Number of people

Over the course of the unit, we have used a wide range of interpersonal skills and communication techniques to communicate with our teams. These skills are useful if used correctly, but can also be detrimental to group work when they are overused or misused. Knowing how these skills work is vital for working well in a team situation and producing good work.Interpersonal Skills Verbal Exchanges: Signing, Lip Reading Verbal exchanges are possibly the most important part of working in a team. By talking to your team members, you can communicate about the current task and learn about the thoughts and ideas of the other people in your team. This is the most common way Of communicating as it is quick and easy. Lip reading and signing can also be used for people who have trouble hearing, although signing requires an understanding of sign language from both parties, which means that it is less likely to be an effective way of communicating.Although it is a good way to communicate, there is a danger of people going off topic and not focusing on the task at hand when they are talking to others in their group. Written messages can be used instead, which allows the team to write out their ideas in a clear and concise way, without veering off topic. Nonverbal Exchanges: Body Language and Intonation On the other end of the spectrum from verbal language, there is nonverbal language. The most common form of this is known as body language and in some cases, can be as useful and informative as verbal cues.Body language describes how a person moves and acts when they are addressing someone. By studying body language, you can assess the attitudes of people in your group, which allows you to change topic when they start to become bored, which will increase the level of information that is passed through the group. This can also be bad if a team member is displaying negative body language such as crossed arms, as it will make the rest of the team less likely to talk to them. Nonverb al communication can also be observed through the attire that someone wears.If someone walks into an important team meeting with inappropriate clothing, it shows that they may not take the meeting seriously and do not feel the need to dress appropriately. Proper clothing can make the rest of the team more inclined to listen to you as you will look more prepared. Intonation is the way that someone speaks to express their thoughts more clearly. This can be simple pauses before words for effect, or increasing and decreasing the pitch of their voice. This is an important tool for effectively broadcasting your views about a particular subject.It is also useful if you are the team leader, as it helps to make your voice more interesting and memorable to the people you are speaking to. While this is useful, it can also be unhelpful when negative Intonation is used, such as using sarcastic comments in response to an idea. Positive and Negative Language Positive language is language that is h elpful or constructive, and helps the team work together. This language can be used to critique a person's work without making them feel like their work is being dismissed unfairly.Examples of positive language can be saying things like â€Å"This is a good piece of work, but it needs to be amended slightly. † Negative language is the opposite of positive language. It is often unnecessarily mean to the receiver and so is usually less helpful, as the person is less likely to take on the criticism. If a group has too much negative communication, it means that they ill be less likely to work well in the group and perform to their best standards. To some people, what is seen as simple criticism can come across as negative, especially when the subject is something personal or something that they have worked hard on.It is important to be careful about what language you are using, but you may have to use a combination of positive and negative language in order to correctly express y our opinions of the team work. Active Engagement: Nodding, Summarizing, Paraphrasing Active Engagement is the use of positive, engaging learning techniques in order to help the people you are working with get more involved and remember more than they would in other situations. This type of interaction is helpful in keeping the ideas four team fresh and flowing, which in turn helps to promote friendly behavior and team working within the group.While beneficial, too much active engagement can lead to the lesson becoming distracting, causing the core information to be lost. For active engagement to be effective, it must be used in moderation so that it does not become so energetic that it is confusing. Barriers: Background Noise, Distractions, Loss of Interest Barriers are common in all areas of work, be it teamwork or individual work. Barriers are things that directly affect the amount of information that you can process. All of these interpersonal skills can become barriers to commun ication if they are used extensively or wrongly.Other barriers can include distraction caused by loud noises or interesting things happening nearby, or mental barriers that are caused by stress or emotional problems. In every area of work, there will be barriers that have to be overcome. These barriers can be exacerbated by other team members, but can also be overcome easier with others to keep the group on track. Examples of overcoming barriers could include taking a short team break when everyone becomes tired and unresponsive.This lets the team process the information so that they can remember it more effectively, and allows them to release some energy so that they don't become a distraction to others. Types of Questioning: Open, Closed, Probing, Speed Of Response Questions can come in two main forms: Closed and open. Closed questions are ones that can be answered with a simple, short sentence, whereas open questions require a more in depth answer. An example of a closed question could be ‘Meal it sunny yesterday? , while an open question would be â€Å"What did you think of the sunny weather