This weeks lecture we went through the different types of communications such as verbal (Telephone, Face-To-Face, Skype, Conference calls, etc.) and non-verbal (Email, Skype messaging, letters, etc). We compared the two and discussed their differences.
Verbal communications
Advantages of verbal communications include things like; being about to hear or see the person’s reactions which helps to contribute to the tone of the conversation. This is a huge advantage because it helps you to assess the situation more easily and respond accordingly. For example; if you were talking to your boss and he’s talking in an angry tone to you, you would not be replying with a happy tone or have a cocky body language. I think this example would cover the points we made in class; being able to hear the reactions (tone of voice), synchronous (you’re both in the same time sync) and details (like body language).
Disadvantages of this type of communication include; Freudian slips, Geo location, difficult expression, given important information but there will be no record of it. Freudian slips, which is the “slip of the tongue”, which means accidentally saying something you weren’t meant to say. Geo location is where you are on Earth in relation to the person you want to communicate with. It could be impossible to have a verbal conversation in situations where the telephones are down and you are in Ireland and the other person is in Korea (of course there are other solutions to this but for this example, telephones are the only way to verbally communicate with someone you cannot reach unless you travel a great distance). Difficult expression which means it’s hard to try to express yourself. One of the last disadvantages we talked about was when you are given important information but there will be no record of it. For instance, a person hiring you might say the will pay you a certain amount of money but come pay day, they will pay you less than first agreed on and there’s not much you can do because they only said it verbally and there is no record of it (I know you’re suppose to sign contracts but if it was freelance-job and you didn’t get paid until it was done.)
Non-Verbal Communications
Example of this type of communication includes; email, instant messaging, forum posts, etc. We focused on emails as the mode of transport. Having a permanent record would be an advantage. This way, everything is recorded so that you can go back to review important points or to prove a point. Quick response was mentioned as one of the advantages but I would disagree. It really depends on the person/company. For example, I would check my emails frequently if I’m on the computer and it’s one of the first tasks I do when I turn on a computer. This is because I’m afraid I might miss important emails, for example, a lecture has been moved or person needs a quick response to a query. A company might take a few days to get back to you because of the amount of emails they get each day. To have the time to think on what you want to talk about would be an advantage of this form of communication.
Disadvantages we talked about included being; disruptive and no emotions. Disruptive in the fact that you could spend hours getting through your emails or you could be in the middle of working and someone needs you to respond to an email asap.
The lecturer brought up a presentation formula; the three Ss
Steak, Sizzle and Style. Steak is the “meat” or the actual content of the presentation. Sizzle refers to getting the audience involved and Style is the way in which you present things, which is dependent on the person.
We also talked about communication considerations (i.e. the number of people you have to communicate to), managing stakeholders. The conflicts involved in having meetings such as group thinking.
We talked about risk management and how to identify them and gauge how serious they would be. I think that’s about it
See you space cowboy.