Online Discussion

Do one of the following activities, according to your own interests.  Post your own entry of at least 200 words.

1. Communication Process:  Respond to one of the prompts below.
· Referencing the text, discuss why we have difficulty listening to others and then discuss what you can do to improve your own listening.  
· Using the discussion of communication in Chapter 1, explain how people reading or hearing the same message can disagree on its meaning. Then think of a personal or business experience when you did not achieve a communication goal, such as a time when someone did not correctly decode your message or misinterpreted your meaning. Use the transactional model of communication presented in this chapter to explain why your communication was unsuccessful.  Outline what you could have done to improve the experience. 
· Find an “official email” that you have received from an organization you do business with: for example, your school, employer, bank, insurance company, or retail store.  Analyze the message to determine if the writers were thinking like business communicators as described in Chapter 1.  Identify two features of the email that you can discuss: both can be effective, both can be ineffective, or you discuss one of each

2. Nonverbal Communication: Respond to oneof the prompts below.
· Observe a conversation at a meeting or between two or three people at lunch or dinner. Does any one person monopolize the conversation? If so, does that have any negative results? If the conversation is shared fairly, how long is each person’s typical turn? How do people signal that they want to speak?
· Ask someone you do not know for directions to a nearby location, and pay attention to that person’s verbal and nonverbal communication. Then respond to these questions.
o What is that person’s verbal message? In other words, does the person provide the directions or decline to help, or say something else?
o What nonverbal elements support that message?
o Are there any nonverbal elements that conflict with that message?

3. Cross Cultural Communication:  Respond to oneof the prompts below.
· “People need to leave their cultures and values at the door when they come to work and just do business.”  Discuss the possible merits and flaws in this attitude, referencing your text for support.
· You have read about some barriers to cross cultural communication, such as the need to use clear language.  Name some of the other barriers and give an example from your own life when you have experienced at least one of these barriers in a communication act.
· When you have communicated with people from a different culture, what was your biggest challenge?  Tell about your experience and relate it to the text discussion.

4. Team Interactions: Respond to oneof the prompts below.
· Explain a team situation in which you experienced conflict.  What was the purpose of the team? Why did the affective and/or cognitive conflict occur? How did the team resolve the conflict? If the conflict was not resolved, how could it have been resolved? What was the impact on the final product?
· Groupthink occurs when people convince each other to agree.  What are the problems with groupthink, and what can you do to avoid the groupthink syndrome? Is there a time when you were on a team and noticed that everyone agreed too quickly with the first person to suggest an idea rather than taking time to look at all angles? How might your group have avoided groupthink? Tell us about that time and how it turned out.  Or conversely, was there a time when your group managed to avoid too quick resolution? Tell us about that time and how it turned out.
· Search the web for “team contracts,” and find three examples that outline goals and standards for productive working teams. What content do the examples share? What differences exist? Consider a recent team experience that could have benefited from a team contract. What elements from the sample contracts would you recommend? Create an outline of the topics you would include in a team contract for a similar group experience.
· Select a recent team experience in which you participated, whether for a sport, organization, or class project. In a few paragraphs, describe the team and identify the goal for the activity. Then outline the pros and cons of the experience. Was the team successful? Which benefits of effective teamwork did your group experience? Did conflict occur? What changes may have improved the team’s effectiveness?