For this blog post here is a video I created, that is available on YouTube
Check it out here!
Enjoy!
Check it out here!
Enjoy!
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Plan a Problem-Solving Meeting
Setting an Agenda
There
are four main elements of information that are necessary in a complete and
comprehensive agenda. These elements include a complete list of the meeting
attendees, any and all necessary background information, concise explanation of
each agenda item, and the time and location of the meeting. The logistics of
the meeting, such as the time and location are key to having attendees arrive
on time. A list of meeting attendees, is important because it gives everyone a
clear idea of who they can expect to see in the meeting and understand what
kind of level meeting it is (ex. Upper management meeting, accounting meeting,
software developer meeting). Necessary background information on an agenda
would be extremely helpful so that all the attendees can come to the meeting
with the same mindset, and an explanation of agenda items helps the attendees
can grasp the main purpose for the meeting and what is to be accomplished.
According
to the text an effective agenda can be built by asking a form of these vague
questions as agenda items:
1. What background information is necessary to review
in order to begin the meeting?
2. What things need to happen in the meeting in order
for our team to achieve the objective?
3. For the attendees, what types of specific
conversations will be crucial and important?
More
specific examples of these agenda items could be:
1.
Thank all for their attendance, meeting agenda, proceed to review the current
status of Scranton Merger project (Marty & Ravi)
2.
Develop a 3 week plan to be proposed to corporate plan for the LMS system
makeover (Rachel & Peter)
3.
Discuss the progress of the each team’s projects (each project developer
manager)
Conducting the Meeting
A
parliamentary procedure is a type of procedure with a set of rules governing
how groups should conduct business and make decisions in meetings. A pro of
this type of procedure is that it can help meetings run efficiently and clearly
while respecting all of the attendees. However when used in the wrong setting,
a parliamentary procedure can seem awkward and cause unnecessary conflicts.
In
order to maintain a level of balanced participation amongst all of a meetings’
attendees, one should use questions types such as the following to encourage
more participation and listening: relay questions, reverse questions, direct
questions, and overhead questions. Relay questions are when the leader
redirects a question from an attendee to the entire group, thus prompting the
attendee’s to develop their own ideas before hearing what management has to say
on the matter. (“Jill brings up a good point, it what ways can the accounting
team work with the sales team on these new term numbers?”) Reverse questions
are when a leader simply asks the person who asked the question, what he/she
thinks of the topic. (“I think that an honest question to ask, what do you
yourself think about it Isaac?”). Direct questions are like the classic teacher
to student questions, where the leader calls out a specific individual and asks
for response. (“Olivia, what do you think would be the best option for the
merger acquisition?”). Targeting individuals keeps all the attendees on their
toes and mentally engaged in the meeting. Overhead questions such as group
questions like “What do you all think about casual Fridays?” open up the entire
room for conversation and voices to be shared.
Appraising the Meeting
Leader
There
are key differences between how a leader should open and close a meeting.
Although both sections of meeting should include information or new insight
about the main agenda points, the introduction section of a meeting should set
up how the rest of the meeting will run, as the concluding proportion will
focus on a when a follow-up meeting may take place and what to look forward to
both short-term and long-term. A leader should both begin and conclude a
meeting precisely on its scheduled times. The beginning of a meeting should
provide a much more detailed run through of the meeting agenda memo, whereas
the conclusion should summarize the meeting’s accomplishments, and thank
everyone for their presence and time.
Interviews vs. Conversations
The career field I
am currently in school for and am striving to enter is the medical management
field of health/hospital administration. In this field the types of interviews
that would be conducted are most likely to be stress interviews and panel interviews.
For these two types of interviews there are numerous interviewing skills that
would increase my likeliness for success into that field. First having an
extremely detailed and carefully tailored résumé is key. A semi-thorough
research into the history, culture, values, and mission of the company is
recommended and might even be inquired about during the interview. Another way
to increase my preparation for an upcoming interview would be to review,
pre-script, and practice personal responses to key common interview questions.
In terms of appearance, dressing appropriately for the interview as well as
cleaning up my online identity is key to improving my image of what kind of a
person I am. A list of memorized questions to ask the interviewer is good thing
to have prepared beforehand as well. Although I have not ever experienced a
real interview for a legitimate job, I have experienced a few mock interviews.
