SESSION TEN: OPEN COMMUNICATION

If you are working on a team, you are part of a communication exchange. The better you get at communicating, the more effective you can be as a part of that team.

In this session, you’ll learn about how team players can support one another and encourage open communication.

Introduction

Team players can encourage open communication and trust by being dependable, pitching in and helping out, reading and responding to verbal cues, and candidly sharing views. The basic principles of good communication include the following items.

Objective

You should have an end result or objective clearly in mind before communicating. Examine your purpose. What specifically do you want the receiver to understand or to do, as a result of the communication?

Method

What’s the best method for achieving your objective? Obviously, some communication methods or channels are better than others for a given objective. Weigh the alternatives (written or oral, group or individual, formal or informal) before selecting a specific method such as a letter, memo, meeting, telephone call, or e-mail.

Structure

How you organize and construct your communication is very important to its success. There are many considerations: How much or how little to cover? What’s the best way to organize the message? How can you keep it simple and concise, yet complete? How can you gear it to your audience’s needs (frame of reference)?

Feedback

In order to ensure that your message has been understood and to evaluate the emotions of your receiver (how does he/she feel about it?), you should encourage frequent responses