University of Maryland, College Park

Pearl Diving Assignment 3

Amanda Varden

Communication for Project Managers: ENCE424

Dr. Shana Webster-Trotman

August 8, 2020
Introduction
In the engineering profession, almost all projects are completed in a team environment. A
successful team is composed of individuals that can communicate effectively the project tasks,
updates, complications and any other necessary information in order to maximize success and
minimize risk. ENCE 424 is designed to stress the importance of effective communication for
project managers through required readings and weekly discussions. Crucial conversations are a
focus of this course and is defined as a special kind of communication where stakes are high,
opinions vary, and emotions run strong. Mastering crucial conversations allows us to
successfully deal with conflict. This essay will demonstrate my ability to use ethos, logos and
pathos effectively to address two crucial conversations, one in an email to my team that is
struggling with performance and one in person with my boss who insulted me in front of my
team. I will then discuss the relevance of a quote provided during the weekly class discussion to
this course and my role as an effective project manager and I will discuss my results of the Big
Five assessment.

Team Email

Dear Team,

It has come to my attention this morning that the team’s performance has been poor during the
past couple of weeks and this is very upsetting to hear. While we are supposed to have 50% of
the design completed by today, only 29% is currently done and this is not up to company
standards. The access road, principal spillway, emergency spillway and riser with trash rack are
still not designed. In order to address this underperformance, I will be working closely with the
team to increase productivity levels while maintaining high quality work. Each morning, daily
goals will be set to ensure each team member stays on track and the design elements described
above are completed as soon as possible. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions
about the tasks that need to be completed, if there are any issues with any software preventing
completion of these tasks or if any other issues arise so we can quickly resolve this deficit. If we
can get production up to the required 75% completion by Thursday, a team pizza and ice cream
party will occur on Friday.

Best,

Your Manager
Quote Discussion

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.

-Michael Jordan

When unpacking this quote, the first thing that comes to mind is that in the engineering
profession, teamwork and collaboration are crucial to the success of every single project.
Because of this, the talent of one single individual on the team may result in the victory of one
single task, but for the entire project to be successful, every member must be able to
communicate effectively and combine their intelligence and focus it towards one common goal,
success. A project manager must encourage his or her team to work together as a unit in order to
ensure the project at hand is successfully completed. Just like players on a basketball team assist
each other to score baskets, team members on a project team must assist each other on tasks
where there may be struggles. Since not everyone possesses the same set of skills, teams are
usually comprised of individuals with differing skills. So, in a project team, one team member
may need to assist another by utilizing a skill that the other individual doesn’t have in order to
successful complete the task. If a project team member is assigned to create a design element in
AutoCAD, but is having issues figuring out an efficient way to complete the task, another team
member who is certified in AutoCAD can come assist the other team member with the task to
complete it faster. While talented members of a team are no doubt a benefit to the team, talent
only results in short term success. It is cooperation and intelligence that result in the achievement
of long-term goals. In this course, communication as a project manager is a main topic. Working
together in a team, whether it be a basketball team or a project team, requires tremendous
communication between all team members. While one member may be talented, all team
members must communication to ensure every task gets done on time and within budget.
Examples of communication in the workplace include group huddles, zoom video calls, phone
calls, emails and even team building days. By making sure there are many platforms that team
members can you, it allows teams to quickly identify and address any issues. Communication
allows teamwork to exist.

Case Study

If my boss were to call me an idiot in front of my entire team, I would first control my
emotions and avoid acting impulsively on these emotions. I would step back and think if my boss
is being serious or just joking, if maybe he is having a bad day and said something he didn’t
quite mean, or if maybe I am just being sensitive. I would work on mastering my stories to see if
maybe I am acting a little foolish or lacking intelligence which caused him to call me an idiot
(Patterson et al., 2012). I would then reach out to him to schedule a face to face meeting to make
sure he is aware of the situation and to express my concerns. When the meeting begins, I will
start with heart (Patterson et al., 2012). This means I will go into the conversation focusing on
the right motives and stay focused on what I really want during the conversation. What I really
want to get out of this conversation is making my boss aware of what he said and the effects it
had on me and my feelings, understanding his side of the story, repairing our relationship and
asking for an apology in front of the team. If necessary, I will provide evidence that I am not
lacking any intelligence and effectively pulling my weight as a team member by providing him
with concrete dates of work I have completed, any performance reviews that have been
completed by me and even asking other superiors their opinion of my intelligence.
During this conversation, I will avoid getting revenge and insulting him and I will avoid
wanting to “win” the conversation. Then, I want to make sure I keep an eye out for signs that my
boss is feeling unsafe, which could be observed as being defensive. Usually when safety is
compromised, people either go to silence or violence. I will observe my boss to make sure he is
not masking, avoiding, withdrawing, controlling, labeling or attacking (Patterson et al., 2012). If
he is doing any of these things, I will step out of the conversation, restore safety and continue the
conversation. In order to make it safe again, I will apologize if it is appropriate. Next, I will use
contrasting to fix any misunderstandings and use CRIB techniques to achieve a mutual purpose if
either of these are necessary. CRIB stands for committing to a mutual purpose, recognizing the
purpose behind the strategy, inventing a mutual purpose and brainstorming new strategies
(Patterson et al., 2012). After applying these techniques, I can jump back into the conversation
now that it is safe again.
During this crucial conversation, it is important that I come to the meeting prepared by
mastering my stories, evaluating my motives and making sure this issue is important enough to
bring up to my boss and time the conversation right. I will also make sure I show respect to my
boss by minding my language, speaking to him privately and apologizing whenever necessary.
By mastering my crucial conversation skills, I will ensure my relationship with my boss remains
untarnished and I gain the respect I deserve from my boss and my coworkers.