In my opinion, based on my limited experiences of interviewing, I believe that
the attitude and mood of both the employer and interviewee is crucial to
determining the atmosphere of the interview as a whole.
Along with that in order to have an efficient and “successful” interview, both the employer and the interviewer should be thoroughly prepared for as much as they possibly can. All these skills are part of what sets apart interviews from conversations. Conversations are more of a casual talking amongst two or more persons, where there are not many hard or fast rules outside of moral and cultural boundaries. Whereas in an interview the relationship between an employer and the interviewee is strictly professional yet cordial. Questions in an interview are detailed and specific and call for intelligent and descriptive answers by the respondent. Questions from both parties must be in a non-interrogating manner and seem neutral in emotion. Although interviews usually take place in a professional setting (like a work space or office), interviews can also take place on the spot at job-fairs, over the phone, via video conference and even over email.
Along with that in order to have an efficient and “successful” interview, both the employer and the interviewer should be thoroughly prepared for as much as they possibly can. All these skills are part of what sets apart interviews from conversations. Conversations are more of a casual talking amongst two or more persons, where there are not many hard or fast rules outside of moral and cultural boundaries. Whereas in an interview the relationship between an employer and the interviewee is strictly professional yet cordial. Questions in an interview are detailed and specific and call for intelligent and descriptive answers by the respondent. Questions from both parties must be in a non-interrogating manner and seem neutral in emotion. Although interviews usually take place in a professional setting (like a work space or office), interviews can also take place on the spot at job-fairs, over the phone, via video conference and even over email.
Semantical Issues & Poor Listening Skills Leads to Relational Conflict
I have a very limited & biased experience at my work
(business/professional activity) as I work part-time, on my own schedule for a
good family friend of mine. Therefore instead of reporting on a communication
event from work, I would like to report and share about two separate
communication events that I have witnessed/been a part of within the last 4
months. Both of these two events occurred when I have volunteered at a said
event of my home church.
I have been deeply involved, connected and attending my home church for more than 10 years. I absolutely love the place, location, environment, decisions, and the communications/relationships that I have been able to build over the years. My church is a megachurch, and being so allows us to have a large enough community of 18-25 year olds to maintain a young adult ministry. Although I am only a freshman in college and new to this ministry, I have already been placed in a position of leadership as I co-lead a small group of undergraduates.
One weekend early this past November, my co-leader was out-of-town and I was going to be leading the group solo. After a lot of preparation and studying before our group meeting, I felt fairly confident that we could have a few deep discussions about the topics at hand. Almost an hour and half into our two hour long meeting, slight tensions began to arise between two of my group members. We had just watched a 10 minute video and started discussing our thoughts on the video and if we agreed or not with the speaker. I knew two of my friends had conflicting personalities but I never thought I would see them play out as much as I did that evening.
Joe (pseudonym) has a very lackadaisical attitude. If he ever becomes frustrated or confused with something he is most likely to just forget about it than to understand. On the other hand, Jane (pseudonym) can get hot-headed, and her strong beliefs and passions on some topics can aggravate her when others don’t see things the same way as her. So naturally, as one might be able to tell, when Jane was trying hard to explain her views to Joe in our group discussion, Joe eventually said “I give up. You win.” Those trigger words led to an emotional explosion for Jane. In a matter of seconds our upbeat and interesting group discussion had turned into the end of battle in which both armies lost. Joe’s sarcastic tone of voice along with his word choice was simply a byproduct of his care-free and humoristic attitude. But since Jane was unaware of Joe’s personality, his surrendering statement was both disrespectful and embarrassing to her. Jane began to cry as she expressed how she thought Joe did not care for her thoughts at all. Joe completely in shock with all that happened, was at a loss for words. Thus leading to Jane storming out of the room and building to head home, leaving the moments that pursued, to take place in an awkwardness so intense it was nearly tangible.
As the group leader that night, I ashamedly testify that I witnessed the detailed discourse above take place with nearly no resolving action on my part. I knew Joe well enough to grasp his personality and understand his tone of voice however, I had no idea how little patient Jane could be and no idea that Jane could interpret Joe’s words as a trigger words. I was able to completely bandage both parties of the situation a few days later, however the argument that night was due to poor communication skills by both Joe and Jane. Joe’s bitingly sarcastic tone of voice was an issue of semantics, and poor communications. Jane was not able to interpret Joe’s words in the manner that he had uttered them. Joe, on the other hand did not utilize proper listening skills in order to try and comprehend Jane’s thoughts on the manner. Although this event did not transpire at a workplace similar events that also stem from poor communication skills do happen.
