Communicating with different modalities

The assignment in my class this week was to listen to a piece of communication in 3 different modalities; email, voicemail and face-to-face, and take notes of my impression of each modality.

The first modality was email.  In the email, Jane is asking Mark for a piece of information that his report was missing.  She states that she cannot complete her report until she gets the missing information.  She also states that she knows Mark has been busy and in a meeting all day.  Jane sounds almost too nice in this email and almost desperate to get the information.

The second modality is voicemail.  The same exact message is stated.  Jane sounds very nice and seems as though she doesn’t want to be a bother.  Hearing her voice, she doesn’t sound as desperate.  She just sounds as though she would like to get the information to complete her report.

The last modality is face-to-face.  We see, and hear Jane this time.  She seems like a very happy person.  She is not accusing Mark or bossing him around.  She is just reminding him to get the report to her soon.

What factors influenced how you perceived the message?

The differences in the message were seeing the written message, hearing the speakers voice, and seeing the speaker.  Being able to see a person’s body language helps in interpreting the message better.

Which form of communication best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message?

I feel that the face-to-face message conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message.  In face-to-face communications you are able to see the body language of the speaker.  You can see their facial expressions and I believe that helps to interpret the message.

What are the implications of what you learned from this exercise for communicating effectively with members of a project team?

If possible, you should always have important conversations in a face-to-face format.

Project Post-Mortem reflection

The assignment for this post is to remember a project that failed, and to look at the “post-mortem reflection” to consider some of the reasons.

I worked with a group of teachers when we were implementing a new math book.  The new math book was rolled out and it was very different from what was used the previous year.  I was new to the team that year, transferring in from a different school.  We were tasked with looking at the new materials and creating lessons that would fit within our objectives and creating engaging projects.

The team jumped right in and looking back, we should have created a timeline and assigned roles for each member.  There were 7 team members, each with very different views.  Three of the teachers wanted to use the same materials that they used the previous year.  We did not have “buy-in” from these teachers and they were not interested in using the new book.

With the 4 remaining team members, we went through each standard and found the materials that related to that standard and came up with an engaging presentation.  It took us about 3 weeks to come up with ideas for the lessons for the 1^st quarter of the school year.  Looking back, I feel that if we would have assigned roles, we could have each taken a section to work with individually and created the project faster.