University of Maryland, College Park

Pearl Diving Assignment 2

Allison Fear

Communication for Project Managers: ENCE424

Dr. Shana Webster-Trotman

March 19, 2022

Introduction

             As a graduating senior entering the workplace in 10 weeks effective office

communication and interview skills are more important now than ever. Everyone has to
communicate all the time. However, effective communication is rarely discussed throughout
college engineering courses. It is crucial for engineers to be able to adapt their communication
styles to others around them and effectively tell stories in interviews and speeches. It is also
important to know how to have crucial conversations with bosses and with teams and appeal to
ethos, logos, and pathos. It is important to understand your personality and how it affects your
communication style.

Crucial conversations 

Positive communication as a leader is important. However, what is more important is negative

communication and crucial conversations are even more important. It is the crucial conversations
that can make and break a team, relationship, and a leader. Two potential situations when a
crucial conversation can occur are between a leader and their team when the team is
underperforming or when a boss has acted inappropriately. Both conversations can have
extremely beneficial outcomes for the overall team and work environment. However, if handled
the wrong way it can ruin a relationship and cause further issues. Both examples are crucial
conversations because emotions are high and there is a lot at stake (Grenny). 

Email to Team

             For the first example, the team is working on the scaleup of the upstream process for a
new monoclonal antibody cancer therapeutics at GSK. To manufacture the therapeutic, the
scaleup is passed from upstream to downstream, then formulation, and ends with fill and finish.
A delay or lackluster performance at any stage will delay or affect the later steps. If a lower
quality product is produced from upstream it makes more work for downstream and formulation.
The following email communicates the lackluster performance, delay in the product, and further
effects of the problem:

Good afternoon team, 

Unfortunately, the performance over the last several weeks has been lackluster. This has
resulted in our team falling significantly behind schedule and will likely miss the upcoming
deadline. Furthermore, the final product from our process is significantly below the predicted
quality and specifications. This issue causes many more problems for our team including putting
other teams behind schedule and losing credibility within the company. I am very disappointed
in the performance lately we will need a plan on how to move forward by close of business
tomorrow. 

Due to the team nature of this company by us falling behind schedule we will likely make other
areas fall behind as well. The downstream and formulation departments are dependent on us to
finish before starting their portion of the project. Since we are a month behind, downstream
manufacturing will have to start a month late. This will result in the product coming to market
late and will cause a loss of $10,000 in profits. The deviation from the expected product quality
and purity will also increase purification time and costs in the downstream process. Since we
are producing lifesaving cancer medication, we are also letting our patients down. Some of our
patients do not have an extra month to wait on us. Finally, we have let the rest of the team down.
Due to this issue, we have lost a lot of credibility in the company and will have to work hard to
gain it back. Other teams are being affected because of our lackluster performance.

I hope this email is a wake-up call and we can get back on track soon. 

Feel free to reach out If you have any questions or concerns. 

Thank you, 

Allison Fear

To effectively communicate the issue and motivate everyone to find a solution. To accomplish
this ethos, logos, and pathos were all used throughout the email. By appealing to all three the
email will be effective for the whole team regardless of their personality types. Ethos refers to
credibility and trustworthiness. This is appealed to by discussing how others within the company
were let down. Pathos refers to emotional impact. This was appealed to by mentioning the effect
that this delay has on patients. Finally, logos refers to logic. This was appealed to by explaining
the loss of profit and further delay across the company. Hopefully, this email would create a
change within the team. If this does not solve the problem, further communication and changes
are needed.

Discussion with Boss

             The second common example of a crucial conversation in the workplace is having

difficult conversations with bosses. In this example, the boss has called a subordinate an idiot in
front of the whole team. Due to the name-calling, it is clear that the boss is showing signs of
violence (Grenny, 59). They are labeling and attacking (Grenny, 59). I would follow the
following steps to handle the situation. Due to the violence, the first step is to make it safe.
Continuing a crucial conversation in a violent environment can lead to further problems. I would
follow the Step Out, Make It safe, then Step back in approach. It would likely help diffuse the
violent conversation. I would respectfully remove myself from the space and try to not further
upset the boss. However, when the conversation begins again could turn violent again. I would
think about my goals for the crucial conversation. I would have three main goals. The first would
be determining why the boss feels this way. The second would be explaining how I feel about the
situation. Finally, I would discuss the implications if this continues to happen. This type of
communication and interaction can quickly cause a toxic and abusive workplace and needs to be
stopped early on. By having this is conversation early, the relationship with the boss could be
improved.

