3 Page essay on Workplace Communication needed by tomorrow
brittney1989!
CommunicationSkillsEducationisaPriority.docx“Communication Skills Education is a Priority”
Dear Dave,
Why do many people communicate so poorly these days? It’s not just when they write, but half the time I can’t understand what people are saying. Maybe it’s me, but are people learning how to communicate in schools or at their work? Will it get worse?
Kathy
Dear Kathy,
You came to the right person. The preponderance of poor communications skills is systemic in nature considering poor high school graduation rates. The U.S. Census Bureau reported the 2007 Minnesota public high school graduation rate was only 59 percent.
Organizational communication skills – these include: making convincing presentations, using information technology, writing business correspondence, initiating open discussion, negotiating, and resolving conflict.
Leadership communication skills – including: arousing enthusiasm, being a change catalyst, building team bonds, providing motivation, persuasion, and building optimism.
Interpersonal communication skills - the one-on-one skills including: active listening, building rapport, emotional self-control, building trust, and relating to people of diverse backgrounds
The question becomes: How can people learn and use these various skills? One word: Education. Colleges, high schools, community education, books (yup, reading more), trainers, and businesses may be of great help. The resources are out there - people must locate and learn from them. There’s that personal accountability thing again. Can we blame misuse of electronic communications (e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) for causing the well-written word to become a confluence of abbreviations, poor grammar, incomplete sentences, and fragmented thoughts (work with me, I am venting here)? The answer is, yes. Can we blame sloppy, incoherent conversation and dialogue on bad habits, laziness, and incomplete education? Again, yes. Other teachers tell me many students lack basic communication skills and it is very difficult to teach a specific course that assumes students have basic communication skills, and they do not. Will it get worse? Yes, if we don’t break the chain of communication decline. I believe education, business, and – yes, families - need to focus more attention on communication skills. Individuals must assess their communication skill competency and responsibly make attempts to improve. What good is knowledge and having viewpoints if you cannot communicate effectively?
