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COMMUNICATIONS....................................................... A good place to start the conversation is to visit a generalized communication system, consider the media richness pyramid, brush up on our critical thinking skills, then we are ready to make assertions and assessments Markets are conversations....Here's some advice on entering the conversation: Loosen up. Lighten up. And shut up for a while. Listen for a change. Marketing-as-usual used to be able to insert its message into the mind of the masses with one swing of its mighty ax. Now messages get exploded within minutes. "Spin" gets noticed and scorned. Parodies spread ad campaigns faster than any multimillion-dollar advertising blitz: The Internet routes around a-holes.....The Cluetrain Manifesto. Language: Semantics | Humpty Dumpty | Transparency and Accountability | Language as a function of gender | Language as a function of ethnicity | Barriers to effective communication | Forces of influence | Personality Types | Language as a function of gender | Website Ease of Use as a function of gender| Computing as a function of gender - Why only the developed world lacks women in computing | Perception | Contextual factors | Language as a Function of Ethnicity | Shifting Paradigms |Media Richness Pyramid | Idiomatic Expressions |Colloquialism | Critical Reading: The SQ3R Reading Method Misc: Creating a communications plan | The Onion - a Framework to build effective organizations | The Threshold of belief - defined | What do you want to do today? | Is Truth knowable?
Barriers to effective communication Forces of influence | Personality Types | Language as a function of gender | Website Ease of Use as a function of gender| Computing as a function of gender - Why only the developed world lacks women in computing | Perception | Contextual factors | Language as a Function of Ethnicity | Shifting Paradigms |Media Richness Pyramid | Idiomatic Expressions |Colloquialism |
All's
Well That Ends Well – Act 4, Scene 4. Lines: 34-40. shakespeare.clusty.com;
May 30, 2011 Helena Yet,
I pray you: But
with the word the time will bring on summer, When
briers shall have leaves as well as thorns, And
be as sweet as sharp. We must away; Our
wagon is prepared, and time revives us: All's
well that ends well; still the fine's the crown; Whate'er the course, the end is the renown.
Why Only the Developed World Lacks Women in Computing Sciences During the National Center for Women in Information Technology meeting at the Googeplex, Vivian Lagesen of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology presented her study of Malaysia showing 52% of of all computer science undergraduates majors are female. Their view is that the field is very much in the tradition of the female role, since it is safe and mostly indoors, not unlike cooking, for example On the other hand, Maria Charles of the university of California Santa Barbara reported that the problem surrounding gender inequality has its roots in the belief that genders are different but equal. Differences in attitudes about math and science between men and women are greater in the developed world, than in the developing world, where women and men see math about the same. In the developed world women make career choices as a form of self-expression - mostly on misguided pre-conceptions, opting out of sciences, technology engineering and mathematics. Charles suggests that forcing all students to take match and science classes would give them the opportunity to discover their interests and aptitude for those fields - a form of ridding the person of self-bounded rationality, for example. Now consider that women in less developed countries in Europe such as Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Finland have a level of 40% or more women in science and research positions, while the US and Germany only have about 10%. The implications seem to be that there is an inverse relationship between a country's "development" and women in math and sciences.
Creating a Communication Plan
Determine project stakeholders
There can be many types of customers, users, vendors,
managers, and stakeholders. First, determine what people or groups of people
you want to include in the Communications Plan. Determine the communication needs of each stakeholder
For each of the stakeholders identified above, determine
their communication needs. For instance, certain managers will need ongoing
status information. Steering committee members need ongoing status reports,
plus a dialog on strategy and vision. Your users might need awareness
communication, mentoring, question-and-answer sheets, promotional information
to build enthusiasm, etc. Especially on large projects, the project team
should be creative in determining how, what, to whom, where, and how
frequently the communication takes place. Determine how to fulfill
the communication needs of each stakeholder
Project communication can take many shapes and forms. In this
step, brainstorm how you will fulfill the communication needs for each
stakeholder. When possible, look for types of communication that can cover
more than one stakeholder's needs. Mandatory:
These types of communication are required by your company, your industry, or
by law. This information is pushed to recipients. The following are some
examples of this type of communication: ·
Project status reports ·
Regular status updates via voicemail ·
Status meetings ·
Meetings with steering committee ·
Regular conference calls and videoconferences with remote
stakeholders ·
Government-required reports and other information ·
Financial reporting, such as budget vs. actuals, or any other
required financial information Informational:
This is information that people want to know or that they may need to know to
do their jobs. This information is made available for people to read but
requires them to take the initiative or pull the communication for themselves.
