Human-Human Communication in Professional Environments

1. Human-Human Communication in Professional Environments W. J. (Chris) Zhang, PhD, P. Eng Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Saskatchewan, Canada Email: chris.zhang@usask.ca

2. Outline: 1. Background 2. Motivation 3. Principle of Human-Human Communication (HHC) 4. Case study 5. Summary

3. Background Face-to-face communication What is the goal of human-human communication? Communication through a media In professional environments, the goals: accuracy and easy to understand

4. Background Aristotle’s theory, circa 220 BCE Communicator Creditability, etc. Message Logics, etc. Background, etc. Audience H-H communication is not only to exchange information but also involves the relationship between the communicator and audience

5. Background Communication rheology Communicator Creditability, etc. Message Logics, etc. Background, etc. Audience

6. Background A: Have you had lunch B: I got up quite late A’s mind: guess B has not had lunch; assuming that this assumption is correct A: Here there is a tomato, please help yourself B: Thanks; tomato is a healthy food A: I think so Communication rheology

7. Motivation My own experience as a PhD student 20 years ago in The Netherlands My own experience as a professor in North America: Chinese student, Indian students, etc. In the west, character -> intellectual -> communication EX 1: NSERC scholarship competition: Research (40%), Leadership (30%), Communication (30%)

8. Motivation EX 2: Engineering programs across Canada have a class (3 c.u.) for human-human communication. Chinese students get average of 60-65% while the class average is about 70% EX 3: In the engineering program at the University of Saskatchewan, human-human communication training includes: one communication class (3rd year) 1st year, design team – peers and presentation 2nd year, design team –peers and presentation 4th year, design team – peers, companies, professors, presentation

9. Motivation EX 4: Employers such as Boeing, National Engineering Accreditation Board such as CEAB in Canada and the corresponding organization in the US, Europe all recognize: Communication is a skill that is seriously missed in contemporary graduates. Joseph Hoey, “Employer Satisfaction with Alumni Professional Preparation.” Three out of Four Say Better Communication Equals Greater Employee Retention.” Hudspith, R.D., “Education for Social Responsibility: Two approaches.”

10. Motivation Why does the western engineering education so stress on H-H communication? Activities in business and manufacturing are featured more team work and thus more human-human communication. Poor communications may cause failures, ineffectiveness and inefficiency, more seriously, Human individual with human individual: fighting Community with community: war Remark 1: Chinese philosophy and culture on H-H communication: Do more but say less By doing, you show your contribution to audiences but not by saying Asking questions or asking for clarification is discouraged

11. Motivation Axiom I: Cannot not communicate Axiom 2: Establish creditability through communication Axiom 3: Exert influence through communication

12. Principle Do not guess and just ask Do not hide your mind and let audience know you Top down development Provide background Always give introduction

13. Principle 1: Do not guess and just ask If you are not sure if audience knows about what you said or if you have a need to know audience’s background knowledge to understand what you are going to say, you just ask audience: Can you follow me? Do I make sense to you? Is that right? If you have not understood what others said, you just ask but not make assumption. For instance, you can always ask audience: Can you please to rephrase what you said? Excuse me? Pardon me?

14. Principle 1: Do not guess and just ask A’s mind: guess B has not had lunch; assuming that this assumption is incorrect A: Have you had lunch B: I got up quite late A: Here there is a tomato, please help yourself B: Sorry, I have had lunch Remark 2: In Chinese culture, guess is encouraged. Correct guess is regarded as a smart behavior, while incorrect guess is neglected Remark 3: In Chinese culture, asking question is considered as low intelligent behavior; asking question means less knowledgeable behavior

15. Principle 2: Do not hide your mind and let audience know you Audience Starting End White box

16. Principle 2: Do not hide your mind and let audience know you Audience Starting End Black box

17. Principle 2: Do not hide your mind and let audience know you Audience Starting End Black box

18. Principle 2: Do not hide your mind and let audience know you Remark 5: Chinese culture generates black-box process – i.e., an end result only Remark 6: In Chinese culture, more exposures of minds may be viewed more chances to make mistakes. Therefore, two options need to be internally analyzed to present only the best one Only one person’s view, which may not be the best one from a team’s view, so the black-box is not helpful to team work

