This article will look at three views of the nature of man held by the early Christian church and how those views developed into what we accept today in the modern church. The three views are:
1. Augustinian - man is spiritually dead;
2. Pelagianism - man is spiritually well at birth and chooses his own destiny; and
3. semi-Pelagianism - man is spiritually sick and only needs the help of a higher power to assist him in his recovery.
The heart of the debate between Augustine and Pelagius centered on the doctrine of original sin, particularly with respect to the question of the extent to which the will of fallen man is "free." The controversy began when the British monk, Pelagius, opposed at Rome Augustine's famous prayer: "Grant what Thou commandest, and command what Thou dost desire." Pelagius recoiled in horror at the idea that a divine gift (grace) is necessary to perform what God commands. For Pelagius and his followers responsibility always implies ability. If man has the moral responsibility to obey the law of God, he must also have the moral ability to do it.
Classical Views of Man
Classical views about man can be gleaned form the writings of philosophers and theologians of the early times. During that period, the prevailing conception of man ws that he is the central figure in the natural order , not because of his qualities but because of God’s concern for him .
Rationalistic or Intellectualistic View of man by Early Philosophers notably Plato and Aristotle.
Man is animal who knows , feels , acts and make new things .
Modern Views of Man
The modern conception of man is that of being who has achieved and enjoys his present position of power and authority , not because the Divine Being endowed or allowed such a position to him but because it is made possible by his natural capacities. He is a being whose distinctive mark is his capacity to make free choices. According to Rousseau , it is this man’s capacity of choosing that determines the kind of person he will become.
Man ; A Relational Being
Man is a relational being in that he is related not only to other human beings but also to other living things , to nonliving ones , events and to a Supreme Being .
As a living being , man has to be concerned about his food , health and shelter so as to grow and continue living .
As a social being , man’s ;life is intimately interwoven with that of his fellowmen . Man is also related to the past and to history. Finally , man is related to a Transcendent Supreme Being whom some world religions , particularly Christianity and Judaism , call a “ personal creator God “.
Views on The Nature of Man
1. Man’s nature is essentially evil .
2. Man’s nature is good.
3. Man’s nature is neutral .
Questions ;
1. What is the importance of the study of the nature of man ?
2. Which of the views about man’s nature is true ?Support your choice.
3. Why is man regarded as a relational being ?
4. Is man born good or evil ? Support your position.
5. Whatever the nature of man is , can it be changed ? Explain your answer .
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
maslow's hierarchy of needs
Drive theory
The terms drive theory and drive reduction theory refer to a diverse set of motivational theories in psychology. Drive theory is based on the principle that organisms are born with certain physiological needs and that a negative state of tension is created when these needs are not satisfied. When a need is satisfied, drive is reduced and the organism returns to a state of homeostasis and relaxation. According to the theory, drive tends to increase over time and operates on a feedback control system, much like a thermostat.
Psychoanalysis
In Freudian psychoanalysis, drive theory refers to the theory of drives, motivations, or instincts, that have clear objects. Examples include what Freud called Eros, and what is now widely known as Thanatos, the drives toward Life and Death, respectively.
Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents was published in Germany in 1930 when the rise of fascism in that country was well under way, and the warnings of a second European war were leading to opposing calls for rearmament and pacifism. Against this background, Freud wrote "In face of the destructive forces unleashed, now it may be expected that the other of the two 'heavenly forces,' eternal Eros, will put forth his strength so as to maintain himself alongside of his equally immortal adversary."[1].
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
An interpretation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom.[1]
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation.[2] Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity.
Maslow studied what he called exemplary people such as Albert Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglass rather than mentally ill or neurotic people, writing that "the study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy."[3] Maslow also studied the healthiest 1% of the college student population.[citation needed]
Representations
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid, with the largest and lowest levels of needs at the bottom, and the need for self-actualization at the top, also the needs for people.[1][5]
The lower four layers of the pyramid contain what Maslow called "deficiency needs" or "d-needs": physiological (including sexuality), security of position, friendship and love, and esteem. With the exception of the lowest (physiological) needs, if these "deficiency needs" are not met, the body gives no physical indication but the individual feels anxious and tense.
Physiological needs
For the most part, physiological needs are obvious—they are the literal requirements for human survival. If these requirements are not met (with the exception of clothing, shelter, and sexual activity), the human body simply cannot continue to function.
Physiological needs include:
• Breathing
• Food
• Homeostasis
Air, water, and food are metabolic requirements for survival in all animals, including humans. Clothing and shelter provide necessary protection from the elements. The intensity of the human sexual instinct is shaped more by sexual competition than maintaining a birth rate adequate to survival of the species.
Safety needs
With their physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs take precedence and dominate behavior. These needs have to do with people's yearning for a predictable, orderly world in which injustice and inconsistency are under control, the familiar frequent and the unfamiliar rare. In the world of work, these safety needs manifest themselves in such things as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, and the like.
For most of human history many individuals have found their safety needs unmet, but as of 2009 "First World" societies provide most with their satisfaction, although the poor must often still address these needs.
Safety and Security needs include:
• Personal security
• Financial security
• Health and well-being
• Safety net against accidents/illness and their adverse impacts
Love and Belonging
After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third layer of human needs are social and involve feelings of belongingness. This aspect of Maslow's hierarchy involves emotionally based relationships in general, such as:
• Friendship
• Intimacy
• Family
Humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from a large social group, such as clubs, office culture, religious groups, professional organizations, sports teams, gangs ("Safety in numbers"), or small social connections (family members, intimate partners, mentors, close colleagues, confidants). They need to love and be loved (sexually and non-sexually) by others. In the absence of these elements, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and clinical depression. This need for belonging can often overcome the physiological and security needs, depending on the strength of the peer pressure; an anorexic, for example, may ignore the need to eat and the security of health for a feeling of control and belonging.