I have been deeply involved, connected and attending my home church for more than 10 years. I absolutely love the place, location, environment, decisions, and the communications/relationships that I have been able to build over the years. My church is a megachurch, and being so allows us to have a large enough community of 18-25 year olds to maintain a young adult ministry. Although I am only a freshman in college and new to this ministry, I have already been placed in a position of leadership as I co-lead a small group of undergraduates.
One weekend early this past November, my co-leader was out-of-town and I was going to be leading the group solo. After a lot of preparation and studying before our group meeting, I felt fairly confident that we could have a few deep discussions about the topics at hand. Almost an hour and half into our two hour long meeting, slight tensions began to arise between two of my group members. We had just watched a 10 minute video and started discussing our thoughts on the video and if we agreed or not with the speaker. I knew two of my friends had conflicting personalities but I never thought I would see them play out as much as I did that evening.
Joe (pseudonym) has a very lackadaisical attitude. If he ever becomes frustrated or confused with something he is most likely to just forget about it than to understand. On the other hand, Jane (pseudonym) can get hot-headed, and her strong beliefs and passions on some topics can aggravate her when others don’t see things the same way as her. So naturally, as one might be able to tell, when Jane was trying hard to explain her views to Joe in our group discussion, Joe eventually said “I give up. You win.” Those trigger words led to an emotional explosion for Jane. In a matter of seconds our upbeat and interesting group discussion had turned into the end of battle in which both armies lost. Joe’s sarcastic tone of voice along with his word choice was simply a byproduct of his care-free and humoristic attitude. But since Jane was unaware of Joe’s personality, his surrendering statement was both disrespectful and embarrassing to her. Jane began to cry as she expressed how she thought Joe did not care for her thoughts at all. Joe completely in shock with all that happened, was at a loss for words. Thus leading to Jane storming out of the room and building to head home, leaving the moments that pursued, to take place in an awkwardness so intense it was nearly tangible.
As the group leader that night, I ashamedly testify that I witnessed the detailed discourse above take place with nearly no resolving action on my part. I knew Joe well enough to grasp his personality and understand his tone of voice however, I had no idea how little patient Jane could be and no idea that Jane could interpret Joe’s words as a trigger words. I was able to completely bandage both parties of the situation a few days later, however the argument that night was due to poor communication skills by both Joe and Jane. Joe’s bitingly sarcastic tone of voice was an issue of semantics, and poor communications. Jane was not able to interpret Joe’s words in the manner that he had uttered them. Joe, on the other hand did not utilize proper listening skills in order to try and comprehend Jane’s thoughts on the manner. Although this event did not transpire at a workplace similar events that also stem from poor communication skills do happen.
Excellent Communication Leads to Higher Career Success
“Communication is the grease that
keeps the gear moving.” Wise words from the renown motivational
speaker, TV & radio host, & “America’s trusted voice on money and
business” Dave Ramsey. Along with the authors of this course’s textbook,
and Ramsey, I completely agree in that excellent communication is absolutely
imperative for higher success in one’s career. Communication, a 2-way street
that includes both sending and listening to messages, is necessary for every
job and occupation, minimizes risk of physical harm, minimizes risk of
mistakes, maximizes one’s ability to perform their job to its fullest,
maximizes your future career potential.
Communication is defined as the sending and receiving of information. Often times people think of communication more as solely the sending of messages and overlook the receiving of them. The father of modern management, Peter Drucker once said that “It is the recipient who communicates. The so-called communicator, the person who emits the communication, does not communicate. He utters. Unless there is someone who hears...there is only noise.” The skill and art of listening is regarded to as even more important than sending messages themselves. Around the year 45 A.D the leader of the Jerusalem church, James, in a letter to other church leaders at the time wrote, “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry (James 1:19).” This shows that listening has always been an integral process of healthy communication (especially in management or in the business setting). This back and forth of sending and receiving signals is something that everyone will encounter countless times, daily, in any occupation. As mentioned in the textbook, “One cannot not communicate.” Everything from clothing, to facial expressions, to body posture sends signals to others. With this constant communication that happens between humans comes a greater need to increase our communication skills to better our relationships and career success in the workplace.