I would first reach out to the boss to determine a time that works in their schedule to
discuss the situation. This would ensure there is ample time to have the crucial conversation.
Although you have to know when to end the conversation, it mustn't be rushed, and a resolution
can be made. I would use the first goal to begin the conversation. People typically like to share
their side of the conflict first. I would take advantage of this and start the conversation by
determining what makes the boss feel this way. I would start the conversation by asking “I took
your earlier feedback from the meeting to heart. Would you be willing to elaborate on what I can
improve on and what I did to receive this feedback?” By phrasing the name-calling as feedback it
might keep the conversation more professional and less likely to become violent. I would then
transition to how it makes me feel. I would explain that calling me an idiot without a lot of
context, hurts my credibility in the team. I have worked hard to build positive and credible
relationships with the team. I would also appeal to the boss's emotions about how this treatment
has affected my emotions and the rest of the team. I would end on the future outcomes of this
professional relationship If this type of behavior continues. I would end the conversation with a
plan moving forward. I would want to accept the situation and move on. Very little comes from
continued apologies and conversations. Overall, I would hope that the conversation would
remain constructive and would not become violent. if no resolution can be made and the
workplace remains unsafe, I would fully remove myself from the situation.

Platinum Rule

An important concept that we learned in week 5 of ENCE424 is the platinum rule. The
golden rule is “treating people the way you want to be treated”. The platinum rule is “treating
people the way they want to be treated”. This extends to communication techniques. Depending
on the type of person you are communicating with, adjusting the communication styles can be
beneficial. The group portion of this assignment was to craft an email to your boss expressing the
project is behind schedule. Each group was assigned a different personality from the DISC
assessment. After listening to other groups' emails it is clear that there can be many ways to
communicate the same information. Since the email was sharing bad news, it was important to
make sure it was closer to the boss's best way of taking in information. This would help to
prevent more frustration due to different communication styles.

             Without realizing I use this technique frequently. I have faculty, several mentors, on-
campus and due to the wide variety of personality styles, I communicate with them each very
differently. For the lab I work in, the communication is always super direct and short to the
point. He prefers bullet points to long paragraphs. For a different position, my mentor is a strong
S. A very direct bullet point email would cause him to be alarmed. He would think that he did
something wrong or that there was something wrong with me. Overall, tailoring emails has
allowed me to effectively communicate and build stronger relations with these mentors.

             As previously mentioned one of my mentors is a strong S. I am a strong D. At the

beginning of our working relationship, there were communication problems. The “sender” was
sending messages, but the receiver was not effectively receiving them. We had weekly meetings
and both left every meeting feeling frustrated and unproductive. The meetings would start with
talking about how my week was going and what is happening in my life. Then we would
transition into talking about the work. I would be so eager and focused on the work updates, that
it was hard to share what was happening in my week and talk about myself. He would be upset
because it is important to him to understand how every student Is doing inside and outside of
work. He would not be able to focus on the work until he knew how I was doing. After a month
of this, the whole organization took the true colors personality assessment which is similar to the
DISC assessment. After understanding each of the ways that we communicated the best, the
order of the meeting changed. We started with the updates about work and then transitioned into
how I was doing. He was content to know that the life update was at the end. We were both able
to focus on the work and have a better conversation about my life. For the past 3 years, our
relationship and communication have improved significantly.

             I know entering the workforce that not all bosses are going to be that flexible and I will
have to conform to them. However, this has taught me how to communicate with a strong S. It
also has shown me that overall communication can improve if there is a compromise. Therefore,
if I am ever in a mentor/leadership role, I will work to create a compromise and not have one
person conform to another. This knowledge of personality types and how to communicate with
each is crucial to effective communication.