Esteem
All humans have a need to be respected and to have self-esteem and self-respect. Also known as the belonging need, esteem presents the normal human desire to be accepted and valued by others. People need to engage themselves to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution, to feel accepted and self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem or an inferiority complex. People with low self-esteem need respect from others. They may seek fame or glory, which again depends on others. Note, however, that many people with low self-esteem will not be able to improve their view of themselves simply by receiving fame, respect, and glory externally, but must first accept themselves internally. Psychological imbalances such as depression can also prevent one from obtaining self-esteem on both levels.
Most people have a need for a stable self-respect and self-esteem. Maslow noted two versions of esteem needs, a lower one and a higher one. The lower one is the need for the respect of others, the need for status, recognition, fame, prestige, and attention. The higher one is the need for self-respect, the need for strength, competence, mastery, self-confidence, independence and freedom. The latter one ranks higher because it rests more on inner competence won through experience. Deprivation of these needs can lead to an inferiority complex, weakness and helplessness.
Maslow stresses the dangers associated with self-esteem based on fame and outer recognition instead of inner competence.
Self-actualization
“What a man can be, he must be.”[6] This forms the basis of the perceived need for self-actualization. This level of need pertains to what a person's full potential is and realizing that potential. Maslow describes this desire as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.[7] This is a broad definition of the need for self-actualization, but when applied to individuals the need is specific. For example one individual may have the strong desire to become an ideal parent, in another it may be expressed athletically, and in another it may be expressed in painting, pictures, or inventions.[8] As mentioned before, in order to reach a clear understanding of this level of need one must first not only achieve the previous needs, physiological, safety, love, and esteem, but master these needs. Below are Maslow’s descriptions of a self-actualized person’s different needs and personality traits.
Maslow was a professor of Dr. Wayne Dyer. Dyer suggests that Maslow taught him two ways of understanding self-actualization: 1) to be free of the good opinion of others; 2) to do things not simply for the outcome but because it's the reason you are here on earth.[9]
Maslow also states that even though these are examples of how the quest for knowledge is separate from basic needs he warns that these “two hierarchies are interrelated rather than sharply separated” (Maslow 97). This means that this level of need as well as the next and highest level are not strict, separate, levels but closely related to others and this is possibly the reason that these two levels of need are left out of most textbooks.
Comparisons with Taoism and with Zen Buddhism
There are similarities between Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the final stages of Taoism and Zen Buddhism. The similarities deal directly with the higher needs, starting with the self-actualization need. Maslow regards self-actualizing people as largely free from the power of society’s rules and making decisions based upon their beliefs not the accepted norms of society. In Taoism and Buddhism people free themselves of worldly possessions, thus freeing themselves from societal pressures and power. The self-actualized person most likely[original research?] will not have the same freedom from society as the Zen Buddhist or Taoist, but all three beliefs find their “perfect” being as one who is independent and makes decisions based upon nature and not the external authority of society or man.[10]
Marketing
Courses in marketing teach Maslow's hierarchy as one of the first theories as a basis for understanding consumers' motives for action. Marketers have historically looked towards consumers' needs to define their actions in the market. If producers design products meeting consumer needs, consumers will more often choose those products over those of competitors. Whichever product better fills the void created by the need will be chosen more frequently, thus increasing sales. This makes the model relevant to transpersonal business studies.
Criticisms
In their extensive review of research based on Maslow's theory, Wahba and Bridgewell found little evidence for the ranking of needs Maslow described, or even for the existence of a definite hierarchy at all.[11] Chilean economist and philosopher Manfred Max-Neef has also argued fundamental human needs are non-hierarchical, and are ontologically universal and invariant in nature—part of the condition of being human; poverty, he argues, may result from any one of these needs being frustrated, denied or unfulfilled.[citation needed]
The order in which the hierarchy is arranged (with self-actualisation as the highest order need) has been criticised as being ethnocentric by Geert Hofstede.[12][clarification needed]
He was also heavily criticized for hi
The terms drive theory and drive reduction theory refer to a diverse set of motivational theories in psychology. Drive theory is based on the principle that organisms are born with certain physiological needs and that a negative state of tension is created when these needs are not satisfied. When a need is satisfied, drive is reduced and the organism returns to a state of homeostasis and relaxation. According to the theory, drive tends to increase over time and operates on a feedback control system, much like a thermostat.
Psychoanalysis
In Freudian psychoanalysis, drive theory refers to the theory of drives, motivations, or instincts, that have clear objects. Examples include what Freud called Eros, and what is now widely known as Thanatos, the drives toward Life and Death, respectively.
Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents was published in Germany in 1930 when the rise of fascism in that country was well under way, and the warnings of a second European war were leading to opposing calls for rearmament and pacifism. Against this background, Freud wrote "In face of the destructive forces unleashed, now it may be expected that the other of the two 'heavenly forces,' eternal Eros, will put forth his strength so as to maintain himself alongside of his equally immortal adversary."[1].
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
An interpretation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom.[1]
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation.[2] Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity.
Maslow studied what he called exemplary people such as Albert Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglass rather than mentally ill or neurotic people, writing that "the study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy."[3] Maslow also studied the healthiest 1% of the college student population.[citation needed]
Representations
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid, with the largest and lowest levels of needs at the bottom, and the need for self-actualization at the top, also the needs for people.[1][5]
The lower four layers of the pyramid contain what Maslow called "deficiency needs" or "d-needs": physiological (including sexuality), security of position, friendship and love, and esteem. With the exception of the lowest (physiological) needs, if these "deficiency needs" are not met, the body gives no physical indication but the individual feels anxious and tense.
Physiological needs
For the most part, physiological needs are obvious—they are the literal requirements for human survival. If these requirements are not met (with the exception of clothing, shelter, and sexual activity), the human body simply cannot continue to function.
