The “Course Topics” series from Manage Train Learn and Slide Topics is a collection of over 4000 slides that will help you master a wide range of management and personal development skills. The 202 PowerPoints in this series offer you a complete and in-depth study of each topic. This presentation is on "The Means of Communication".

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The Means of Communication
Communications
MTL Course Topics
COMMUNICATIONS
The Means of Communication

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The Means of Communication
Communications
MTL Course Topics
The Course Topics series from Manage Train Learn is a large collection of topics that will help you as a learner
to quickly and easily master a range of skills in your everyday working life and life outside work. If you are a
trainer, they are perfect for adding to your classroom courses and online learning plans.
COURSE TOPICS FROM MTL
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The Means of Communication
Communications
MTL Course Topics
ARE YOU READY?
OK, LET’S START!

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The Means of Communication
Communications
MTL Course Topics
INTRODUCTION
Effective communications do not just rely on the nature of
the messages we send to one another; they also rely on the
means by which we send them. In most organisations there
is a range of communication methods, as varied and
inventive as the needs of the business itself. There will be
face-to-face communicating as well as communicating by
phone; written contact as well as the spoken word; formal
contact as well as informal. Each method of contact requires
its own techniques, styles and skills, often depending on the
methodology or technology involved. To be effective
communicators, we need to learn how to be skilled at them
all.

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Communications
MTL Course Topics
COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA
In most organisations, there are a wide range of official and
semi-official means of communication.
Some are more frequently used than others.
The seven principal types of communication media are:
1. Direct one-to-one contact
2. Group meetings
3. The written word
4. The phone
5. The interview
6. The grapevine
7. New technology eg e:mail; the Internet
Other types of communication media include: special
management conferences; open days for the public; TV and
newspapers; in-house magazine; notice boards; booklets
and pamphlets; the company's annual report; cassettes.

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MTL Course Topics
ONE-TO-ONE
Direct one-to-one contact is still the most favoured way for
managers and senior executives to keep in touch with
what's going on.
Many managers use the phone, especially the mobile
phone, to keep up-to-date with diverse and complex
operations. It allows them to receive the very latest news
and gossip, the basis of informed decision-taking.
Richard Branson, head of the Virgin group has over 80
executives reporting to him directly around the world. The
phone or personal face-to-face contact allows quick and
immediate communicating to take place.

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MTL Course Topics
CONSPIRACY
The one-to-one system of communicating enables you to
have direct, face-to-face communication with another
person. It is the basis for 2-way communication since it
enables you to read another person's body language and so
enhances your understanding of their message. But when
communications consist of wholly one-to-one contacts,
there is the possibility of more conspiracy.
This is how Richard Neustadt described the one-to-one
contact technique of Franklin D. Roosevelt: "He would call
you in and ask you to get the story on some complicated
business. You'd come back after a couple of days of hard
labour and present the juicy morsel and then you'd find out
he knew all about it, along with something else you didn't
know. Where he got this information from he wouldn't
mention, usually, but after he'd done this to you once or
twice, you got careful about what you told him."

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Communications
MTL Course Topics
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
Meeting people informally accounts for the vast majority of
day-to-day communications. It can take place in offices, lifts,
corridors, washrooms, car parks; anywhere where people
meet. The body language ritual of these encounters tends to
be remarkably similar from one meeting to another.
1. Initiation, which focuses on exchanged glances to detect
whether someone wants to stop and talk
2. Orientation, which turns the body towards the other
person as a signal that you want to talk
3. Contact, which could mean an outstretched hand, a touch
on the shoulder, a look or just a smile
4. Involvement, which consists of an exchange of messages
5. Disengagement, which reverses the orientation moves by
turning the body away, followed by
6. Separation, and people continue on their way.

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MTL Course Topics
INITIATING
Initiation is the first stage of a one-to-one encounter. It
consists of four key body language signals all of which may
be over in just a matter of seconds.
1. The Eye-brow Flash: the eye-brow flash exists in all
cultures except the Japanese. It indicates your
willingness to engage in an exchange. Not to respond to
the eye-brow flash means you are not interested.
2. Face Scanning: three-quarters of where we look in a
one-to-one encounter should be in a triangle around
the other person's eyes and mouth. No gaze should last
more than 3 seconds before being broken off.
3. Downward Glance: the downward glance breaks the
gaze and signifies that you are not hostile. It is the body
language equivalent to the written comma.
4. Mutual Gaze: after the downward glance, you can
restore the mutual gaze by continuing to scan the other
person's face.