Personal Story

We all know that the COVID-19 pandemic began spring of 2020 and drastically changed
everyone’s lives. Just like a lot of college students I had to move back to my parents’ house.
Overall, I have a pretty great home life and cannot complain too much. The best and most
annoying part of living at home is my little brother. We are 6 years apart (eighth grade at the
time) and are polar opposites. However, we are super close. On May 4th, 2020, while playing
with a soccer ball in our basement he fell and suffered a concussion. It was a tailbone concussion
which is often healed within a week. Within a few days, we noticed that something was
definitely wrong. He had several MRIs and other scans, and all showed nothing wrong.
However, he was having spells when he would act like a different person. For hours each day, he
would act like a small child (4 or 5 years old) and showed signs of limited verbal autism. It was
very difficult to watch my very high achieving brother switch back and forth throughout the day.
He did not remember what would happen during these spells. One of the spells lasted 30 hours
and resulted in a trip to the ER. None of the doctors that we talked to had any ideas on what was
happening. They would just recommend time, rest, and drinking water. I was not comfortable
with this answer and wanted another opinion. I convinced my parents to take him to Kennedy
Krieger Institute (KKI), a world-renowned concussion clinic. At KKI the doctors were stumped.
They also kept saying more time, rest, and water. However, they were concerned about a full
recovery. I did a lot of my research on concussions and similar stories. Most stories used an MRI
with dye to determine brain activity after concussions and other brain injuries. However, this was
never offered. I would sit in on different virtual doctor's appointments and ask about further
testing. I was generally shut down by the doctors who did not see this as necessary. They said if
the regular MRI is fine the one with dye will not be helpful. Finally, after several weeks of
appointments, waiting, different doctors, rest, lots of emotions, and forcing him to drink even
more water, they agreed to do an MRI with dye. It happened that he went into the spell in the
middle of the scan. This allowed doctors to see the activity during the scan and during the spell.
After reviewing the scan, they still there was nothing wrong and he just needed more time, rest,
and even more water.

After several weeks of spells, even when he was “normal” he was depressed. This was due to
large portions of his memory being missed and consistent confusion. They finally set him up
with a psychiatrist to discuss his mental health through it all. She was the one who determined
what was happening. Whenever his brain got stressed, it would shut down and revert to the
child's state. It is common for people right after a concussion to have trouble thinking about
complex problems and being confused. Since my brother is high achieving and rarely unable to
solve problems or confused, his brain would shut down. This would result in memory loss, which
would cause more confusion and created a cycle that had to be broken. The psychiatrist was able
to use the dye MRI to determine what neurotransmitters were being affected. The solution was
some medication to get his neurotransmitter back on track. After a few days on the medication,
the spells started getting shorter and occurring less often. It was not until August 2020 that he
was fully released.

The summer changed my life forever. It was a large strain on my family. Since I was home due
to COVID, I had to help take some of the work. He required constant care and supervision for 6
weeks. This meant creating schedules with my parents around their work and my school
schedule. I had to help support my parents as they went through this tough time. I also had to
advocate for myself. It was a lot to be around 24/7. I had to advocate when I needed a break.
This taught me that asking for a break is not giving up. That taking time to step away and come
back stronger is beneficial. This was also all happening during finals of my hardest semester and
my first experience of virtual classes. It truly tested my time management skills and dedication to
my schoolwork. Even after everything that spring I passed all my classes with As and Bs. It also
tested my perseverance (or stubbornness). Even though many doctors said that he just needed
time, rest, and water I would give up looking for another answer. It turns out that pushing for
more was correct. The cycle would not have been broken without the medication. The biggest
impact it had on me was seeing how fast your life could change drastically. One small fall caused
a lot of problems.

I need to have a plan and hate taking life one day or one hour at a time. Between COVID and my
brother's health, no planning was possible. The world was changing so fast it was hard to keep up
day today. My brother's needs would vary within one hour. Therefore, plans on when I would
complete homework and other tasks would just keep changing throughout the day. I would adjust
my schedule to what he needed. Although, I would still love a plan. This experience has taught
me how to roll with the changes a little more. This is important when I start my career this May.
Most companies and positions constantly change from day today. This experience has prepared
me to take on these changes.