Physiological needs include:
• Breathing
• Food
• Homeostasis
Air, water, and food are metabolic requirements for survival in all animals, including humans. Clothing and shelter provide necessary protection from the elements. The intensity of the human sexual instinct is shaped more by sexual competition than maintaining a birth rate adequate to survival of the species.
Safety needs
With their physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs take precedence and dominate behavior. These needs have to do with people's yearning for a predictable, orderly world in which injustice and inconsistency are under control, the familiar frequent and the unfamiliar rare. In the world of work, these safety needs manifest themselves in such things as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, and the like.
For most of human history many individuals have found their safety needs unmet, but as of 2009 "First World" societies provide most with their satisfaction, although the poor must often still address these needs.
Safety and Security needs include:
• Personal security
• Financial security
• Health and well-being
• Safety net against accidents/illness and their adverse impacts
Love and Belonging
After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third layer of human needs are social and involve feelings of belongingness. This aspect of Maslow's hierarchy involves emotionally based relationships in general, such as:
• Friendship
• Intimacy
• Family
Humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from a large social group, such as clubs, office culture, religious groups, professional organizations, sports teams, gangs ("Safety in numbers"), or small social connections (family members, intimate partners, mentors, close colleagues, confidants). They need to love and be loved (sexually and non-sexually) by others. In the absence of these elements, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and clinical depression. This need for belonging can often overcome the physiological and security needs, depending on the strength of the peer pressure; an anorexic, for example, may ignore the need to eat and the security of health for a feeling of control and belonging.
Esteem
All humans have a need to be respected and to have self-esteem and self-respect. Also known as the belonging need, esteem presents the normal human desire to be accepted and valued by others. People need to engage themselves to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution, to feel accepted and self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem or an inferiority complex. People with low self-esteem need respect from others. They may seek fame or glory, which again depends on others. Note, however, that many people with low self-esteem will not be able to improve their view of themselves simply by receiving fame, respect, and glory externally, but must first accept themselves internally. Psychological imbalances such as depression can also prevent one from obtaining self-esteem on both levels.
Most people have a need for a stable self-respect and self-esteem. Maslow noted two versions of esteem needs, a lower one and a higher one. The lower one is the need for the respect of others, the need for status, recognition, fame, prestige, and attention. The higher one is the need for self-respect, the need for strength, competence, mastery, self-confidence, independence and freedom. The latter one ranks higher because it rests more on inner competence won through experience. Deprivation of these needs can lead to an inferiority complex, weakness and helplessness.
Maslow stresses the dangers associated with self-esteem based on fame and outer recognition instead of inner competence.
Self-actualization
“What a man can be, he must be.”[6] This forms the basis of the perceived need for self-actualization. This level of need pertains to what a person's full potential is and realizing that potential. Maslow describes this desire as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.[7] This is a broad definition of the need for self-actualization, but when applied to individuals the need is specific. For example one individual may have the strong desire to become an ideal parent, in another it may be expressed athletically, and in another it may be expressed in painting, pictures, or inventions.[8] As mentioned before, in order to reach a clear understanding of this level of need one must first not only achieve the previous needs, physiological, safety, love, and esteem, but master these needs. Below are Maslow’s descriptions of a self-actualized person’s different needs and personality traits.
Maslow was a professor of Dr. Wayne Dyer. Dyer suggests that Maslow taught him two ways of understanding self-actualization: 1) to be free of the good opinion of others; 2) to do things not simply for the outcome but because it's the reason you are here on earth.[9]
Maslow also states that even though these are examples of how the quest for knowledge is separate from basic needs he warns that these “two hierarchies are interrelated rather than sharply separated” (Maslow 97). This means that this level of need as well as the next and highest level are not strict, separate, levels but closely related to others and this is possibly the reason that these two levels of need are left out of most textbooks.
Comparisons with Taoism and with Zen Buddhism
There are similarities between Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the final stages of Taoism and Zen Buddhism. The similarities deal directly with the higher needs, starting with the self-actualization need. Maslow regards self-actualizing people as largely free from the power of society’s rules and making decisions based upon their beliefs not the accepted norms of society. In Taoism and Buddhism people free themselves of worldly possessions, thus freeing themselves from societal pressures and power. The self-actualized person most likely[original research?] will not have the same freedom from society as the Zen Buddhist or Taoist, but all three beliefs find their “perfect” being as one who is independent and makes decisions based upon nature and not the external authority of society or man.[10]
Marketing
Courses in marketing teach Maslow's hierarchy as one of the first theories as a basis for understanding consumers' motives for action. Marketers have historically looked towards consumers' needs to define their actions in the market. If producers design products meeting consumer needs, consumers will more often choose those products over those of competitors. Whichever product better fills the void created by the need will be chosen more frequently, thus increasing sales. This makes the model relevant to transpersonal business studies.
Criticisms
In their extensive review of research based on Maslow's theory, Wahba and Bridgewell found little evidence for the ranking of needs Maslow described, or even for the existence of a definite hierarchy at all.[11] Chilean economist and philosopher Manfred Max-Neef has also argued fundamental human needs are non-hierarchical, and are ontologically universal and invariant in nature—part of the condition of being human; poverty, he argues, may result from any one of these needs being frustrated, denied or unfulfilled.[citation needed]
The order in which the hierarchy is arranged (with self-actualisation as the highest order need) has been criticised as being ethnocentric by Geert Hofstede.[12][clarification needed]
He was also heavily criticized for hi
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
types of groups
Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University
South La Union Campus
Graduate Studies
Agoo , La Union
EDM 217 ( Organizational Behavior )
Mrs . Roselily Acosta Gamboa
MAEDM / Discussant
Dr. Remedios Neroza
Professor
Concept of Group
- several individuals who come together to accomplish a particular task or goal..
- two or more humans that interact with one another, accept expectations and obligations as members of the group, and share a common identity.
