Notes from Table IV
What happens when we are unaware that a miscommunication has occurred? What are the consequences? How can academia prepare students for the business world?
How can we make ourselves aware of our own blind spots?
Effective communication is co-communication-which is to say-a collaborative process. To that end, it is a possible solution to suggest that goals and assumptions be mutually determined at the start of an interaction.
In classes there can be a kind of short-stakes writing solution in which some time could be set aside for a team or group to get their thoughts goals and assumptions on paper.
There is a very large amount of collaboration that goes into teamwork and teamwork seems to be the foundation of business and academic work. i.e. committees, group projects, brainstorming sessions, design teams, etc…
Even Web Meeting and Wikipedia have real collaborative potential.
There is value in using writing and collaborative technologies as tools for the kind of self-awareness that can help diffuse miscommunication.
Writing is a primary solution, but might be difficult to encourage in the business world. Still, there are a few examples of ways in which one can introduce writing into business meetings (flip charts, lists of goals, etc) and several group members found that the business group saw its value in decision-making and even troubleshooting (identifying unforeseen conflicts and potential miscommunications).
**Ultimately, we believe emphasizing collaboration is an excellent approach to nurture effective communication (i.e. avoiding miscommunication). We also identified several tools to facilitate collaboration, for example, OSCA/Blackboard, WordPress, WebMeeting etc.**
My sense, after 36 years in business and another seven in tertiary education, is that one may never completely eliminate the the possibility of undetected miscommunication.
One can, however, act to minimize the the probability of undetected miscommunication. Collaboration is one of these means, especially if the collaborators are of diverse backgrounds. This is to say that collaborative tools are not enough. There needs to be a degree of healthy skepticism entering the picture.
This implies that behavior of the collaborators is also important. How, for example, does one deliver and receive constructive criticism? What is the role of introspection?
My sense is that writing is much more important and much more frequent in business than when I started. Modern technology (to which we are tethered) demands it. Now it may be nonstandard writing (e.g., ;-/), but it is nevertheless writing.