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The Means of Communication
Communications
MTL Course Topics
GROUP MEETINGS
Group meetings are valuable for getting people's views and
getting people involved in plans, but they are notorious for
time-wasting, point-scoring, agenda hi-jacking and political
intrigue.
"Once I went to work; now I attend meetings."
A definition of meetings: hours into minutes.
Group meetings are more efficient and useful if they are
carefully prepared, run in a business-like manner and always
followed up. This requires a good out-of-meeting secretary
to put dynamic agendas together, a chair who is brisk, fair
and efficient and team members committed to the aims of
the meeting and who consistently follow up with action.

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MTL Course Topics
INFORMED AGENDAS
When a meeting agenda consists of a few hurried items
jotted down on a slip of paper, it invites time-wasting. A
much better approach is to use an Informed Agenda.
Informed Agendas have the following features...
1. the agenda starts by stating the name of the meeting, the
date, time and venue
2. a prompt start time and expected finishing time are given
3. a list of attendees is given. This list indicates who is to
chair and who is to take minutes. Everyone else is told which
items they are needed for and by implication which they are
not.
4. each item of business on the agenda is stated in terms of
its outcomes; eg "By the end of the meeting we will have
agreed this week's allocation of new work."

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MTL Course Topics
THE CHAIR
The chair of a meeting plays the most influential role in
setting the pace, tone and effectiveness of the meeting. A
good chair steers a meeting towards its objectives without
fuss or upset.
It is a good idea to rotate the chairing role amongst the
group members. (It can be eye-opening to see the
transformation of negative group members when they take
the chair).
1. A good chair brings everyone in.
2. A good chair controls with a light touch.
3. A good chair allows ambiguity.
4. A good chair avoids emotional arguments.
5. A good chair knows the agenda, what kind of discussion
is likely to emerge and how he or she should start it off.
6. A good chair avoids forming a club of favourites.
7. A good chair knows when to have more discussion and
when to be brisk and move on.

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FOLLOW UP
Instead of meetings producing action, many meetings are
seen as ends in themselves. Many meetings are good at
motivating people to discussion but poor at motivating
people to post-meeting action.
To produce the action which a meeting has agreed, these
steps should be taken...
1. make it clear before the meeting ends who is doing
what
2. identify the critical tasks that need to be taken
3. write reminders into diaries
4. send minutes out quickly, identifying who agreed to do
what and by when
5. make action more rewarding than discussion, praising
those who get things done
6. if you are the chair or the secretary, follow up, follow up
and follow up.

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MTL Course Topics
THE WRITTEN WORD
The written word still plays an important part in daily
communications although it may slowly be giving way to
forms of communication that are more visual and
instantaneous.
Written communications are necessary for...
1. presenting information that you want people to read at
length or think about
2. issuing procedures or instructions
3. supporting visual means of communication, such as
advertisements
4. confirming what has been said
5. legalising agreements.
The more lasting nature of written communications means
that you may be judged more by what you put on paper
than how you come across in person.

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MTL Course Topics
SHORTER COMMUNICATION
Our communications are getting shorter and shorter. It is
now estimated that the average spoken sentence is 2.2
seconds long and falling; the average TV advertisement lasts
for 1 minute and is falling; and the average attention span of
listening is 17 minutes and falling.
The written word is also getting shorter...
1. monosyllables are preferred to polysyllables
2. sentences are more easily understood when they have
fewer than 15 words in them
3. paragraphs lose interest if they are longer than four
sentences
4. reports, letters and memos are less likely to be read
straight through if they go on for more than two or
three pages.

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MTL Course Topics
THE PHONE
The telephone's impact on our lives surpasses its use as a
means of communication. Professor Charles Handy
compares its impact on our lives to that of other major
social changes of the past.
"The telephone is the new mobile office. Just as the
chimney changed our social-tribal gatherings and allowed us
to live apart from everyone else, so the phone allows us to
work without being together. The car and car-phone are
now an office." (from "The Age of Unreason")
The mobile phone is twice as popular in the UK as it is in
Germany or the United States. Nearly all Americans workers
use a recorded or phone message every day compared to
only about half of all workers in the UK.