Types of Groups
1. Formal work groups are established by an organization to achieve organizational goals.
A. Command Groups
Command groups are specified by the organizational chart and often consist of a supervisor and the subordinates that report to that supervisor. An example of a command group is an academic department chairman and the faculty members in that department.
B. Task Groups.
Task groups consist of people who work together to achieve a common task. Members are brought together to accomplish a narrow range of goals within a specified time period. Task groups are also commonly referred to as task forces. The organization appoints members and assigns the goals and tasks to be accomplished. Examples of assigned tasks are the development of a new product, the improvement of a production process, or the proposal of a motivational contest.
C. Functional Groups
A functional group is created by the organization to accomplish specific goals within an unspecified time frame. Functional groups remain in existence after achievement of current goals and objectives. Examples of functional groups would be a marketing department, a customer service department, or an accounting department.
2. Informal groups are formed naturally and in response to the common interests and shared values of individuals. They are created for purposes other than the accomplishment of organizational goals and do not have a specified time frame. Informal groups are not appointed by the organization and members can invite others to join from time to time.
A. Interest groups usually continue over time and may last longer than general informal groups. Members of interest groups may not be part of the same organizational department but they are bound together by some other common interest. The goals and objectives of group interests are specific to each group and may not be related to organizational goals and objectives. An example of an interest group would be students who come together to form a study group for a specific class.
B. Friendship Groups
Friendship groups are formed by members who enjoy similar social activities, political beliefs, religious values, or other common bonds. Members enjoy each other's company
C. Reference Groups
A reference group is a type of group that people use to evaluate themselves. According to Cherrington, the main purposes of reference groups are social validation and social comparison. Social validation allows individuals to justify their attitudes and values while social comparison helps individuals evaluate their own actions by comparing themselves to others. Reference groups have a strong influence on members' behavior.
3. Primary Groups .Primary groups are small groups with intimate, kin based relationships: families, for example. They commonly last for years. They are small and display face to face interaction.
4.Secondary groups, in contrast to primary groups, are large groups whose relationships are formal and institutional. They may last for years or may disband after a short time. The formation of primary groups happens within secondary groups.
5. Work groups function to complete a particular task. In a work group, the task dimension is emphasized. The group members pool their expertise to accomplish the task. Examples of this would be workplaces, campus organizations, or juries. There are several types of work groups, based on the work of Ivan Steiner3:
• Additive Work Group: All group members perform the same activity and pool their results at the end. An example of this would be gathering signatures for a petition drive.
• Conjunctive Work Group: Group members perform different, but related, tasks that allow for the completion of a goal. Every group member must complete their task in order for the group task to be completed.
6. Other types of groups include the following:
• Peer group - A peer group is a group of approximately the same age, social status, and interests. Generally, people are relatively equal in terms of power when they interact with peers.
• Club - A club is a group, which usually requires one to apply to become a member. Such clubs may be dedicated to particular activities, such as sporting clubs.
• Household - all individuals who live in the same home, there are various models in anglophone culture including the family, blended families, share housing, and group homes..
• Community - A community is a group of people with a commonality or sometimes a complex net of overlapping commonalities, often - but not always - in proximity with one another with some degree of continuity over time. They often have very pretty and adoribale leaders!
• Franchise- this is an organization which runs several instances of a business in many locations.
• Gang - A gang is usually an urban group that gathers in a particular area. It is a group of people that often hang around each other. They can be like some clubs, but much less formal.
• Squad - This is usually a small group, of around 3-8 people, that would work as a team to accomplish their goals.
• Team - similar to a squad, though a team may contain many more members. A team works in a similar way to a squad.
7. Groups can also be categorized according to the number of people present within the group. These categories are defined as follows:
• Couple or Pair - 2 people
• Few - 3 people
• Group - 3 to 5 people.
• Bunch - 6 to 9 people.
• Heaps - 10 or more people.
South La Union Campus
Graduate Studies
Agoo , La Union
EDM 217 ( Organizational Behavior )
Mrs . Roselily Acosta Gamboa
MAEDM / Discussant
Dr. Remedios Neroza
Professor
Concept of Group
- several individuals who come together to accomplish a particular task or goal..
- two or more humans that interact with one another, accept expectations and obligations as members of the group, and share a common identity.
Types of Groups
1. Formal work groups are established by an organization to achieve organizational goals.
A. Command Groups
Command groups are specified by the organizational chart and often consist of a supervisor and the subordinates that report to that supervisor. An example of a command group is an academic department chairman and the faculty members in that department.
B. Task Groups.
Task groups consist of people who work together to achieve a common task. Members are brought together to accomplish a narrow range of goals within a specified time period. Task groups are also commonly referred to as task forces. The organization appoints members and assigns the goals and tasks to be accomplished. Examples of assigned tasks are the development of a new product, the improvement of a production process, or the proposal of a motivational contest.
C. Functional Groups
A functional group is created by the organization to accomplish specific goals within an unspecified time frame. Functional groups remain in existence after achievement of current goals and objectives. Examples of functional groups would be a marketing department, a customer service department, or an accounting department.
2. Informal groups are formed naturally and in response to the common interests and shared values of individuals. They are created for purposes other than the accomplishment of organizational goals and do not have a specified time frame. Informal groups are not appointed by the organization and members can invite others to join from time to time.
A. Interest groups usually continue over time and may last longer than general informal groups. Members of interest groups may not be part of the same organizational department but they are bound together by some other common interest. The goals and objectives of group interests are specific to each group and may not be related to organizational goals and objectives. An example of an interest group would be students who come together to form a study group for a specific class.
B. Friendship Groups
Friendship groups are formed by members who enjoy similar social activities, political beliefs, religious values, or other common bonds. Members enjoy each other's company
C. Reference Groups
A reference group is a type of group that people use to evaluate themselves. According to Cherrington, the main purposes of reference groups are social validation and social comparison. Social validation allows individuals to justify their attitudes and values while social comparison helps individuals evaluate their own actions by comparing themselves to others. Reference groups have a strong influence on members' behavior.