Big Five Personality Assessment

When looking at the scores I was given for openness, conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness and neuroticism and reading up on what each dimension means, I agree with these
results. I scored a 65% in openness which makes sense to me because while I am somewhat
creative, I tend to focus on the concrete. I am sort of in the middle of creative and practical
which I would have labeled myself as. I try to be more creative, but I find myself steering away
from abstract thought often. Now, when looking at my score of 81% in conscientiousness I find
it to accurately be my highest scoring dimension. I would describe myself as organized and self-
disciplined which is what this dimension represents. I like to focus more on the long term and
doing whatever it takes to ensure long term success instead of short-term satisfaction. Next, I
scored a 67% in both extraversion and agreeableness which I found interesting. When it comes to
extraversion, I think this score was accurate for me. I found on previous personality assessments
that I was more introverted than I previously thought. A score of 67% seems that I am slightly
extraverted which makes sense because while I enjoy my current relationships, friends and
family and will put in the required effort to maintain these relationships, I rarely attempt to gain
new relationships. I do not think I am very extraverted, which is what my results show, because I
do enjoy a quiet, simple life where I rarely draw attention to myself. When discussing
agreeableness, my explanation is like the one I explained for extraversion. I believe this result is
accurate because I usually put others before me if they are important to me and already in my
life. I usually struggle with putting others in front of me that I do not know or are not close to
which I think is one of my struggles. I struggle sometimes to empathize with others however I do
not believe I am hostile or antagonistic which is why I received a decently high score in this
dimension. Finally, is neuroticism. I received my second highest score of 73% which I think
accurately describes me. I feel I worry, feel guilty and fear so much more than the average
person.
While I agreed with all my results, I was completely surprised at how high my score was
for neuroticism. I was not very aware of how often I display my negative emotions. I always
thought of myself as a pretty positive and happy person, but after reading the neuroticism
description, it really made me think of how often I experience these emotions. I do believe I
worry, fear and feel guilt more than the average person. Sometimes these feelings are justified,
while other times I feel I experience and display these emotions unjustifiably.
When comparing these results to the results of my Jung personality assessment and DISC
personality assessment, they surprisingly all conclude that I am dominantly conscientious. In the
second Pearl Diving assignment, I concluded both the Jung and DISC assessments agreed.
Conscientious individuals are reserved, private, analytical and heavily focused on accuracy. My
Jung results that stated I was an ISTJ which is an individual that is reserved, private, logical,
orderly and focused on facts. Both test results show I am introverted and analytical while the
only difference is the addition of my enjoyment of a planned and orderly lifestyle within the Jung
test. The Big Five assessment also said my dominant dimension was conscientiousness which
matches what the two previous assessments concluded. In addition to being conscientious, the
Big Five assessment agreed with the Jung assessment in the sense that I am relatively
introverted. In addition to the results of the two previous assessments, this assessment addressed
my agreeableness and openness. I believe that this is the benefit of taking multiple assessments.
While each assessment can provide you with results that agree with each other, all assessments
do not only provide the same results in the same categories. While the DISC assessment
provided insight on my dominance, influence, conscientiousness and steadiness, the Jung
assessment discussed my introversion and extraversion, perception, and judging and the Big Five
assessment provides information about my openness, conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness and neuroticism. Each assessment has some form of overlap, but also provides
insight in other areas of your personality. This is beneficial because it allows you to see if the
tests provide the same results in some areas while also allowing you to learn something new
about yourself.
Conclusion
Being able to effectively collaborate as a team and being able to successfully address a
crucial conversation are both essential tasks in the engineering profession. A successful team is
composed of individuals that can communicate effectively the project tasks, updates,
complications and any other necessary information in order to maximize success and minimize
risk. Personality types usually vary within a project team which is beneficial to the team since
everyone possesses different skills and strengths. This course is designed to focus on the
importance of effective communication for project managers through required readings and
weekly discussions. Crucial conversations are a major focus in this course. Crucial conversations
are a special kind of communication where stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run
strong. Mastering crucial conversations allows us to successfully deal with conflict. In this essay,
I have demonstrated my ability to use ethos, logos and pathos effectively to address a crucial
conversation with my team and with my boss. Then, I discussed the relevance of a quote
provided during the weekly class discussion to this course and my role as an effective project
manager and I discussed my results of the Big Five assessment. I plan to use information
gathered from weekly readings and class discussions to improve how I address and handle
crucial conversations and to improve my communication skills in both my personal and
professional life.
 Works Cited

Patterson, K., Grenny, J., Switzler, A., & McMillan, R. (2012). Crucial conversations. New

York: McGraw-Hill.