yesterday? Both types of question are good in different ways. Closed questions allow you to get definite, concise information from the answerer. Open questions make it easier to assess the answerers attitude and thoughts behind the topic. Open questions are also good in that they can be used to enter a discussion which stops your team members from becoming bored, like they would if you had just asked closed questions. Communicating In Writing Guidelines Guidelines are sets of rules that dictate how you should write a particular piece of work.For example, a set of guidelines for a piece of writing intended for children may say that it has to be simple and easy to understand, whereas a piece for people of a higher age may need to be more informative and contain more complex language. Guidelines are good as they give users a clear idea Of how the work should be wri tten so as to convey the message to the highest standard. Emoticons Emoticons are representations of facial expressions made by using symbols on the keyboard (E. G. L) Emoticons are generally informal and are used to indicate the tone of the intended message.In a team environment, emoticons re not generally necessary, and can disrupt the main information in a message if they are overused. Grammar Grammar refers to how sentences are constructed using the proper syntax. Grammar is important in any area of work as it makes your work easier to understand and makes you appear more prepared and knowledgeable. Spelling Spelling is an important part Of any type of work that you do. Good spelling allows your work to be easily read and understood, as well as making you appear more professional.Good spelling also means that you will have to spend less time getting your team members to correct your work and you can Ochs on more important tasks. The need for good spelling is diminished if you sp eak to your teammates in person, but there will always be work that will have to be copied down, making good spelling a vital part of group work. Structure Structure relates to how writing is laid out in a piece of work. Good structure allows people to follow your work easily, as well as quickly jump to the parts that they need in the writing.Structure can be improved by the use of contents pages, which clearly show what topics are covered in each paragraph. When compiling lots of pieces of team work from different authors, good structure can make save lots Of time by reducing the amount Of time taken sorting through random pages trying to find the right piece of work. Identifying Relevance Relevance is how connected something is to the main topic. By identifying how relevant pieces of work are, you can reduce the amount of time put into researching things that aren't important to the topic as a whole.Identifying relevance can sometimes be hard, as something that is deemed irrelevan t at one point can actually become more important later on. By using techniques such as underlining and highlighting, you can easily ensure that important acts are clearly shown to the reader. Another way of doing this is to completely cut any relevant information and place it into small notes. This way may be effective, but can be risky if you end up cutting some information that later turns out to be important. Proofreading Proofreading is the process of overlooking work thou have written and checking it for any mistakes.By proofreading work before you send it to someone else, you reduce the risk of sending them something that might not make sense, or may give them incorrect or misleading information. Proofreading your own work can be hard, as you are more likely to skim over ND miss any small errors that someone else may catch. Proofreading can be made more efficient by getting someone else to read your work and check for mistakes, leaving the work for at least a day before proof reading so your brain can treat it as a new piece of writing, or reading the work slower than usual and out loud which will help to catch any mistakes that you may have made.Alternative Viewpoints An alternate viewpoint is research that comes from a source that is different from your own. An alternate viewpoint can come in the form of a document that you get from the internet or from collaboration with a co-worker over a ice of work. Getting many alternate viewpoints is important to ensure that your work is not biased or factually Inaccurate. When referencing other people's work in your own, it is important to clearly distinguish where one person's viewpoint begins and another person's ends, and to correctly credit the author of the alternate viewpoint.Note Taking Note taking is a good tool for team working as it allows other members of your team to tell you what could be done better or what needs to be changed. A good way to take notes is electronically, using software such as Micr osoft Word. This lets you write and erase notes easily, as well as send updated copies to other people for fast collaboration. Most people use hard copies, where a single physical copy of the work is handed around and people write on the work directly.This approach can be quicker if it is being handed to a small number of people, but note taking electronically makes it easier to assess and change. Capitalization Capitalization is mostly used at the start of sentences and nouns such as England or Mark. When writing abbreviation, capital letters are also used, such as in ELK. Capitalization can also be used to display emotion when writing message, usually in the form of capitalistic every letter of a word to indicate shouting.Shouting in writing is generally thought of as negative and unprofessional, so should be avoided for more important letters. Team review Assessment think that I performed well in my team review meetings and my one-to-one tutorial target setting sessions. I used p ositive language verbal exchanges with my team members to accurately discern how we worked as a group. Think that I could have used more open questions to gain a better insight into what other people in my team thought about the work that we did.

