Learning moments and their educational impact

Management

Learning Moment

One of the most important learning moments in this chapter came from reading the section on "One-Way vs. Two-Way Communication." Obviously, learning how to communicate effectively is one of the most important aspects of any type of management. I think the issue of one-way communication is one that many managers face without knowing or understanding it, and so this chapter is extremely valuable in explaining how one-way communication occurs and how the good manager can avoid it. As the text notes, "One-way communication is much more common than it should be because it is faster and easier for the sender." Many managers simply ignore the input of their staff in certain areas, and this type of one-way communication can cause misunderstandings, distrust, and even animosity between staff and management. It is extremely important to work together as a team in organizations, and there can be no teamwork without effective communication techniques.

As with many of the other chapters, I felt that including real-time business communication problems and solutions was extremely valuable. Seeing how these concepts are applied in the real world is quite helpful for a number of reasons. It shows they work, but it also shows where communication problems may crop up from time to time, so an effective manager can be on the lookout for them and stop them before they spread. As the text notes, two-way communication may be harder, but it also produces better results. Showing how that works in real-world situations is extremely valuable for future reference.

A also found the section on "Improving Communication Skills" quite valuable. These are the very types of concrete techniques that we can use in the future, and it is wise to learn and understand them now. Personally, presentation and persuasive skills are not the easiest for me, and so I paid particular attention to this section of the text. I do not like to "sell" my ideas, but understand that I will have to if I am an effective manager. So, I committed as much of this section as I could to memory, so I can call on these skills in the future. I especially liked the notation, "But as a manager, you should establish a communication culture that emphasizes accuracy, integrity, fairness, and objectivity rather than mere showmanship and image projection." I think those are all essential and valuable traits for any manager, and I have begun to think about and establish my own communication culture because of reading this chapter and I have been looking at my writing style, too. I also found the section on communicating with different cultures quite helpful. Sometimes we forget the entire world does not think as we do, and this was extremely helpful to remind us all that we have to be considerate of other cultures just as we are of other people in our own culture.

Personally, I do not enjoy some of the intense jargon that seems to be an integral part of much of the business world, and it was refreshing to see the attitude that jargon gets in the way of good communication skills. I have seen so many Web sites that are nearly indecipherable because of the language and jargon used to describe the company's business. I would not want to work for a company that could not state its' mission in clear, understandable terms, and I do not think managers who use jargon extensively can ever be truly good managers.