19. Principle 3: Top down development Top Down

20. Principle 3: Top down development I saw a man who was my classmate in primary school and was a shy boy Most important Less important Least important Situation: A and B; B had a delicious lunch with a friend C. A: Have you had lunch; B: I had a friend C to visit me and he helped me to cook lunch; we cooked tomato which is a healthy food. ………? Not quite clear about whether B had a lunch or not; he had lunch but he told to A something about how he made lunch

21. Principle 3: Top down development Top Take lunch Cook food With a friend C Tomato Down Bottom-up approach is never efficient, as it takes too much attention from audience, and when it runs to top, audience may not have enough attention

22. Principle 4: Provide background Wang Zhang Top C Wang has no knowledge of A Zhang has full knowledge of A, B, C as well as their aggregation into a building B A Down Zhang: This building is built upon A, then B and C, etc. In this case, Wang does not have any idea about A, so his understanding involves a deficient here. Therefore, A should first give some knowledge of A to Wang

23. Principle 5: Always give introduction 1 1 2 Introduction I am sorry, I need to leave 1 but to 2. I will be back to 1 very soon

24. Principle 5: Always give introduction I met a man who was my classmate in primary school. I want to introduce him today to you guys. 1 Before I continue to describe him, let me first explain the situation where I met him. 2 It was a yesterday evening, there was a big rain in that area. …….. He was a shy boy, ….. 3 There is a missing introduction sentence between 1 and 2. In fact, 1 and 3 are connected, while 2 is not connected. Therefore, we can view 2 as another branch other than 1-3 branch.

25. Principle Do not guess and just ask Do not hide your mind and let audience know you Top down development Provide background Always give introduction

26. Case study (e-mail communication) Example 1: A: I have completed a report. Please read it. B: no response (as B thinks: after I completed the reading, I will then respond to A’s) B fails to follow ‘Do not hide you and let audience know you’ principle. After A sent the email to B. B does not respond, causing an uncertainty in A’s, as there are many possible situations: (1) B has not received A’s email, (2) B has received but B will not read it because B is not interested in it, (3) B has received but B will read it and will respond to only after reading and B has some comment, etc. Unless reading it causes no time, B may write to A: I have got your report and I will read it and give you my comment if any Remark 7: Chinese culture is such that there is no response. The first situation is that B will never read it, just forget about it, so no response. The second situation is that B will need time to read, but there will be no response until B has completed the reading

27. Case study (e-mail communication) Example 2: A: I have completed a report. Please read it. B: respond to A as follows: “I will read it and get back to you with my comments. Suppose A is very busy and a manager. As a manager, A has communication with C, D in addition to B. B has made a mistake by violating ‘provide background’ principle. This is because B’s sentence ‘I will read it. ….” is not presented with the context which is known to B but not necessarily known to A, as he or she may have forgetten it. Therefore, in B’s response, B should keep A’s message. As such, it should be B’s response: I will read it ….. > I have completed a report. ….. Remark 8: Chinese approach usually does not include other’s message, e.g., cell phone message system

28. Case study (e-mail communication) Example 3: Continue Example 2: B’s response: > I have completed a report. ….. I will read it ….. B’s response violates ‘top down’ principle. The problem is that A will have to read his or her past email, which will take him or her extra time. It may be possible that we they glance their email or read a little bit response of B, they can recall what they wrote in the past. That is to say, there is no need to ask A to review his or her past email. Remark 9: Chinese approach usually puts response at the end.

29. Case study (e-mail communication) Example 4: Situation: A wrote a paper which needs to be revised and submitted to a conference by August 19. B is A’s supervisor. However, A did not clearly remember this deadline A wrote to B on a day before the deadline: Here is a new version of the paper. A violates the principle of ‘Do not hide your mind and let audience know’ and the principle of ‘Do not guess and just ask’. In composing A’s email, A assumed that B knows the deadline. A may have several intentions by sending the revised paper to B: (a) Please read it again and give me feedback before August 19, (b) Keep it as a future reference. To B, which one is correct, a or b, is uncertain. So the correct one is (assuming A has (a) in mind): I have revised paper, see the attached file. Please read it and revise it if any before the deadline of August 19.

30. Case study (e-mail communication) Example 5: The role of carbon copy in the email system. The most important benefit with the email system is that it can allow a group of people to be distributed by message, that is through cc or Bcc. Remark 10: Chinese approach seldom uses CC or BCC function in email communication

31. Summary What is communication Why communication is important Five principles for effective communication Specific knowledge of email communication

32. EndThanks and Questions