Business Communications (lecture 3 and 4) Team Communications

1. Business Communication MGT 3201

Team Communications

2. Formal and Informal Teams

Companies create formal and informal teams
Formal teams become part of the structure of
the organization (e.g. the HR Team; the Safety
Committee)
Informal teams are established to solve specific
issues and then are disbanded (e.g. project
teams; team responsible for implementing a
change initiative).

3. Advantages and Disadvantages

Talk to the person next to you. See if you can
think of 2 advantages of having teams and 2
disadvantages of teams.
Then we will talk about this as a whole class

4. Advantages of Teams

Good teams improve productivity, creativity and
employee involvement
Sharing ideas and resources among people
makes everyone better informed and better
skilled
Increased diversity of views. More solutions to a
problem can be found
Teams facilitate the building of strong
professional relationships between people

5. Disadvantages of Teams

Groupthink – quiet members allow dominant
members to run the team. Some people just
conform to expectations
Can be slow to make decisions – over consult or
over debate issues
Poor performers can hide more easily in a team
When 2 people don’t get along in a team,
everybody is affected

6. Effective Teams

What is an effective team?
What kinds of things do effective teams do?

7. Effective Teams

Recognize and value each person’s unique skills
and knowledge
Share the work and the responsibility
Recognize each person’s right to have a
meaningful role and input into the team’s efforts
Help each other to achieve team goals
Put the team’s goals before personal goals
Trust between individuals to do what is needed

8. Team Communications Technology

Teams can work together to communicate using
shared authorship blogs (a L&D blog where all
L&D team members can regularly inform and
exchange views with others, promote events and
add links to other sites)
Wikis – allows teams to update and edit
information for the benefit of all others… no
individual credit.

9. Team Communications Technology

Teams can work together to communicate using
shared authorship blogs (a L&D blog where all
L&D team members can regularly inform and
exchange views with others, promote events and
add links to other sites)
Wikis – allows teams to update and edit
information for the benefit of all others… no
individual credit.

10. The Team Development Process

1. Forming
5. Mourning
2. Storming
4. Performing
3. Norming

11. The Team Development Process

Forming = team members come together
Storming = they debate and consider rules and
processes
Norming = they agree on a set of operating
principles
Performing = they work towards their goals
Mourning = team member leaves or team is
disbanded

12. Team Roles

Dysfunctional
Functional
Controlling:
Encouraging: Drawing
Initiating: Getting the
dominating others by
exhibiting superiority or
authority
out other members by
showing verbal and
non- verbal support and
praise
team started on a topic
Withdrawing: retiring
from the team by
becoming silent or
refusing to deal with a
particular task / issue
Attention seeking:
calling attention to one’s
self and demanding
recognition from others
Diverting: focusing the
team’s discussion on
topics of interest to the
individual rather than on
those relevant to the task
Harmonizing:
Reconciling differences
among team members
through mediation or by
using humour to relieve
tension
Compromising:
Offering to yield on a
point in the interest of
the team reaching an
acceptable decision
Information seeking
or giving: Offering or
seeking information
relevant to questions
facing the team
Coordinating: making
links between ideas,
clarifying, summarizing
Procedure setting:
Suggesting decision
making procedures that
will move the team
towards a goal

13. Conflict in Teams

In every team, at some time, there is likely to be
conflict between some team members.
What causes conflict in work teams?
Is conflict always a bad thing?

14. Conflict in Teams

John is the manager of a team of 6 IT
consultants. A month ago, 2 of the consultants
had a big argument at work. Now they ignore
each other at work. This makes the other 4 team
members uncomfortable and productivity has
dropped. Team morale is low and people now
avoid the IT team. John’s boss has told John he
must fix the problem “once and for all.”
If you were John, how would you solve the
problem?

15. Resolving Team Conflict

Proaction – deal with minor conflict early before it
becomes major conflict.
Communication – Get those directly involved in the
conflict to help resolve it.
Openness – Get feelings out in the open before dealing
with the main issue.
Research – Seek factual reasons for the problem before
seeking solutions
Flexibility – Don’t let anyone lock into a position before
considering other solutions

16. Resolving Team Conflict

Fair Play – don’t let anyone avoid accepting a fair
solution.
Alliance – Get opponents to fight together against an
‘outside force’ rather than against each other.

17. Resistance to Change

Organizations are always changing. Change processes
are one of the most common causes of workplace
conflict
Some resistance to change is irrational; some resistance
is logical. Either way, there will be conflict within and
among teams.
Calm, reasonable communication helps to overcome
resistance…

18. Overcoming Resistance to Change

Be understanding….be empathetic. Legitimize
reasonable fears or complaints.
Encourage resistance to be out in the open. Have 2-way
communication channels.
Listen and provide feedback on complaints people
have…don’t just keep stating the corporate line.
Address emotions and fears before pushing change on
people. Communicate first; change second.