Discussion feedback(Project Management Assignment) Assignment

Discussion feedback(Project Management ) - Assignment Example You have also noted that you need to work on your self-assurance. It is very important that you work on this skill because in a project, all members draw their strength and inspiration from the team leader. You seem to have a lot of good characteristics but there is a need to work on them such that you become a great leader. Being decisive is very important because leadership has more to do with making decisions than anything else. If you are not decisive, it might be hard to lead a team through a crisis moment. Therefore, you need to work on this characteristic. A good analysis on why leadership and communication are very important for success of a project. Unfortunately, you seem to consider turnover of team members as not a very important setback. This might not be always the case. Consider a turnover of members in a highly technical project, any replacement of the old members may require substantial time for training and bringing them up to speed. Kindly note that having technical skills may not necessarily mean you can join any technical project in your field at any point and continue working without causing disruptions. Communication to you comes out as a very significant factor in ensuring that projects succeed. If there is good communication, everything is likely to roll out as planned. I like the manner in which you relate the housing bubble with learning lessons from the past. That is definitely one way in which business leaders can learn from the past. You are right that cost estimation is necessary in order to determine the viability of a project and thus decide whether to go on with it or not. You also correctly note that work breakdown structure is required to determine what it will take to complete the project and identify any challenges which may be encountered. That is a good analysis there. A good attempt at relating cost estimation with work breakdown structure and project planning schedule. You

Tom Izzo Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Tom Izzo - Research Paper Example Izzo played as guard for the men’s basketball team from where he achieved a school record for minutes played; and so he acquired the name a Division II All- American (Michigan State Men’s Basketball). In 1991 he was inducted to Northern Michigan University as well as to Upper Penisula Hall in 1997. After completing the graduation from Northern Michigan, he undertook the responsibility of the head coach at Ishpeming High School for one year. Subsequently he worked as assistant coach and part-time assistant coach at Northern Michigan University (1979-1983) and in Michigan State in 1983 respectively. After resigning the post of assistant coach at University of Tulsa, he returned to Michigan State. While the assistant Mike Deane got promoted to the head coach at another college he took the role of the assistant. In 1991, prior to the last seasonal performance, the present head coach Jud Healthcote elevated him to the associated head coach at Michigan State. Based on his per formance and by the recommendation from the Michigan State Athletic director, he was promoted to the men’s basketball head coach for MSU (Michigan State Men’s Basketball). As the head coach, Izzo molded his team members to tough players. His coaching strategy is entirely different from that of other coaches. He made his trainees fit both physically and mentally to perform in accordance with the changing situations. Izzo’s motto is that â€Å"It doesn’t matter, morning, noon or night, and it doesn’t matter who it is† (Tom Izzo. Cited in Amadeo) . He teaches his trainees to motivate each other by undertaking various responsibilities with intent to inculcate ownership feeling between them. In his view, great players and good players are different; great players help their co-players to be more active in the field. His training strategy includes strength training, toughness training and conditioning. Izzo gives equal preferences to both physical and mental health of team members. By winning his 341st game on November 2009 he became the most winning coach in the school history. As a result, he could beat the previous head coach Heathcote. Even though he couldn’t make the tournament in his first two seasons, he could bridge the previous limitations by MSU’s record in conference and by winning the first of his six regular- season Big Ten championship in addition to the two Big Ten tournament titles( Michigan state: Mens Basketball). In 2000 his team MSU won the NCCA national championship against Florida Gators. As a head coach, the whole players recruited and trained by him were allowed to participate in the final four, and among them eighty two percent completed their qualification from MSU with a degree. It indicates his outstanding potential in coaching field. This extraordinary achievement lifted his demand as a coach. To illustrate, by considering his great coaching experience, some other professional baske tball teams and NBA pursued him. However he decided to continue at his present position and informed his decision to the Michigan State University’s Board. This decision which would be good news to his Spartans indicates his real dedication to his career. During his outstanding coaching career, he was several times awarded for his great contributions to the game. His achievements include ‘Associated Press National Coach of the Year Award’ in 1998 and ‘Henry Iba Award’ in 1998, Big Ten Coach of the Year