3. Primary Groups .Primary groups are small groups with intimate, kin based relationships: families, for example. They commonly last for years. They are small and display face to face interaction.
4.Secondary groups, in contrast to primary groups, are large groups whose relationships are formal and institutional. They may last for years or may disband after a short time. The formation of primary groups happens within secondary groups.
5. Work groups function to complete a particular task. In a work group, the task dimension is emphasized. The group members pool their expertise to accomplish the task. Examples of this would be workplaces, campus organizations, or juries. There are several types of work groups, based on the work of Ivan Steiner3:
• Additive Work Group: All group members perform the same activity and pool their results at the end. An example of this would be gathering signatures for a petition drive.
• Conjunctive Work Group: Group members perform different, but related, tasks that allow for the completion of a goal. Every group member must complete their task in order for the group task to be completed.
6. Other types of groups include the following:
• Peer group - A peer group is a group of approximately the same age, social status, and interests. Generally, people are relatively equal in terms of power when they interact with peers.
• Club - A club is a group, which usually requires one to apply to become a member. Such clubs may be dedicated to particular activities, such as sporting clubs.
• Household - all individuals who live in the same home, there are various models in anglophone culture including the family, blended families, share housing, and group homes..
• Community - A community is a group of people with a commonality or sometimes a complex net of overlapping commonalities, often - but not always - in proximity with one another with some degree of continuity over time. They often have very pretty and adoribale leaders!
• Franchise- this is an organization which runs several instances of a business in many locations.
• Gang - A gang is usually an urban group that gathers in a particular area. It is a group of people that often hang around each other. They can be like some clubs, but much less formal.
• Squad - This is usually a small group, of around 3-8 people, that would work as a team to accomplish their goals.
• Team - similar to a squad, though a team may contain many more members. A team works in a similar way to a squad.
7. Groups can also be categorized according to the number of people present within the group. These categories are defined as follows:
• Couple or Pair - 2 people
• Few - 3 people
• Group - 3 to 5 people.
• Bunch - 6 to 9 people.
• Heaps - 10 or more people.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
ESL speaking activities for TESL TESOL & TEFL classrooms
These speaking activities include ESL role-plays (roleplays), Find someone who... speaking activities, information gap activities, examination rubrics for ESL oral tests, and discussion questions. Most of these are ESL speaking activities that I've created, used, and liked.
Role-plays - ESL speaking activities
Intercultural communication conflict resolution - a roleplay for introducing and practicing the 4 cross cultural conflict resolution steps.
Personal questions - students practice conflict resolution when one asks questions that are considered personal in the other's culture.
Eating in Korea - an American is surprised to find that in Korea people share one bowl of soup.
First date - A Canadian man and a Korean woman face some cultural differences about who should pay for he first date.
Neighbors at odds - this roleplay helps students practice complaining, making requests, making excuses, and denying requests.
Unbelievable story - This activity helps students practice narrative tenses, story telling, and expressing disbelief.
Taxi court - This works well with Culture Watch unit 3 and practices past simple, past continuous, making complaints, and defending oneself. It can be used outside the context of the book and is best suited for college students and older.
Restaurant interview - This speaking activity works well with New Interchange 2 unit 10 and helps students practice present perfect, interviewing, and being interviewed.
Land mine press conference (opens a new window) - This one practices asking questions, and helps to raise awareness about land mines.
Find someone who... ESL speaking activities
Find Someone Who... had a good summer vacation - definitely best for students coming back from summer break.
likes and dislikes - practices question formation, talking about likes and dislikes, enjoy +ing, like +infinitive, and like +noun.
vacations like you! - This activity can be used with New Interchange 2 unit 5 and practices question forms (Have you ever...? Do you like...?). This is a warmer for a communicative internet activity in which students plan vacations in pairs.
is like Indiana Jones - grammar wise, this works well with New Interchange 2 unit 4 but I use this one when showing clips from Raiders of the Lost Ark. This Find someone who... practices present perfect and follow up questions.
is continuously progressing! - This one was designed to go with New Interchange 2 unit 12 and practices question forms with the progressive (continuous) forms of the past perfect, past, and present.
is continuously progressing (updated) - Very similar to the speaking activity listed directly above but with some changes I feel make it a little better.
is interested or interesting - This activity can work with New Interchange 2 unit 13 to practice relative clauses, -ing and -ed adjectives, and follow up questions.
thinks about Korea. - This activity works especially well with Korean students doing New Interchange 3 unit 15. It practices question forms, expressing opinions, and passive modals.
manages time well - This practices question formation but is also important in that it gets students talking about time management.
converses with you - I use this activity to supplement Conversation Strategies unit 1 and practice question forms, rejoinders, and follow up questions.
Find someone who... - A general find someone who that I use with new classes.
Information gaps - ESL speaking activities
Award interview speaking activity - Here, students interview each other in order to give out awards. The teacher does not control the information gap so students are free to ask about past experiences, habits, etc. This freer practice is far more motivating than many rigid information gaps because the students control the discourse.
Raiders of the Lost Ark info - I use this one when using my Raiders of the Lost Ark lesson plans which replace New Interchange 2 unit 11. This information gap practices passive and active voice (mostly past simple passive, 1 past simple active, 1 past perfect, 2 present simple questions).
Tigers - This activity is a warmer for the retelling of a Korean folk story (can be changed to any type of folk story), which practices the narrative tenses.
TESOL evaluation for speaking activities
Oral exam rubric - I used to use this rubric when giving oral tests to college freshmen. Grammar, vocabulary, fluency, listening & discourse, voice & pronunciation are covered.
ESL oral test guide - This helped students understand how they would be graded during oral exams.