19. Communicating through Change

You are corporate communications manager for a large
hotel and resort. Your company is introducing a new
compensation and benefits structure and a new rewards
scheme. Many staff are angry. They do not know why
this is happening or how they will be affected. Some
want to strike, some good staff are talking of leaving.
How will you communicate to all staff about this change?
What methods will you use? What will be your
approach?

20. Business Communication MGT3201

Listening Skills
Non Verbal Communication

21. Listening Skills Test

We will begin this topic by testing your listening
and comprehension skills.
Take a piece of plain A4 paper and a pen.
Your task is to re-create a picture that will be
described to you.

22.

H

23. Listening Skills Practice

We will complete two other short listening skills
activities.

24. Types of Listening

Content Listening – the goal is to understand and
retain the speaker’s message. The emphasis is
on information.
Critical Listening – The goal is to understand and
evaluate the meaning of the speaker’s message.
The validity of the argument; strength of
evidence and logic of conclusions

25. Types of Listening

Empathetic Listening – the goal is to understand
the speaker’s feelings, wants and needs so you
can appreciate their point of view.
Active Listening – Whatever mode you are using
you should be an active listener. The goal here is
to engage with what the other person is saying
and truly hear what they are saying.

26. The Listening Process

Listening is a far harder process than you think.
Most people are not so good at it.
Most of us listen at or below a 25% efficiency
rate.
We remember only about 50% of what is said in
a 10 minute conversation and forget half of that
within 24 hours.
Listening is a ‘real-time’ 5 step process…that’s
why it is not easy.

27. The Listening Process

RECEIVING
DECODING
DECODING
REMEMBERING
Hear and
acknowledge
Interpret and
understand
EVALUATING
Sort and store
RESPONDING
Analyze and
evaluate
React

28. Internal and External Barriers

Internal
Selective
listening
because we are:
Bored
Uninterested
Tired
Confused
Distracted
Emotional
Busy
External
Blocked by
Noise
Visuals
Language
Environment
Knowledge
Body language

29. The Listener’s Mind

Our minds find it hard to remember what we hear
because…
Most people speak at 120 – 150 words a minute,
but the brain has capacity for 500 words per
minute. So the brain has a lot of free time when it
is listening…it gets distracted and thinks about
other things.

30. Business Communication MGT3201 Non-verbal Communication

31. Non-verbal Communication

What do we mean by non-verbal communication?

32. Examples of Non-verbal Communication

Facial Expressions
Gesture and posture
The use of silence or pauses
Personal appearance
Touch
Time, space and proximity

33. Facial expressions

Facial Expressions communicate how people
are feeling. The speaker and the listener
exchange facial expressions during a
conversation. Often they say more than the
words…sometimes they contradict the words.
Happy, sad, confused, angry, disappointed,
afraid, concerned, love, dislike…all easily
conveyed with facial expressions.

34. Gesture and Posture

We show gestures mostly with our hands.
Politicians and news reporters use hand
gestures when they speak to emphasize an
important point.
We also have hand signals…a wave for
goodbye; thumbs-up for ok or great; a closed fist
can be waved in anger. Folding one’s arms can
be seen as defensive. Moving our head or
raising our shoulders are also gestures.

35. Gesture and Posture

Posture is how we stand or sit. It is how we hold
ourselves.
We can stand straight or we can slouch; we can
stand in a relaxed posture or sit / lean on
something.
Posture says how comfortable we are with / how
we feel about ourselves, the situation and the
person we are talking to.

36. Personal Appearance

Our clothes, neatness, grooming and personal
hygiene also send messages about how we feel
about ourselves, others and the situation.
Good personal appearance might suggest pride.
Poor appearance might suggest disrespect or
low self-esteem.
We use clothes to attract interest in ourselves, to
impress others and to show how we see
ourselves. Uniforms also express authority.

37. Silence or Pauses

We can use silence to show people we do not
like what they have said or that we are angry
with them…especially when used in response to
a question.
Couples often use silence as an alternative to
arguing to show anger.
A pause can show someone you are thoughtful;
carefully considering what they have said.

38. Touch

This is more cultural. Americans and British
people usually only touch people they know well.
Some Europeans / Latin Americans use touch
with strangers.
A kiss or a handshake or pat on the back all
convey non-verbal messages
Touch is used to convey intimacy and show
someone you care about them. Politicians use
touch to try and connect personally with others.

39. Time, Space and Proximity

Making people wait or being late conveys
messages about respect and power. Many
professionals make us wait to see them.
Meeting spaces (size, design, place) convey
non-verbal messages too.
Proximity or personal space is used to show how
we feel. We may stand very close or keep a big
distance from others when we talk.