Working in the field of law enforcement or in the armed forces, communication is extremely vital as it plays a role in life and death situations. Poor communication was one of the more common reasons for shooting errors by officers, cited by the Los Angeles Police Department. Communications in the health care industry, whether management or care/treatment, physically makes a huge impact on every patient and employee. In a study prior to 2013, a major hospital accreditation group found that communication errors leading to medical errors can cause up to 98,000 deaths each year. These two examples illustrate how efficient communication can lead to a minimization of errors in the work place. Specifically in the listening category of communication, good listeners ask questions until the messages are clear to them. Even within basic simple demonstrations in our class last week, we saw that the task of folding paper is difficult if there is not sufficient guidance and clarity. If a class of students cannot fold scrap paper correctly without efficient communications, why do people in the workplace think that can succeed without improving their communications skills?
The top 5 qualities/skills that employers want, are typically listed as: ability to work in a team, verbal communication skills, ability to make decisions and problem solve, ability to obtain and process information, ability to plan, organize, and prioritize work. The one skill in that list, in which the 4 other skills stem from is verbal communication. Efficient communications:
Communication is defined as the sending and receiving of information. Often times people think of communication more as solely the sending of messages and overlook the receiving of them. The father of modern management, Peter Drucker once said that “It is the recipient who communicates. The so-called communicator, the person who emits the communication, does not communicate. He utters. Unless there is someone who hears...there is only noise.” The skill and art of listening is regarded to as even more important than sending messages themselves. Around the year 45 A.D the leader of the Jerusalem church, James, in a letter to other church leaders at the time wrote, “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry (James 1:19).” This shows that listening has always been an integral process of healthy communication (especially in management or in the business setting). This back and forth of sending and receiving signals is something that everyone will encounter countless times, daily, in any occupation. As mentioned in the textbook, “One cannot not communicate.” Everything from clothing, to facial expressions, to body posture sends signals to others. With this constant communication that happens between humans comes a greater need to increase our communication skills to better our relationships and career success in the workplace.
Working in the field of law enforcement or in the armed forces, communication is extremely vital as it plays a role in life and death situations. Poor communication was one of the more common reasons for shooting errors by officers, cited by the Los Angeles Police Department. Communications in the health care industry, whether management or care/treatment, physically makes a huge impact on every patient and employee. In a study prior to 2013, a major hospital accreditation group found that communication errors leading to medical errors can cause up to 98,000 deaths each year. These two examples illustrate how efficient communication can lead to a minimization of errors in the work place. Specifically in the listening category of communication, good listeners ask questions until the messages are clear to them. Even within basic simple demonstrations in our class last week, we saw that the task of folding paper is difficult if there is not sufficient guidance and clarity. If a class of students cannot fold scrap paper correctly without efficient communications, why do people in the workplace think that can succeed without improving their communications skills?
The top 5 qualities/skills that employers want, are typically listed as: ability to work in a team, verbal communication skills, ability to make decisions and problem solve, ability to obtain and process information, ability to plan, organize, and prioritize work. The one skill in that list, in which the 4 other skills stem from is verbal communication. Efficient communications:
1) enhance one’s ability to build team cohesiveness
2) increase one’s ability to make good judgment when decision making and problem solving
3) increase your ability to obtain and process accurate information
4) and aid in efficiently planning and organizing work
These skills are all a result of
excellent communications, which is absolutely imperative for higher success in
the work place.
First Blog!
Hello Blogger world & internet!
Somehow or another for some reason, or maybe no reason, you have found yourself currently reading this sentence in this blog and wondering what is going on. Well, wonder no more, this is Johan Chikkala's (that's me) first blog! Long term, I'm not really sure what this blog will look like but in the short run this will be a haven for blogs with a theme of workplace issues.
Enjoy!
Somehow or another for some reason, or maybe no reason, you have found yourself currently reading this sentence in this blog and wondering what is going on. Well, wonder no more, this is Johan Chikkala's (that's me) first blog! Long term, I'm not really sure what this blog will look like but in the short run this will be a haven for blogs with a theme of workplace issues.
Enjoy!
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