Communication and Self-Discovery

Communication and Self-Discovery New Directors WorkshopSeminars on Academic ComputingAugust 6, 2006 Bruce M. Taggart with thanks to: Jenny Cobb (AxysPointe) Jeannie Zappe, Carrie Regenstein, Barry Walsh (EDUCAUSE Institute)

How we’ll use our time today • Effective communication • Group Exercise: Your Communication Behavioral Style • Behavioral styles defined • “Style flex” • Group Exercise: Communicating with other styles • Active listening

So, communication is… • Understanding between and among people; • An interdependent process; • Not necessarily agreement; • Constant. You cannot NOT communicate. We constantly communicate, and we constantly receive communication from others.

Communication in all its channels

Basic principles of communication • A basic principle of communication in general: People are not mind readers • People judge you by your behavior, not your intent • A Russian proverb says, “Once a word goes out of your mouth, you can never swallow it again.”

How we communicate • What people can see • What people hear • What we actually say Communication is in the mind of the recipient: You’re just making noise if the other person doesn’t hear you.

To be an effective communicator… • Understand how communication occurs • Understand your own communication behavior style • Learn to diagnose the communication needs of others • Develop listening skills • Communicate with others in a way that is sensitive to and aware of their needs

Wouldn’t it be great if you could… • Understand how your preferred style of working comes across to other people • “Read” other people’s behavior so you’ll know the best way to work with them • Find common ground with people while maintaining your individuality and integrity • Adjust your behavior in small ways that dramatically improve results among different styles • Relate effectively—no matter how others react to you Source: People Styles at Work: Making Bad Relationships Good and Good Relationships Better Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton

What communication style are you? Exercise: Communication Behavioral Styles Inventory

Communications Styles Grid Less Emotional Analytical Driver More Assertive Less Assertive Amiable Expressive More Emotional

Analyticals • Tendency towards perfectionism • Deal with facts, data, logic, details • Sometimes slow to make decisions • May appear overly cautious and not good risk-takers • Decisions and information provided are usually accurate and thoughtful • Feelings and emotions kept inside

Amiables • “Warm and fuzzies” • People and friendship are very important • Like to get others involved in activities • Good at juggling multiple tasks • Concerned about feelings of others • Less inclined to speak their mind openly • Can get hurt feelings or be offended easily

Drivers • Strong, decisive, and results-oriented • Provide strong guidance for others • May appear pushy at times • Demanding of themselves and others • Highly self-critical • Resent those who “waste” time with idle chit-chat

Expressives • Party people • Love to have a good time • Highly creative and enthusiastic • Operate primarily by intuition • Little tolerance for those who are not expressive • Easily bored • Difficult to keep on task • Easily distracted

Toxic relationships • Natural tensions occur between individuals whose orientations are dramatically different from one another Analytical Expressive Driver Amiable Driver Expressive

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lighting and the lightning bug.” ~ Mark Twain

“Style flex” • Versatility is the ability to communicate with someone else based upon the other person’s comfort zone, the way in which the other person wants to communicate. • Style flex involves tailoring your behavior so the way you work fits better with the other person’s style—like a baseball player swinging at different pitches… • Style flex is a temporary adjustment of a few behaviors at key times. Source: People Styles at Work: Making Bad Relationships Good and Good Relationships Better Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton

“Style flex” • Style flex is not about: conforming to the other person’s point of view; giving up your goals or withholding your opinions; changing the other person; it’s about changing yourself • The primary leverage you have for improving a relationship is your own behavior Source: People Styles at Work: Making Bad Relationships Good and Good Relationships Better Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton

Communications Style Grid Less Emotional Driver Analytical Less Assertive More Assertive Amiable Expressive More Emotional

DO Prepare in advance Be accurate Be direct List pros and cons Present specifics Be persistent Use timetables for actions Provide tangible, practical evidence DON’T Be disorganized or messy Be casual, informal, or loud Rush decision-making Fail to follow through Waste time Leave things to chance Threaten or cajole Use opinions as evidence Be manipulative To communicate with Analyticals…

DO Start with a personal comment Show sincere interest in them as people Listen and be responsive quickly Be casual and non-threatening Ask “how” questions Provide assurances DON’T Rush into business Decide for them Stick to business constantly Force them to respond Be demanding Debate facts and figures Be abrupt Be patronizing To communicate with Amiables…

DO Be specific and brief Stick to business Be prepared Present facts clearly Ask “what” questions Provide alternative solutions Take issue with facts DON’T Ramble or waste time Be disorganized or messy Leave loopholes or be unclear As rhetorical questions Make decisions for them Speculate Be directive To communicate with Drivers…

DO Be fast-moving, entertaining Leave time for socializing Talk about their goals Deal with the “big” picture Ask for their opinions & ideas Provide examples from people they believe are important Offer incentives or rewards DON’T Legislate Be cold, aloof, or tight-lipped Press for solutions Deal with details Be dogmatic Talk down to them To communicate with Expressives…

Exercise: Communicating with the Registrar Source: Personal Styles & Effective Performance, Make your Style Work For You. David W. Merrill and Roger H. Reid.

Effective communication techniques • Use feedback • Use multiple (appropriate) channels Email, phone, one-on-one? Amount of information and timing? • Be sensitive to the receiver • Be aware of symbolic meanings • Use simple language • Use repetition Source: How To Speak and Listen Effectively Harvey A. Robbins

Three levels of listening • Listening in spurts • Hearing words, but not really listening • Empathetic listening “You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time.” ~ M. Scott Peck

Active listening • Reduce physical barriers • Minimize distractions; avoid or limit interruptions • Control your emotions • Evaluate the message; allow silence • Detect the central idea • Be aware of your posture and nonverbal behavior • Ask probing and occasional questions • Acknowledge and respond using paraphrasing, perception, checking and summarizing

Philosophy of a good communicator • Assume 100% of the responsibility for understanding what the other person means. • Assume 100% of the responsibility for making sure that the person you are communicating with understands you.