Organic Vs Convetional foods Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Organic Vs Convetional foods - Research Paper Example Conflicting ideas have emanated on the use of organic foods over conventional leading to a heated debate between organo-skeptics and those in favor of organic technology. The debate emanates from those who say that its worth to spend more money on Organic Foods because of their overall health benefits, and those who urge people to save money and buy conventional food products. My choice of organic versus conventional foods debate is related to the fact that I live New York City that is characterized by Health revolution. I have lately witnessed the closure of old restaurants in order to give way to the new ones offering organic foods. Additionally, supermarkets that offer all-organic experience have been popularized more compared to those trading on conventional food products. The New York Times reports a new study from researchers at Stanford University that suggests that there is minute nutritional variation between organic fruits or vegetables over their more expensive counterpart s. This has sparked the debate on the superiority of the two forms of food products in related to nutritional as well as non-nutritional factors. THE DEBATE The debate surrounding organic versus conventional foods revolves around three issues namely productivity, benefits and costs. The recent trend in the increased popularity of organic products among Americans has nothing to do with the perceived nutritional superiority. The Stanford study focused more on nutrients that contribute minimally to the reasons leading to the debate. According to the American Prospect (2008), many people perceive that organic food products are healthier than conventionally produced food products. However, organo-skeptics portend that it is not worthy spending more money buying organic foods when one can purchase cheaper conventionally produced products. The opinion of the organic lobbyists is based on the fact that organic production is devoid of fertilizers or pesticides use. This leads to the assumpti on that pesticides residues cannot be deposited in the foods products. The absence of pesticides implies that the products develop a natural defense mechanism. Scientists suppose that the defense factor occurs in the form of natural chemicals called phenols. The supporters claim that the chemicals act as antioxidants. Organic fruits and vegetables are becoming popular in the supermarkets because of the notion that the antioxidants they possess protect the body from cancers and heart disease. However, organo-skeptics portends that the natural pesticides may possess negative impacts on the body health. They insist that there is no proof for any health gains from organic foods. According to organic lobbyists, this is disputable because lack of such evidence can be attributed to the absence of appropriate research studies on the topic. Organo-skeptics claim that the use of manure in production of organic fruits and vegetables has led to contamination of food products with bacteria E. Co li. Critics associate the presence of these harmful pathogens with food poisoning. However, research has shown that composting the manure for a precise period of time and maintaining it at an exact temperature reduces bacterial composition (Lester, Manthey and Buslig 4474-80). Supporters of organic farming argue that safety strategies are already in place to ensure that the risk of food poisoning is minimized. Supporters of the use of

Marketing strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marketing strategies - Essay Example Australia’s strong employment growth and rising wealth coupled together with car manufacturers’ strong discounting and cheap finance schemes have cultivated growth in new car sales. With a strong economy, low interest rates on car financing and tariff reduction on vehicle imports will increase consumer confidence and encourage consumers to spend. Therefore, projected growth remains strong and stable over the next five-year period. In this paper, the author focuses on the product launch of new product line for Mercin Daviro. Mercin Daviro is a New Australian car manufacturer that specializes in the small, compact and economic range. The company is derived from Europe where it matches the features of the small European cars. Trends in the demographic environment, economic environment, natural environment, technological environment, political environment and cultural environment have been analyzed and Mercin Daviro had used this information to structure their car. The automotive market can be segmented by product type such as four-wheel drives, people-movers, Sports utility vehicles, and light commercial vehicles. Strong sales growth has continued in most segments in 2004, particularly for four-wheel drives, people-movers and light commercial vehicles, pointing to another record year for total vehicle sales, even though new passenger car registrations are likely to have fallen slightly. Local demand have been rising strongly between 1999 and 2001, the value of total automotive exports fell by 2.2% in both 2002 and 2003. Total earnings from automotive exports were A$4.72bn (US$3.1bn) in 2003, of which A$2.99bn came from vehicle exports and A$1.74bn from component exports. The Middle East is by far the largest market for Australian vehicle exports, accounting for 40.1% of export earnings in 2003, followed by New Zealand (17.5%) and North America (16.6%). The current key players in the Australian automotive market are Toyota, General Motors, Ford, Mitsubishi,