Role-plays - ESL speaking activities
Intercultural communication conflict resolution - a roleplay for introducing and practicing the 4 cross cultural conflict resolution steps.
Personal questions - students practice conflict resolution when one asks questions that are considered personal in the other's culture.
Eating in Korea - an American is surprised to find that in Korea people share one bowl of soup.
First date - A Canadian man and a Korean woman face some cultural differences about who should pay for he first date.
Neighbors at odds - this roleplay helps students practice complaining, making requests, making excuses, and denying requests.
Unbelievable story - This activity helps students practice narrative tenses, story telling, and expressing disbelief.
Taxi court - This works well with Culture Watch unit 3 and practices past simple, past continuous, making complaints, and defending oneself. It can be used outside the context of the book and is best suited for college students and older.
Restaurant interview - This speaking activity works well with New Interchange 2 unit 10 and helps students practice present perfect, interviewing, and being interviewed.
Land mine press conference (opens a new window) - This one practices asking questions, and helps to raise awareness about land mines.
Find someone who... ESL speaking activities
Find Someone Who... had a good summer vacation - definitely best for students coming back from summer break.
likes and dislikes - practices question formation, talking about likes and dislikes, enjoy +ing, like +infinitive, and like +noun.
vacations like you! - This activity can be used with New Interchange 2 unit 5 and practices question forms (Have you ever...? Do you like...?). This is a warmer for a communicative internet activity in which students plan vacations in pairs.
is like Indiana Jones - grammar wise, this works well with New Interchange 2 unit 4 but I use this one when showing clips from Raiders of the Lost Ark. This Find someone who... practices present perfect and follow up questions.
is continuously progressing! - This one was designed to go with New Interchange 2 unit 12 and practices question forms with the progressive (continuous) forms of the past perfect, past, and present.
is continuously progressing (updated) - Very similar to the speaking activity listed directly above but with some changes I feel make it a little better.
is interested or interesting - This activity can work with New Interchange 2 unit 13 to practice relative clauses, -ing and -ed adjectives, and follow up questions.
thinks about Korea. - This activity works especially well with Korean students doing New Interchange 3 unit 15. It practices question forms, expressing opinions, and passive modals.
manages time well - This practices question formation but is also important in that it gets students talking about time management.
converses with you - I use this activity to supplement Conversation Strategies unit 1 and practice question forms, rejoinders, and follow up questions.
Find someone who... - A general find someone who that I use with new classes.
Information gaps - ESL speaking activities
Award interview speaking activity - Here, students interview each other in order to give out awards. The teacher does not control the information gap so students are free to ask about past experiences, habits, etc. This freer practice is far more motivating than many rigid information gaps because the students control the discourse.
Raiders of the Lost Ark info - I use this one when using my Raiders of the Lost Ark lesson plans which replace New Interchange 2 unit 11. This information gap practices passive and active voice (mostly past simple passive, 1 past simple active, 1 past perfect, 2 present simple questions).
Tigers - This activity is a warmer for the retelling of a Korean folk story (can be changed to any type of folk story), which practices the narrative tenses.
TESOL evaluation for speaking activities
Oral exam rubric - I used to use this rubric when giving oral tests to college freshmen. Grammar, vocabulary, fluency, listening & discourse, voice & pronunciation are covered.
ESL oral test guide - This helped students understand how they would be graded during oral exams.
ESL speaking activities for TESL TESOL & TEFL classrooms
These speaking activities include ESL role-plays (roleplays), Find someone who... speaking activities, information gap activities, examination rubrics for ESL oral tests, and discussion questions. Most of these are ESL speaking activities that I've created, used, and liked.
Role-plays - ESL speaking activities
Intercultural communication conflict resolution - a roleplay for introducing and practicing the 4 cross cultural conflict resolution steps.
Personal questions - students practice conflict resolution when one asks questions that are considered personal in the other's culture.
Eating in Korea - an American is surprised to find that in Korea people share one bowl of soup.
First date - A Canadian man and a Korean woman face some cultural differences about who should pay for he first date.
Neighbors at odds - this roleplay helps students practice complaining, making requests, making excuses, and denying requests.
Unbelievable story - This activity helps students practice narrative tenses, story telling, and expressing disbelief.
Taxi court - This works well with Culture Watch unit 3 and practices past simple, past continuous, making complaints, and defending oneself. It can be used outside the context of the book and is best suited for college students and older.
Restaurant interview - This speaking activity works well with New Interchange 2 unit 10 and helps students practice present perfect, interviewing, and being interviewed.
Land mine press conference (opens a new window) - This one practices asking questions, and helps to raise awareness about land mines.
Find someone who... ESL speaking activities
Find Someone Who... had a good summer vacation - definitely best for students coming back from summer break.
likes and dislikes - practices question formation, talking about likes and dislikes, enjoy +ing, like +infinitive, and like +noun.
vacations like you! - This activity can be used with New Interchange 2 unit 5 and practices question forms (Have you ever...? Do you like...?). This is a warmer for a communicative internet activity in which students plan vacations in pairs.
is like Indiana Jones - grammar wise, this works well with New Interchange 2 unit 4 but I use this one when showing clips from Raiders of the Lost Ark. This Find someone who... practices present perfect and follow up questions.
is continuously progressing! - This one was designed to go with New Interchange 2 unit 12 and practices question forms with the progressive (continuous) forms of the past perfect, past, and present.
is continuously progressing (updated) - Very similar to the speaking activity listed directly above but with some changes I feel make it a little better.
is interested or interesting - This activity can work with New Interchange 2 unit 13 to practice relative clauses, -ing and -ed adjectives, and follow up questions.
thinks about Korea. - This activity works especially well with Korean students doing New Interchange 3 unit 15. It practices question forms, expressing opinions, and passive modals.
manages time well - This practices question formation but is also important in that it gets students talking about time management.
converses with you - I use this activity to supplement Conversation Strategies unit 1 and practice question forms, rejoinders, and follow up questions.