Questions?

Organizational Change Marilu Goodyear EDUCAUSE and University of Kansas

Facilitative Change Discussing small and large scale changes; not short-term crisis

Goals of Change • Two Ways to Meet the Challenge of Change • Analysis that shifts thinking • Essential for higher level support and resources • Demonstrating a truth that influences feelings • Seeing  Feeling Changing • Essential for those supporting change and implementing change

See Feel  Change Help People See Seeing Something New Hits the Emotions Emotionally Charged Ideas Change Behavior or Reinforce Changed Behavior Analysis  Think  Change Give People Analysis Data and Analysis Influence How We think New Thoughts Change Behavior or reinforce Changed Behavior Achieving Change in Behavior

Do you feel your way into acting? or Do you act your way into feeling?

Increase Urgency • DO: Show others the need for change with a compelling object that they can see, touch, and feel. • DO: Validate change with dramatic evidence from outside the organization • DON’T: Depend only on the rational case

Building a Guiding Team • Relevant knowledge about what is happening outside the enterprise or group • Essential for creating vision • Credibility, connections, and stature within the organization • Essential in communicating the vision • Valid information about the internal workings of the enterprise • Essential for removing the barriers that disempower people from acting on the vision • Formal authority and the managerial skills associated with planning, organizing, and control • Needed to create a short-term wins • The leadership skills associated with vision, communication, and motivation • Required for ensuring change sticks.

Get the Vision Right • Vision is an end state where all the plans and strategies will eventually take you. • Vision must speak to all stakeholders • Vision should be short: told in one minute or on one page • A good story is always helpful • “Sell” vision to the top management and clients • Same See  Feel  Change applies

Communicate for Buy-In • Announcing changes: • Urgency • Vision • Strategy: how to achieve vision • Plan: step by step how to implement vision • Most Important: Speak to anxieties; Prepare answers to anticipated questions • Communicate, communicate, communicate • Everyway and Everyday

Empower Action • Removing barriers • People • Ignore them • Change them (new experiences and perspectives) • Remove or transfer • Systems • Align as many as possible • Pay versus Attention and Recognition • Information feedback • Change burnout • Focus on 2-3 things at once • Maintaining the current system is one

Characteristics of Good Short-Term Wins • Visible • Unambiguous (so fewer people argue about whether it REALLY is a success) • Meaningful • Speaks to employee issues, concerns, and values • Focus on powerful person or group whose help you need.

Purposes of Short-Term Wins • Wins provide feedback to change leaders about the validity of their visions and strategies. • Wins give those working hard to achieve a vision a pat on the back, an emotional uplift. • Wins build faith in the effort, attracting those who are not yet actively helping. • Wins take power away from cynics.

Provide Resources • Failure to provide adequate resources leads to • Feeble efforts to implement change • Higher levels of stress • Neglect of core organizational activities and functions • Need to allocate three types of resources: • Diagnostic • Implementation • Institutionalization

Overcoming Resistance to Change • If urgency is high; resistance is less • Participation in change process, including employee feedback on process (most frequently cited approach) • Create as much psychological ownership as possible • Allowing employees to openly voice their ambivalence. • Offer employees instrumental and emotional support • “Every change needs a funeral” • Create pride in the organization’s history

Two Important Roles for Overcoming Resistance to Change • Toxic Handler • Shoulders the sadness, frustrations, bitterness and anger • Listens to employees while they are in “the pit” • Sages • Focus on reducing uncertainty • Enhance and transmit knowledge, especially meaning behind actions • Speaks up and asks the questions that others fear to ask

Making It Stick • Recognize that “day to day” takes energy and time • Aggressively rid the organization of work that is no longer relevant • Does this add value? • Our biggest mistake: we add on but we don’t subtract • Look for ways to keep urgency up • Alignment is important: • Does this fit with our vision? • Does it pull in the right direction?

Ethical Issues During Change • Three types of justice: • Distributive justice (fair allocation of resources) • Procedural justice (a voice in the matter) • Interactional justice (process and communication) • Important values: • Integrity: The manager remains dedicated to their responsibilities (whom and why) • Honesty: To employees and stakeholders • Commitment: To what’s important, what needs to be accomplished, values • Stewardship: Maintaining, promoting and improving the vital interests of the organization and the larger society.

Increase urgency Build a guiding team Get the vision right Communicate for buy-in People start telling each other “Let’s Go” A group is formed and works together well The guiding team develops the right vision and strategy People begin to buy into the change; their behavior begins to change Eight Step Process

Empower action Create short-term wins Don’t let up Make change stick People feel able to act, and do act on the vision Momentum builds as people try to fulfill the vision, fewer resist change People make wave after wave of changes until vision is fulfilled New behavior changes continue despite pulls otherwise Eight Step Process

The IT Silo and Change • Alignment between IT and the institution requires individual and organizational boundary spanning • Achievement of cross-functional integration between the IT organization and the institution is a key factor in IT success. • Integration can also improve the speed of response to change

Integration Maturity Model • Effective Partnerships • Seamless interaction • Sophisticated systems • Transparent communication • Data and Needs Resolutions • Proactive collaboration • Shared understanding • Basic Understanding • Trust • Appreciation • Priority discussions • Medium and frequency of communication important • Dis-Integration • Open hostility • Lack of understanding • No interaction

Communication and Self-Discovery