Computer applications in management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Computer applications in management - Essay Example Social networking sites include Facebook, Tagged.com, Xanga.com, Live Journal, MySpace, Friendster.com, Liked In among others have cropped on the Internet for the past few years. Social networking services can facilitate learning and skill development outside formal learning environments and especially for the youths below 25 in Australia through support brought about by peer to peer learning of skills and knowledge, diverse cultural expression, collaboration, skill development within the working area (Ito et al, 2006; Jenkin, 2007, cited by Palfrey, 2008, p7 cited by Collin, Rahilly, Richardson and Third, 2011). These sites play key roles in youth culture as they give youth space and a place to hang out amongst themselves, where they share cultural artifacts. Most of these sites enable young people to flirt, post pictures, share videos, creative artwork and also meeting new people. They connect students from different schools across the nation (Barnes 2006). Young people pour their minds, into these social networking sites in order clear their heads, show their thoughts and get feedback from their peers (Hoang 2006 cited in Barnes 2006). Social networking services foster a strong sense of community and belonging which has the potential to promote resilience, that helps young people to adapt to change and also stressful events (Collin, Rahilly, Richardson and Third, 2011, p7). ... Boys, who are reluctant when discussing their feelings, tend to benefit more than girls from this effect (Farrer 2009). University of Minnesota conducted a study last year using social media which revealed improved technology and communication skills boosted creativity and exposed students to new views. This activity has taught students on editing content, designing and also encouraged the production and sharing of poetry, art, photographs, video content etc. This improves on students resulting to better performance in exams (Farrer 2009). These sites create a central repository of personal information. As American adults are concentrating on how the government and other organizations are collecting data regarding its citizens as teenagers freely give up their personal and private information in their social media. School officials, government agencies, marketers and online predators can collect data about youths through online teenage diaries. We can conclude these by saying adults are more concerned about the invasion of privacy while youths are freely giving up personal information. This occurs mainly because youths are unaware of the public nature of the Internet (Barnes 2006). Whereas adults argue that some certain information like that may lead to hacking of one’s account. However, formal communication is not vanishing. As social networking is displacing other forms of online communication to some degree such as email, chartrooms among others incorporates others like blogging, music downloading, and instant messaging and remediates yet more notably, face to face and phone communications (Bolter and Grusin, 1999; Jenkins, 2006 cited in Livingstone 2008, p395). To sum up on the benefits, Social Networking Services constitute new spaces for civic

The Gamble House Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

The Gamble House - Essay Example Gamble House mood and symmetries tend to be different from other spacious contemporary buildings that were done in the 1900s. It has a casual mood that matches its localized symmetry. A very good example of the localization of symmetry in the masterpiece is the symmetrical organization of forms and spaces in relations to one another. In the three floors, the ceiling heights are different. The first-floor ceiling was the lowest while the den ceiling was the highest. Throughout the building, the scales and the forms shift constantly as one move from the interior towards the front and rear areas. The inclusion of the Gamble family attic in the third floor helped in making it a billiard room. A family crest, trailing rose and a crane were artistically integrated into many locations. Gamble House outdoor also symbolizes the historical building plans used in America during the 1990s. Outside the second-floor bedrooms are exterior porches that could be used for entertainment or for sleeping. The main terrace of the building was strategically designed and built to be privately beyond the back of the residence. Clinker boulders garden walls were also included to decorate the rear facade. The paths in the compound were made from stones forming a running brook across the lawns. The landscape and the garden elements were integrated into the required proportions and details. The Asian and Japanese influence on the structure can also be seen in the leaded glasses and the pine motif on the front door.