Skill #1- Communicate well in multiple ways, modes and listen actively to those with whom you are communicating.

VSkill #1- Communicate well in multiple ways, modes and listen actively to those with whom you are communicating.

 

The design staff at Easy Chairs often complains that the team leader, Josh, is hard to work with, but they cannot do without him. He has great ideas and knows how to implement them well, but in terms of getting the work done the team complains he is a nightmare. Here is what his team has to say:

 

“We send him emails and he either gives us one-word answers, fails to edit what he sends, or fails to reply. Sometimes he tells two people to do the same thing not remembering he has given the assignment to someone else. The worse problem is that he prioritizes work in an email and then changes things when events interfere. Again, not communicating the change. Last week two of us edited a design for a custom front carrier basket for a customer whose deadline was this week only to find that Josh had changed the deadline to last week. The basket design that was completed by us both had to be adjusted to one design and the rear basket had to be done in two days. This meant long nights. Creating the printer design code takes time. We have tried to talk with Josh about things like this and he gets better for a while and then things are back to normal. He just doesn’t listen.”

 

Josh was asked about the team’s concerns and here was his reply:

 

“I spend a lot of time prioritizing and delegating job tasks to the team. I always ask people if they are clear about what they have to do and ninety percent of the time I get no answers. I have to assume they are fine with what I have said. I am the first to admit that I could be better about my emails. However, I often call people to check on what is being done or stop by to see if things are going okay. I don’t want to micromanage what they do. The problem last week is an example; I went to check up on the front basket design Don was assigned only to find that Joan was doing the same project (and not working on the rear basket as the schedule said). The customer called me with changes, including a deadline change, and I saw Joan in the hallway and told her about the changes. I did not tell her she was to edit the basket design. She just assumed that was what I was telling her to do. I went to Dan and gave him the changes. Why didn’t she say that I had gotten the wrong basket design person? I sometimes think that they are not listening to me.”

 

Dwight is curious about the communication issues that seem to be happening here between Josh and the team and wants to take action. He wants an email from you by the end of the week. It should contain the following discussion:

 

 

Directions:

By SATURDAY, complete the following:

Create an email to Dwight outlining, with enough detail, the approach you would take to resolve the team’s complaints.

Identify the communication issues that are causing problems with the team scenario.

Explain at least six techniques you would employ to make the communication better between Josh and the team.

Explain how you would communicate all this information to the people involved.

Use course material to support your responses and include APA in-text citations with a reference list.

THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, complete the following:

Respond to your classmates three or more days throughout the week. Remember you are trying to develop the best answers to the questions as possible. Your classmates are doing the same so read the posts carefully looking for the best ideas being presented. The goal is that by the end of the week the class will come to some consensus as to the best answers giving you the chance to submit the best ideas in the final post.

You must use course material to support your responses, but you do not need to use APA in the brainstorming discussion with the exception of Saturday’s initial first impression post and Tuesday’s final post.

Participation must be reflected in the final post so grades will be affected by the content portion of the post if participation is not shown. Therefore, it is important to get in the class often and with the idea of improving your initial post with the discussion so that the final grade will be the best you can deliver.

 

By TUESDAY, complete the following:

Attach your final post in the classroom by Tuesday at 11:59 PM ET.

The final post must reflect the brainstorming activities and should be different than the Saturday initial post.

The final post must include a variety of sources from the class material as well as the use of scenario or case study facts where appropriate.

The final post must USE APA in-text citations and reference list.

 

Additional Requirements and How to Prepare the Weekly Attachment Submission

 

Follow the instructions carefully if the assignment asks for a memo, email, plan, report, etc. be sure to follow the format templates provided.

Submissions should be in proper business writing form.

APA formatting with in-text citations and a reference list is required.

Review the grading rubric for the assignment.

Carefully read all of the instructions to make sure all elements of the assignment have been covered.

Third-person writing is required. Third-person means that there are no words such as “I, me, my, we, or us” (first-person writing), nor is there use of “you or your” (second-person writing). If uncertain how to write in the third person, view this link.

Contractions are not used in business writing, so the expectation is that students do not use contractions in assignments.

Paraphrase and do not use direct quotes. This means you do not use more than four consecutive words from a source document; put a passage from a source document into your own words and attribute the passage to the source document. Provide the page or paragraph number. Note that a reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice versa.

Do not use books as source material.

Use a variety as well as multiple course readings and research to support ideas, reasoning, and conclusions.

Submit the final project into the appropriate assignment submission folder. Once submitted, the project is eligible for grading and students will not be permitted to make changes or make another submission.

NOTE: All submitted work is to be your original work. You may not use any work from another student, the Internet or an online clearinghouse. You are expected to understand the Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism Policy and know that it is your responsibility to learn about instructor and general academic expectations with regard to proper citation of sources as specified in the APA Publication Manual, 7th Ed. (Students are held accountable for in-text citations and an associated reference list only).