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MTL Course Topics
PHONEY TRICKS
If you want to be heard clearly on the phone, speak a little
slower and deeper than normal. If you have a naturally high
voice, say three "Hellos" softly to yourself first.
1. If you want to communicate warmth and friendliness,
smile; if you want to convey authority, stand up.
2. If you need to make a logical decision, place the phone
at your left ear to access your linear-thinking left brain.
If you need to make a creative decision, place it at your
right ear to access your imaginative right brain.
3. If you know you're talking to someone who prefers
visual thinking, sit up straight and talk quicker. If
however, you know you are talking to someone who
prefers feeling, lean back, put your feet up and talk
more slowly.

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MTL Course Topics
THE INTERVIEW
If informal face-to-face contacts are the run-and-play of
communication, the set pieces are the interviews.
Interviews allow us to formalise communications. For this
reason they should be properly prepared, properly run and
properly followed up.
This means being clear on the purpose of the interview;
being aware of any policy of the organisation on how
interviews should be conducted; keeping an eye on the
overall context; mixing formality and informality; using
listening skills; being aware of the impression you're making;
remaining assertive and in control; and following through at
the end of the interview.
There are at least eight types of set piece interview
including appraisals and performance reviews; grievances;
counselling; exit interviews; recruitment; discipline; training
needs.

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MTL Course Topics
INTERVIEW STRUCTURES
Like all other forms of formal communication, interviews
have a beginning, middle and end.
Interview beginnings are often called the contracting stage
because they seek to outline what the interview will do. The
contracting can also set out the tone and content. Because
it is a contract, the interviewee can stop at this stage if he or
she doesn't like anything proposed. Otherwise, it is assumed
that they are happy to proceed.
Interview middles should be structured. This stops the
interview losing its way. An appraisal structure, for example,
might discuss past work, present work and future plans as
its main content.
Interview ends are a mix of resolving problems, looking
ahead, tying up loose ends and formal closure.

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MTL Course Topics
THE GRAPEVINE
The grapevine is the unofficial communications network
that exists in every organisation. While officially ignored by
those in charge, astute managers use it when they want to
ensure that information gets around the organisation
quickly. They may, for example, release information bit by
bit through the grapevine to test opinion and use it as a
sounding board for feedback.
Alternatively, it may be used to remind people of important
values. By going via the grapevine, the message is conveyed
in real terms that people can understand, not in official
company-speak.
The grapevine is known to work. It thrives on both good
news and bad and has an astonishingly high accuracy rate of
80 to 90%. It is probably because it is unofficial and direct
that it is more trusted than official communication.

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MTL Course Topics
TALKING SHOP
The grapevine is the unofficial talking shop of the
organisation. It has a number of key players.
1. personal assistants and secretaries who are the links
between managers and the rest of the organisation.
They are key carriers of what is being said "out there"
and what is going on "up there".
2. people with similar backgrounds, for example, those
with the same qualifications, part-timers, temporary
staff, managers
3. people who use email and can spread cross-
departmental rumour at the press of a button
4. rangers who have the freedom to range across
organisational boundary lines and so carry and add to
the rumour mill. They include couriers, security staff,
sales people and delivery people.
5. those who use neutral areas such as smoking areas and
washrooms.

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MTL Course Topics
NEW TECHNOLOGY
New systems of communicating are emerging with amazing
speed as new technology allows us to contact anyone in the
globe.
The high-tech communications of the future are likely to
include some of the following: mobile phone computer
links; e:mail video; video conferencing; the Internet;
computerised voice recognition; business television.
Business television is one of the more innovative ideas in
modern communications technology. It operates on much
the same lines as broadcast news except that it is put
together by members of the organisation and broadcast to
each other. It is a company newsletter in a living format. The
organisation chairman no longer needs to be a remote
figure: he or she can speak direct to any person in the
business at the touch of a button.

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MTL Course Topics
ALL IN A DAY’S WORK
According to a study made by Pitney Bowes, the average
working person has 171 messages to deal with each day.
These comprise...
46 phone calls
27 e:mails
19 posted letters
15 pieces of internal mail
12 sticky notes
12 phone messages slips
11 voice mails
11 faxes
9 mobile phone calls
5 pager messages
2 overnight packages
2 express postal letters.
Contrary to opinion, new methods of communication
haven't eased the burden of communications; they've
added to it.

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Communications
MTL Course Topics
THAT’S
IT!
WELL DONE!

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The Means of Communication
Communications
MTL Course Topics
THANK YOU
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn
The Means of Communication
Communications
MTL Course Topics