Chapter 2: Collaboration, Interpersonal Communication and Business Etiquette

Advantages and Disadvantages of Teams:

Advantages

1. Increased information and knowledge

2. Increased diversity of views
3. Increased acceptance of a solution
4. Higher performance levels

Disadvantages

1. Groupthink - occurs when peer pressure causes individual team members to withhold contrary
or unpopular opinions
2. Hidden agendas - a private counterproductive motive
3. Cost
4. Overload

Characteristics of Effective Teams:

1. clear sense of purpose

2. open and honest communication
3. creativity
4. consensus based decision making
5. effective conflict resolution
Resolving Conflict:

1. Proactive behavior
2. Communication
3. Fair play
4. Openness
5. Research
6. Alliance
7. Flexibility

Guidelines for Collaborative Writing:

1. Select collaborators carefully

2. Agree on project goals before you start
3. Give your team time to bond before diving in
4. Clarify individual responsibilities
5. Establish clear processes
6. Avoid composing as a group
7. Make sure tools and techniques are ready and compatible across the team
8. Check to see how things are going along the way
Preparing for Meetings:

1. Define purpose for the meeting

2. Select participants for the meeting
3. Choose the venue and the time
4. Set the agenda

Effective Meetings:

1. Keep discussion on track

2. Follow agreed on rules
3. Encourage participation
4. Participate actively
5. Use mobile devices respectfully
6. Close effectively

Critical listening is to understand and evaluate the meaning of the speaker’s message on several levels:

 The logic of the argument,

 The strength of the evidence,
 The validity of the conclusions,
 The implications of the message,
 The speaker’s intentions and motives, and
 The omission of any important or relevant points.

5 Steps of Listening Effectively:

1. Receiving
2. Decoding
3. Remembering
4. Evaluating
5. Responding
Six types of non-verbal communication:

1. Facial expressions
2. Gestures and posture
3. Vocal characteristics
4. Touch
5. Personal appearance
6. Time and space

Online Business Etiquettes:

1. Avoid personal attacks

2. stay focused on the original topic
3. don’t present opinions as facts, and support facts with evidence
4. Follow basic expectations of spelling, punctuation and capitalization
5. Use virus protection and keep it up to date
6. Use difficult to break passwords on email, twitter and other accounts
7. Ask if this is a good time for an IM chat
8. Watch your luggage and keep your emotions under control
9. Avoid multitasking while using IM and other tools
10. Never assume privacy
11. Don’t use reply all in email unless everyone can benefit from your reply
12. don’t waste others time with sloppy, confused and incomplete messages
13. Respect boundaries of time and virtual space
14. Be careful of online commenting mechanisms
 Active Listening: Making a conscious effort to turn off filters and biases to truly hear and
understand what someone is saying
 Collaboration: Working together to meet complex challenges
 Committees: Formal teams that usually have a long life span and can become a permanent part
of the organizational structure
 Constructive Feedback: Critique that focuses on the process and outcomes of communication,
not on the people involved
 Content Listening: Listening to understand and retain the speaker’s message
 Content Management Systems: Computer systems that organize and control the content for
websites
 Critical Listening: Listening to understand and evaluate the meaning of the speaker’s message
 Destructive Feedback: Criticism delivered with no guidance to stimulate improvement
 Empathic Listening: Listening to understand the speaker’s feelings, needs, and wants so that you
can appreciate his or her point of view
 Group Dynamics: Interactions and processes that take place among the members of a team
 Groupthink Situation in which peer pressure causes individual team members to withhold
contrary or unpopular opinions
 Hidden Agenda Private, counterproductive motives, such as a desire to take control of a group
 Minutes Written summary of the important information presented and the decisions made
during a meeting
 Nonverbal Communication Information sent and received, both intentionally and
unintentionally, without using written or spoken language
 Norms Informal standards of conduct that group members share and that guide member
behavior
 Parliamentary Procedure A time-tested method for planning and running effective meetings; the
best-known guide to this procedure is Robert’s Rules of Order
 Participative Management An effort to involve employees in a company’s decision making
 Problem-Solving Teams Teams that assemble to resolve specific issues and then disband when
their goals have been accomplished
 Selective Listening Listening to only part of what a speaker is saying; ignoring the parts one
doesn’t agree with or find interesting
 Self-Oriented Roles Unproductive team roles in which people are motivated mainly to fulfill
personal needs
 Shared Workspaces Online “virtual offices” that give everyone on a team access to the same set
of resources and information
 Task Forces A form of problem-solving teams, often with members from more than one
organization
 Task-Oriented Roles Productive team roles directed toward helping a team reach its goals
 Team A unit of two or more people who share a mission and the responsibility for working to
achieve a common goal
 Team-Maintenance Roles Productive team roles directed toward helping everyone work well
together
 Unified Communication A single system of communication that integrating voice and video
calling, voice and video conferencing, instant messaging, real-time collaboration software, and
other capabilities
 Virtual Meetings Meetings that take place online rather than in person
 Wiki Special type of website that allows anyone with access to add new material and edit
existing material