DiscussionEveryone who is reading this is by definition able to participate in communication process. Alreadyimportant being an effective communicator is a whole lot more than just reading and writing words on acomputer.To begin to define what is involved in the bigger picture of effective communication take a look at: “ThreeElements of Great Communication According to Aristotle Harvard Business Review (2013)- http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/01/three_elements_of_great_communication_according.html.This article helps us see that there is nothing new about understanding the component of effectivecommunication. But while the concepts of ethos pathos and logos have been understood since Aristotleback in 350 BC being able to use them in our real life is a whole other set of issues.Central to becoming a good communicator is self-awareness. That is we have to learn how to listen toourselves first before we can start improving the way we are communicating to others. Here is a shortexercise to help us take this first step in communicative self-awareness: “How Good Are YourCommunication Skills?” – http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCS_99.htmSo how did you do? Even if you ended up with a high number were there any opportunities in theexercise to see specific things about your communication habits that could be improved?As we start to better understand the way we communicate to others one of the most important elementswe begin to see is the importance of our underlying emotions – our feelings – about ourselves others and the situation we are in. Issues like self-esteem love hate anger happiness worries violence tenderness rejection acceptance dependence and independence are just a few of the characteristicsthat infuse communication with powerful meanings over under up and around the words that come out ofour mouths.While it can be difficult we can take important steps towards increased self-awareness by pushingourselves to become more conscious of how these types of emotions affect our communication withothers. This area of skill building is called “Emotional Intelligence.” Read more about EQ here: “EmotionalIntelligence (EQ): Five Skills for Raising your Emotional Intelligence”- http://helpguide.org/mental/eq5_raising_emotional_intelligence.htmSo where are we? We now know about ethos pathos and logos the three basic elements ofcommunication first identified by Aristotle. We are also working on improving our own communicationskills through increasing our self-awareness of how we actually communication with others. And finally we are starting to look at the role emotions play in how we relate to each other in both verbal andnonverbal ways. (for a larger overview of communication be sure to check out my lecture in the Week 7Content section).With all that in mind here is this week’s question:Imagine you are part of a four person team charged with developing a complex multi-variable marketanalysis for your hospital. All members of your team are basically at the same job level as you and yourboss has not designated anyone as the official “Team Leader.” After your first meeting everyone agreeson the general vision and purpose of the project the primary tasks needed to be completed and a sixweek time schedule.After two weeks of work one of the members of your team with an office right down the hall from yourshas failed to produce anything. Another team member has a sick child and is starting to miss meetingsand is seriously lagged in his overall participation in the project. He works virtually out of his home inSeattle Washington.What would you say to each of these team members about the project?
