Communication goals and strategies guide

Co-Worker Interactions (Team mates) Goal: get everyone to participate equally. Problem: Someone is dominating the conversation. Strategy: Dont let one person impose their point of view. What do you think Chris? Strategy: Ask that person to help you get others to participate. Jack, since you are so good at communicating ideas, why dont you help me get the rest of the team to contribute? Barbara, since you have so many ideas, why dont you work with Tim and see if he can come up with anything else? Problem: Someone is rambling or digressing. Strategy: Remind them that a goal of the course/ communication is to give only relevant information that is direct and to the point (concise). Jack, lets get back to discussing trade-offs, I think we are veering off course Matt, Those are all god ideas, but were digressing. Remember we have to practice staying on point and being concise for our clients. Problem: Someone isnt talking Strategy: Take turns in talking. Pat its your turn next. Strategy: Choose someone who hasnt spoken in a while. Sasha hasnt commented yet, what do you think about... Goal: Listening for understanding. Problem: People arent listening to each other. Strategy: Listen carefully and respectfully to what others say. Have members summarize important points. Pat does that make sense to you? Sasha made an important point, did everyone get it?
From: Borge, M., & White, B. Y. (2009). Scaffolding collaborative processes with managerial roles. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

Strategy: Have team members show that they are listening by making eye contact with the speaker and smiling or nodding your head. All eyes on Harry, please stop doing what you are doing for a moment. Strategy: Treat everyones suggestions seriously. Thats an interesting idea, lets consider it for a moment. What would we need to do to implement.... Problem: People dont understand each other. Strategy: Check with listener to see if they understand. Am I explaining that well? Let me try again... Strategy: Encourage the team to ask questions when they dont understand Im not sure what you mean, can you explain more. John, do you need Mary to explain what she means? Strategy: Try to reword what someone else said. Do you mean... ? Goal: Building on each others ideas. Problem: People arent benefiting from each others work. Strategy: Have a meeting or find a way to share ideas. Lets get together to share what weve been thinking and doing. Strategy: Try to add to someones suggestion. Maybe we could use that by adding... Problem: One idea doesnt connect to the next. Strategy: Build on others ideas. Building on what Chris said, I think . I think what Sue said would work if we also... Strategy: Relate each idea to something you know. That reminds me of . Problem: One idea doesnt spark another. Strategy: Connect what you say to what was just said. What you just said makes me think about .
From: Borge, M., & White, B. Y. (2009). Scaffolding collaborative processes with managerial roles. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

Goal: Create a common, shared understanding Problem: The team hasnt developed a common shared understanding. Strategy: Try to summarize the main ideas. To sum up, . Problem: No one stops to clarify ideas or evaluate their own understanding. Strategy: Create a list of concepts/ideas that people don't fully understand. Okay, I think we should each write down something that we did not understand from this chapter/activity. Strategy: Once you identify ideas that need more clarification, make sure to ask members to explain and summarize these concepts during discussions. Teresa, a lot of us didn't get this concept in the book/meeting. What does it mean when you say... . Problem: After a disagreement, people still cant agree on a course of action. Strategy: Try to put different ideas together. So I think that Sashas idea is related to Pats idea in this way . Client/user Interactions Problem: During a meeting the team spends more time talking than listening Strategy: Approach meetings as opportunities to forge relationships, not just do work. Hi Sally, how are things at Tallies? Saw the latest video blog . Strategy: Assign a team member to focus on communication and moderate discussions. Hal (moderator): So Jack (client): you've heard some of our ideas, what do you think about . Hal (moderator): Yolanda (client), what do you think are some of the biggest issues we should address? . Problem: The (non-tech) client of the current website/system feels attacked. Strategy: Start off with positive comments and then point out current issues. While it's amazing that Sara was able to put this entire website together by herself with little to no training, there are many issues that became apparent
From: Borge, M., & White, B. Y. (2009). Scaffolding collaborative processes with managerial roles. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

especially as the site grew. Here are some examples . Strategy: Pose the problems as common misconceptions. "Many people think using bright colors will add to the appeal of a website, but in actuality Problem: The (Tech/expert) client of the current website/system feels attacked. Strategy: Point out that the client knows quite a bit more than the average user. "Harry, you are an expert in technology, so to you this system is very easy to negotiate, as it is to most tech savvy people. The problem is that your average user has far less knowledge than you and would likely experience much more problems when trying to do the same tasks. So our challenge is to make the system easy enough for the average user, while at the same time sophisticated enough for someone with your level of expertise." Problem: Ideas are not understandable or accurate for the audience. Strategy: Find out who your audience is and suit your ideas for that audience. "Well, we'll be speaking to programmers today, so we can get more into the details of the features and maybe even be able to ask them for some input... ." Strategy: Avoid using terms like "easy to use" or "user friendly" and other jargon. "There are many different systems we could use, but some of them are more difficult to learn than others. What we tried to do is to create a site where new members could sign on and start using the features relatively quickly, just how quickly depends on the particular user. For example, younger users will likely be familiar with all the features as we've modeled them after other popular sites, however, older users may need more guidance and this is what we suggest..."

From: Borge, M., & White, B. Y. (2009). Scaffolding collaborative processes with managerial roles. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.