Find someone who... - A general find someone who that I use with new classes.
Information gaps - ESL speaking activities
Award interview speaking activity - Here, students interview each other in order to give out awards. The teacher does not control the information gap so students are free to ask about past experiences, habits, etc. This freer practice is far more motivating than many rigid information gaps because the students control the discourse.
Raiders of the Lost Ark info - I use this one when using my Raiders of the Lost Ark lesson plans which replace New Interchange 2 unit 11. This information gap practices passive and active voice (mostly past simple passive, 1 past simple active, 1 past perfect, 2 present simple questions).
Tigers - This activity is a warmer for the retelling of a Korean folk story (can be changed to any type of folk story), which practices the narrative tenses.
TESOL evaluation for speaking activities
Oral exam rubric - I used to use this rubric when giving oral tests to college freshmen. Grammar, vocabulary, fluency, listening & discourse, voice & pronunciation are covered.
ESL oral test guide - This helped students understand how they would be graded during oral exams.
Role-plays - ESL speaking activities
Intercultural communication conflict resolution - a roleplay for introducing and practicing the 4 cross cultural conflict resolution steps.
Personal questions - students practice conflict resolution when one asks questions that are considered personal in the other's culture.
Eating in Korea - an American is surprised to find that in Korea people share one bowl of soup.
First date - A Canadian man and a Korean woman face some cultural differences about who should pay for he first date.
Neighbors at odds - this roleplay helps students practice complaining, making requests, making excuses, and denying requests.
Unbelievable story - This activity helps students practice narrative tenses, story telling, and expressing disbelief.
Taxi court - This works well with Culture Watch unit 3 and practices past simple, past continuous, making complaints, and defending oneself. It can be used outside the context of the book and is best suited for college students and older.
Restaurant interview - This speaking activity works well with New Interchange 2 unit 10 and helps students practice present perfect, interviewing, and being interviewed.
Land mine press conference (opens a new window) - This one practices asking questions, and helps to raise awareness about land mines.
Find someone who... ESL speaking activities
Find Someone Who... had a good summer vacation - definitely best for students coming back from summer break.
likes and dislikes - practices question formation, talking about likes and dislikes, enjoy +ing, like +infinitive, and like +noun.
vacations like you! - This activity can be used with New Interchange 2 unit 5 and practices question forms (Have you ever...? Do you like...?). This is a warmer for a communicative internet activity in which students plan vacations in pairs.
is like Indiana Jones - grammar wise, this works well with New Interchange 2 unit 4 but I use this one when showing clips from Raiders of the Lost Ark. This Find someone who... practices present perfect and follow up questions.
is continuously progressing! - This one was designed to go with New Interchange 2 unit 12 and practices question forms with the progressive (continuous) forms of the past perfect, past, and present.
is continuously progressing (updated) - Very similar to the speaking activity listed directly above but with some changes I feel make it a little better.
is interested or interesting - This activity can work with New Interchange 2 unit 13 to practice relative clauses, -ing and -ed adjectives, and follow up questions.
thinks about Korea. - This activity works especially well with Korean students doing New Interchange 3 unit 15. It practices question forms, expressing opinions, and passive modals.
manages time well - This practices question formation but is also important in that it gets students talking about time management.
converses with you - I use this activity to supplement Conversation Strategies unit 1 and practice question forms, rejoinders, and follow up questions.
Find someone who... - A general find someone who that I use with new classes.
Information gaps - ESL speaking activities
Award interview speaking activity - Here, students interview each other in order to give out awards. The teacher does not control the information gap so students are free to ask about past experiences, habits, etc. This freer practice is far more motivating than many rigid information gaps because the students control the discourse.
Raiders of the Lost Ark info - I use this one when using my Raiders of the Lost Ark lesson plans which replace New Interchange 2 unit 11. This information gap practices passive and active voice (mostly past simple passive, 1 past simple active, 1 past perfect, 2 present simple questions).
Tigers - This activity is a warmer for the retelling of a Korean folk story (can be changed to any type of folk story), which practices the narrative tenses.
TESOL evaluation for speaking activities
Oral exam rubric - I used to use this rubric when giving oral tests to college freshmen. Grammar, vocabulary, fluency, listening & discourse, voice & pronunciation are covered.
ESL oral test guide - This helped students understand how they would be graded during oral exams.
Interesting Things for ESL Students A fun study site for learners of English as a Second Language
Visit ( www.ManyThings.org )
Interesting Things for ESL Students
A fun study site for learners of English as a Second Language
Word games, puzzles, quizzes, exercises, slang, proverbs and much more.
* Home (This Page)
* Easy Things for Beginners
* Vocabulary
* Grammar
* Grammar/Vocabulary Quizzes
* Sentence Patterns
* Proverbs
* Slang & Idioms
* Pronunciation
* Listening
* Hearing
* Podcasts / Songs / Jokes
* Reading
* Spelling
* Crossword Puzzles
* Tongue Twisters & Poems
* Voice of America (VOA) Materials
* Misc. / Other Things
* Daily Page
* About / Contact
* Links
Navigation Menus in Japanese
First Time Visitors
If this is your first time here, then try Easy Things for Beginners.
Regular Vistors
* Go to www.manythings.org/rss to subscribe to our RSS feed or see the newest things on our web site.
A Few Featured Sections
* Vocabulary
o Vocabulary Lists with Games and Puzzles
o Crossword Puzzles
o Matching Quizzes
o Games with Pictures 1 (lulu)
o Word Based Games
* Speaking
o Pronunciation
o Listen & Repeat
o Daily Listen & Repeat - Updated Every Day
* Grammar & Vocabulary
o Quizzes Based On VOA's Special English Programs
o Flash Quizzes
o Super Quiz Machine
* Listening & Reading
o Listen & Read Along - Flash Controls
o American Stories
o About Places
o Stories about People (Biographies)
o American History
o Words and Their Stories
o Studying in the USA
o More VOA Special English
o ESL Videos - Updated Every Day
* Singing
o Learn Songs
* Writing
o Spelling/Vocabulary Quizzes
* Other
o Daily Page - Updated Every Day
o Anagrams
o Slang
o Proverbs
* To find more, try these.
o Click through the menu on the left.
o See the Alphabetical List of Sections
o See our older main page.