Following are some examples: ·
Awareness-building sessions that people are invited to attend
(These are not meant as training, just to build awareness of the project.) ·
Project paper-based deliverables placed in a common
repository, directory, or library that people can access ·
Project information available on a Web site Marketing:
These forms of communication are designed to build buy-in and enthusiasm for
the project and its deliverables. This information is also pushed to the
recipients. Here are some examples: ·
Project newsletters, with positive marketing spin ·
Meeting one-on-one with key stakeholders on an ongoing basis ·
Traveling road shows to various locations and departments to
explain the project and its benefits ·
Testimonials from others about the value that was provided ·
Contests with simple prizes to build excitement ·
Project acronyms and slogans to portray positive images of
the project ·
Project countdown until live date ·
Informal (but purposeful) walking around to "talk
up" the project to team members, users, and stakeholders ·
Celebrations to bring visibility to the completion of major
milestones ·
Project memorabilia with project name or image portrayed,
such as pins, pencils, Frisbees, cups, T-shirts, etc. ·
Publicizing accomplishments Determine the effort required Determine how much effort is required for each of the
communication ideas the project team has come up with. If the communication is
ongoing, estimate the effort over a one-month period. For instance, a status
report might only take one hour to create, but it might be needed twice a
month. Then, of course, the total effort would be two hours. Prioritize the communication options Some communication activities provide more value than others.
In a previous exercise, you brainstormed lists of communication options. Now
you need to prioritize the items to determine which provide the most value for
the least cost. If a communication activity takes a lot of time and provides
little or marginal communication value, it should be discarded. If a
communication option takes little effort and provides a lot of value, it
should be included in the final Communication Plan. Of course, if a
communication activity is mandatory, it should be included no matter what the
cost. If a mandatory activity is time-consuming, you may be able to negotiate
with the stakeholders to find a less-intensive alternative. ABC Project Communication Plan
Website ease of use & preferences as a function of gender Research
demonstrates that it takes visitors a 20th
of a second to make a decision about a website (BBC News, 2006). Considering
first impressions can influence whether a visitor decides to leave the site or
explore it further, perhaps website designers should keep the end goal in
mind? Women
keep their personal lives and business lives very separate when it comes to
social media, according to the 2009 Women in Social Media Study by BlogHer,
iVillage, and Compass Partners. While women consider blogs great sources of
information, especially regarding purchases, the vast majority of women use
social networks solely for keeping in touch with family and friends. So, do you know the main demographic using your website? Is it meant to attract women, men, or both? If targeted toward a specific sex, there are some things you might need to know about how men and women use websites and approach the buying process. So take the following information, gleaned from studies and surveys, and apply it how you think best - read more. For
further reading on human computer interaction, click here
At work, we generally find two important types of individuals: energy sinkers and energy generators. You know immediately who they are. As soon as the energy sinker steps into a room, all the collective energy is sucked up. Energy sinkers are quick to blame, slow to accept responsibility and think they are entitled to anything and everything around them. Our first priority with each and every client is to rid the organization of energy sinkers. The reason is that these type of individuals can become a major obstacle in the promotion of an organization's culture. In fact, part of the elements contained in the corporate culture we promote include avoiding self-flagellation, defeatism and self-bounded rationality for instance. So, when someone says, "..here we go again..." on a regular basis, that means we want to take a second look for a coach-able moment, or simply to do surgery Recent research suggests that being an energy sinker increases risk of heart attacks, disease and death
Elsewhere we make the argument that effective teamwork in general requires diversity. Diversity however, implies major challenges dealing with inherently different personalities. Understanding what these dominant personalities need, and their respective motivation, should help us deal effectively with them. The Ruler for example, wants to get things done right, and is in need for control. If buy into the corporate culture, perhaps it is to our mutual benefit if I cede control in certain instance to this individual. Dominant personality types as a function of orientation
