication with other cultures?