Jessica In a Mess

1. Analyse the communication between Jessica and Bob. Could Jessica / Bob have handled the
communication better? Explain how she/he could have done so.

ANS: A lot of miscommunications are seen between Jessica and Bob in the case. At first the task which
is assigned to Jessica is not mentioned properly anywhere, Bob justbriefed Jessica verbally about it
and Jessica too did not bothered about that.

We can see that though had an important meeting to attend at 16:30. Had she made it clear to Bob
that she had some preoccupations at 16:30 at the very beginning when Bob gave her a call, maybe
she could have avoided the series of incidents that happened after.

Though both fault was not solely of Jessica’s, Bob was equally responsible for that. He could have
handled the communication better. He should dedicated a lot more time while briefing the model and
should have shown a bit more sincerity towards the work.

Rather than giving verbal instructions he should have written the instructions and send the same to
Jessica through mail. It would have clarified the requirements and confusion could have been avoided.

A person with good communication skills is a good listener as well. Here we could see that Bob didn’t
have much time/patience/interest to listen to Jessica. So it becomes quite evident that Bob lacks
communication skills. Had he given a few minutes to Jessica, all the trouble would not have occurred.

Coming to Jessica, she could have asked Bob for a minute by being a bit more firm or rather tell him
at regarding her preoccupations before he started with the briefing of the model, this could have
saved them both from getting into a misunderstanding and the results would have been better.

Also she should not have listened to Terry’s instructions. She came at Bob’s call andshe was not an
employee there so she was not take instructions from anyone apart from Bob.

2. Analyse the communication between Jessica and Terry. How could Jessica have improved her
communication?

ANS: The communication between Jessica and Terry was not useful at all . Terry came from back
staring at Jessica’s work and suddenly interrupted in between due to which Jessica got surprised. Then
she out of the blue started instructing Jessica and did not even bother to listen to what Jessica was
instructed by Bob.I think Jessica could have waited a bit to let Bob arrive and ask him if there’s a
change required and share what Terry instructed her to do, and then she could have worked
accordingly. Moreover there was no need to follow Terry’s instructions because she came to work on
Bob’s instructions and she was not bound to take instructions from anyone else except Bob.

3. Analyse the communication within the Apricot Agency. How could this communication have been
improved?

ANS: There are a lot of verbal communications or rather miscommunications in the case and this
caused a lot distractions in the work. People in the lacked communication skills and this led to
commmunication gaps between each other. Three people worked on the same model but there was
no parity in the thoughts. At the end they blamed each other for not doing the work properly as they
failed to reach to satisfactory results.

Another thing that is catching attention is the number times the phrase “never mind” has been used
which led to a lot more confusion in between.
In my opinion it is better to go for written communication modes in formal works. It keeps clarity in
passing on information and flow of wrong informations can be avoided through it.

4. If you were asked to prepare a plan for effective communication within the Apricot Agency, what
sort of plan would you draw up?

ANS: If I had to draw the plan for effective and efficient communication within the Apricot agency, I
would have done the things listed below:

1. All formal communications should be done in written format.

2. Briefings to the juniors should be given in mail besides being done verbally so that the instructions
become clear to each person.

3. A person should not take instructions from anyone else apart from the one who assigned the task
to her/him.

4. There should be a healthy flow of communication and each person should be given the chance to
speak while the others will have to listen to her/him patiently.