Good links to view various personality types and potential impact on decision making: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator http://www.16types.com/Request.jsp?hView=ContextHome
According to
Canada Business Center (2003) research suggests that “as much as 93% of a
person’s total perception is the result of images conveyed to the brain in
one way or another”. Further, It has been said that most of us think
we think, but in reality, there are very few people who actually do
so. Reasons given for not thinking include time constraints,
the fact that in general our responsibilities increase at an average of
10%/year and lacking a stimulating environment. Then
there is the Henry Sidgwick’s "We
think so because other people all think so; or because – or because –
after all we do think so; or because we were told so, and think we must think
so; or because we once thought so, and think we still think so; or because,
having thought so, we think we will think so…" Whether
to think independently, because other people all think so, or because, we rely
on listening. The listening can be passive or active:
When listening passively, the information received is not made
actionable, whereas in active listening, we do something with the information
received.
Informative
Listening
Informative
listening is passive- that is, the information is not
actionable. The
objective is to evaluate the message as faithfully as possible to what the
sender had in mind – that is, in a perfect listening scenario, the
information sent is the same as the information received, Much
of our learning comes from informative listening. For example, we listen to
lectures or instructions from teacher. In
the workplace, we listen to understand new practices or procedures. We listen
to instructions, briefings, reports, and speeches There
are three key variables related to informative listening. Knowing these
variables can help you begin to improve your informative listening skills;
that is, you will become increasingly successful in understanding what the
speaker means. Social
Listening
Social
listening should be active. That
is, the information received should be
actionable, particularly given that the
objective of relationship listening is either to help an individual or to
improve the relationship between people. Therapeutic
listening for example, is where
counselors, medical personnel, or other professionals allow a troubled person
to talk through a problem. But it can also be used when listening
to friends or acquaintances to allow
them to get things off their chests. Relationship
listening requires you to listen for information, but the
emphasis is on a call to action – that is, understanding the other
person.
Listening
for appreciation is passive – it does not require
that the information
received be actionable. Appreciative
listening includes listening to music for enjoyment, to speakers because you
like their style, your choices in theater, television, radio, or film. Critical
Listening
Critical listening is active. The ability to listen critically is essential in the workplace an in personal lives, in the community, at service clubs, in places of worship, in the family, etc. Politicians, the media, salesmen, advocates of policies and procedures, and our own financial, emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual needs demand that we hone our critical listening skills
Critical
listening
requires that the listener hears and sees the message including the verbal and
non-verbal components. By being sensitive to changes in the speaker’s rate,
volume, force, pitch, and emphasis, the informative listener can detect even
nuances of difference in meaning, for example. Aristotle,
the classical Greek rhetorician, more than 2,000 years ago in his treatise, The
Rhetoric recommended consideration of three elements in critical
listening: ethos, or speaker credibility; logos, or logical
arguments; and pathos, or psychological appeals. RFN1 1.
Ethos. Credibility of the speaker is important. The two critical
factors of speaker credibility are expertness and trustworthiness. A speaker
may be expert or competent and still not be trustworthy. Refer to assessments
and assertions and critical reading. 2.
Logos. Even speakers with high ethos often make errors in logic, not by
intention, but by accident, carelessness, inattention to detail, or lack of
analysis. Critical listeners have a right to expect well supported arguments
from speakers, arguments that contain both true propositions and valid
inferences or conclusions. When
evaluating arguments, listeners should ask several questions about the
proposition or statements made: a.
Are the statements true? b.
Are the data the best that can be obtained? c.
Are the sources of the data known to the listeners? In other words do
listeners know where the information came from? d.