OCEAN personality

Overall, I had a mix of agreement and disagreement with my results from the OCEAN
personality exam. I scored between 62% and 75% on all dimensions of personality (The Big
Five). For openness I scored a 75%, this was surprising (The Big Five). I agree with the
description of a strong interest in the arts. I love the arts and have participated in dance and
theatre my whole life. However, openness also was defined as “How to open a person is to new
ideas and experiences.” This is what I first thought of when I hear openness. By this definition, I
think 75% is too high. I am very cautious to leave my comfort zone. I also love to stick to a plan
and am often very stubborn when it comes to new ideas. For conscientiousness, I scored 69%
(The Big Five). Although it is greater than 50%, I expected higher. I am always planning. I
typically take the harder path if it can lead to a favorable outcome in the future. For example. I
opted to take a lot of AP classes in high school for the future payoff in college. The opposite end
of conscientiousness is impulsive and easily sidetracked. I would not describe myself as
impulsive. For extraversion, I scored 73% (The Big Five). This did not surprise me at all. I enjoy
hanging out with other people and generally do not like to be alone for a long time. However, in
a new and very stimulating social situation, I get drained very easily. Agreeableness is my lowest
score of 62.5% (The Big Five). This did not surprise me. Although I have some agreeableness
personality it is my weakest. I am a very fact-based person and often see situations as black and
white. Therefore, I can lack a lot of empathy in some situations. In the last section Neuroticism, I
got a score of 73% (The Big Five). This is not surprising. I am a worrier and always plan for the
worst-case scenario.

I think my Big Five Personality tests varied significantly from the DISC and JUNG personality
tests. For the DISC assessment, I am a strong D. This typically refers to direct, results-oriented,
and firm. The results-oriented seems to line up with the conscientious. I am always looking
towards to future to the next goal. Based on my understanding of DISC, I would think a high
score on openness would correspond to an I on the DISC assessment. For the DISC assessment, I
was only 19% I. In the JUNG assessment, I was an INTJ. This is different compared to the
OCEAN assessment where I scored 73% extraversion. I always describe myself as an
extroverted introvert. I think this shows contradicting results. Overall, the JUNG and DISC
assessments were pretty aligned, but the OCEAN assessment showed different results. I think the
variability could also be due to the selection of the questions and the wording. Although every
questionnaire is accurate, I think that the specific question is asked may have changed my
results. I have had a past with mental health challenges. I think these challenges have shaped my
personality. Due to these challenges, I have anxiety about specific situations. I think that these
challenges and my personality are intertwined and cannot be separated. However, have affected
the ways I answer questions. For example, I am a strong D and very results-oriented and goal-
driven. There is not a lot that I will let stop me from a goal and it often includes other people's
feelings. However, I also have severe anxiety about being disliked. Therefore, depending on how
the question is presented my answer may change.
Conclusion

             Overall, throughout this class, I have learned a lot of valuable communication skills and
techniques. I have also learned the importance of a personal story and storytelling. I hope to take
the variety of skills including the platinum rule, crucial conversation techniques, storytelling, and
knowledge of my personality, and apply it to all my future careers. Just improving these skills
throughout the job search and interview process has proved invaluable. I know continuing to
develop these skills would continue to benefit me.
 Work Cited

Faulkner, Michael, and Andrea Nierenberg. Networking for College Students and Graduates.

Pearson Learning Solutions, 2017. Print.

Gallo, Carmine. Five Stars the Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great. St. Martin’s

Press, 2018. Print.

Grenny, Joseph. Crucial Conversations. McGraw Hill, 2012.

O’Hair, Dan, and Hannah Rubenstein and Rob Stewart. A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking.

Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2019. Print.

“The Big Five Personality Test.” Truity, 5 Nov. 2019,

https://www.truity.com/test/big-five-personality-test.

Rawlings, Tom. “Disc.” Homegrown Leadership, 3 Dec. 2018,

https://homegrownleadership.com/index.php/2016/08/08/disc/.