Is the data accurately portrayed? e.
Is the data representative? That is, would all the data, or at least a
preponderance of it show the same thing? The
above questions may all be answered to your satisfaction, yet the logic may be
faulty. For perhaps the data do not lead to or justify the inferences or
conclusions drawn. Listeners should ask themselves the following questions: a.
Is the conclusion a certainty or are exceptions possible? b.
Were all cause-effect relationships established beyond doubt? c.
Does the data justify the inference drawn or the conclusion given? d.
Does the inference or conclusion “follow” from the data, or is there a non
sequitur, which means literally, “it does not necessarily follow”?
3.
Pathos. The psychological or emotional element of communication is
often misunderstood and misused. Simply said, speakers often use psychological
appeals to gain an emotional response from listeners. Effective critical
listeners carefully determine the focus of the speaker’s message. Speakers
may appeal to any one or several needs, desires, or values that are important
to us including: adventure, thrift, curiosity, fear, creativity,
companionship, guilt, independence, loyalty, power, pride, sympathy, altruism.
There are many others, of course; the list is a long one. There
are several questions critical listeners should ask themselves when assessing
the pathos element: a.
Is the speaker attempting to manipulate rather than persuade me? b.
What is the speaker’s intent? c.
Is the speaker combining logos with pathos? d.
Am I responding merely to the pathos? e.
Next week or next year will I be satisfied with the decision I am making
today? Effective
critical listening depends on the listener keeping all three elements of the
message in the analysis and in perspective: ethos, or source credibility;
logos, or logical argument; and pathos, or psychological appeals.
Language as a function of gender
Language as a Function of Ethnicity So, just because you share a certain ethnicity with others, your message can be delivered effectively - right? Not really. When the message is comedy, context is key, as demonstrated by Chinese-born, bio-chemist turned comedian Joe Wong can attest to: While Mr. Wong was invited to the Late Night Show with David Letterman in 2009, the audience cracked up when he walk in and said "Hi everybody...So, I am Irish." While Mr. Wong's humor makes an American audience laugh, in China, where he grew up, people do not not get it.
Idiomatic Expressions | English Idioms - A bit much to - Cat among the pigeons | English Idioms: A Cat and a dog life - Four corners of the earth | English Idioms Four-square behind - It Never Rains, it pours | English Idioms: It takes a village - Off the hook | English Idioms: Off the mark - Serving Time | English Idioms: Serve your country-Up sticks |English Idioms: Up the ante - Zip your lips
Colloquialism
When dealing with cross cultural issues, in addition to the usual forces of influence we must be aware of, we need to keep in mind the use of colloquialisms, or idiomatic expression. Idiomatic expression, just like comedy, usually do not translate well; in some cases, when an idiom is translated into another language, either its meaning is changed or it is meaningless, for example. And just because you share a certain ethnicity with others, your message can be delivered effectively - right? Not really. When the message is comedy, context is key, as demonstrated by Chinese-born, bio-chemist turned comedian Joe Wong can attest to: While Mr. Wong was invited to the Late Night Show with David Letterman in 2009, the audience cracked up when he walk in and said "Hi everybody...So, I am Irish." While Mr. Wong's humor makes an American audience laugh, in China, where he grew up, people do not not get it.
Lies that can get
you fired 10 worst texting
offenses Body Language - What we say, without even realizing it.
The Big Sell Pessimism,
Cynicism Can Hurt Your Heart Study: Negative Outlook Appears to Raise Risk of
Heart Disease, Death By Salynn
Boyles Reviewed by Elizabeth
Klodas, MD, FACC Aug. 10, 2009 -- Whether you believe the
metaphorical glass is half full or half empty may not only
affect how you see the world, it may also affect your heart. New
research suggests that having a positive attitude just might protect against heart
disease and keep you alive.
BBC News (2006) Krotz (2009).BlogHer, iVillage, and Compass Partners (2009) 2009 Women in Social Media Study by RFN1 Aristotle, Art of Rhetoric (NEW YORK: Viking Penguin ( 1992).
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