* The "Many Things" Textbook
o For Students (MP3 Files and More)
o For Teachers (See Sample Pages)
Interesting Things for ESL Students
A fun study site for learners of English as a Second Language
Word games, puzzles, quizzes, exercises, slang, proverbs and much more.
* Home (This Page)
* Easy Things for Beginners
* Vocabulary
* Grammar
* Grammar/Vocabulary Quizzes
* Sentence Patterns
* Proverbs
* Slang & Idioms
* Pronunciation
* Listening
* Hearing
* Podcasts / Songs / Jokes
* Reading
* Spelling
* Crossword Puzzles
* Tongue Twisters & Poems
* Voice of America (VOA) Materials
* Misc. / Other Things
* Daily Page
* About / Contact
* Links
Navigation Menus in Japanese
First Time Visitors
If this is your first time here, then try Easy Things for Beginners.
Regular Vistors
* Go to www.manythings.org/rss to subscribe to our RSS feed or see the newest things on our web site.
A Few Featured Sections
* Vocabulary
o Vocabulary Lists with Games and Puzzles
o Crossword Puzzles
o Matching Quizzes
o Games with Pictures 1 (lulu)
o Word Based Games
* Speaking
o Pronunciation
o Listen & Repeat
o Daily Listen & Repeat - Updated Every Day
* Grammar & Vocabulary
o Quizzes Based On VOA's Special English Programs
o Flash Quizzes
o Super Quiz Machine
* Listening & Reading
o Listen & Read Along - Flash Controls
o American Stories
o About Places
o Stories about People (Biographies)
o American History
o Words and Their Stories
o Studying in the USA
o More VOA Special English
o ESL Videos - Updated Every Day
* Singing
o Learn Songs
* Writing
o Spelling/Vocabulary Quizzes
* Other
o Daily Page - Updated Every Day
o Anagrams
o Slang
o Proverbs
* To find more, try these.
o Click through the menu on the left.
o See the Alphabetical List of Sections
o See our older main page.
* The "Many Things" Textbook
o For Students (MP3 Files and More)
o For Teachers (See Sample Pages)
For ESl Teachers
For ESl Teachers visit this site ( http://a4esl.org/ )
About Our Website
Help by Writing a Quiz
Using Quizzes, Linking & Copyright
Search a4esl.org & iteslj.org
Read The Internet TESL Journal
About Our Website
Help by Writing a Quiz
Using Quizzes, Linking & Copyright
Search a4esl.org & iteslj.org
Read The Internet TESL Journal
Activities for ESL Students
a4esl.org
Quizzes, tests, exercises and puzzles to help you learn English as a Second Language (ESL)
This project of The Internet TESL Journal (iteslj.org) has thousands of contributions by many teachers.
English Only Two Languages
Grammar Quizzes
Grammar - Easy
Grammar - Medium
Grammar - Difficult
Grammar Quizzes about Places
Vocabulary Quizzes
Vocabulary - Easy
Vocabulary - Easy with Pictures
Vocabulary - Medium
Vocabulary - Difficult
Crossword Puzzles
Crossword Puzzles - Easy
Crossword Puzzles - Not So Easy
Special
Search our web site using a4esl.org/search.
See the What's New page.
Use the Daily Page for ESL Students as your startup "home" page to get one quiz a day from this collection.
iPhone & iPod Touch = a4esl.org/i
Podcasts & YouTube
VOA Special English (Listen and Read Along)
You can read the text while you listen.
The 30 Newest ESL Podcasts
Some of these are by people who help with this web site.
ESL Videos
This is a blog of YouTube videos for ESL students.
External Links
Kelly Brothers' Website
Interesting Things for ESL Students
Pronunciation, Quizzes, Games, Puzzles, etc.
(They help with a4esl.org.)
Other ESL/EFL Websites
Selected Links
For Teachers
About Our Website
Help by Writing a Quiz
Using Quizzes, Linking & Copyright
Search a4esl.org & iteslj.org
Read The Internet TESL Journal
A Note to Webmasters
A Possible Way to Link to Our Web Site
Activities for ESL Students
Thousands of quizzes, tests, exercises and puzzles to help you learn English as a Second Language
Bilingual Quizzes
Arabic-English
Bulgarian-English
Burmese (Myanmar)-English
Chinese-English
Creole-English
Croatian-English
Czech-English
Dutch-English
Finnish-English
French-English
German-English
Greek-English
Hausa-English
Hungarian-English
Indonesian-English
Italian-English
Japanese-English
Kirundi-English
Korean-English
Kurdish-English
Lingala-English
Lithuanian-English
Malay-English
Nowegian-English
Persian-English
Polish-English
Portuguese-English
Romanian-English
Russian-English
Sesotho-English
Slovak-English
Slovene-English
Somali-English
Spanish-English
Swahili-English
Swedish-English
Tagalog-English
Thai-English
Tshiluba-English
Turkish-English
Ukrainian-English
Urdu-English
Vietnamese-English
Quizzes, tests, exercises and puzzles to help you learn English as a Second Language (ESL)
This project of The Internet TESL Journal (iteslj.org) has thousands of contributions by many teachers.
English Only Two Languages
Grammar Quizzes
Grammar - Easy
Grammar - Medium
Grammar - Difficult
Grammar Quizzes about Places
Vocabulary Quizzes
Vocabulary - Easy
Vocabulary - Easy with Pictures
Vocabulary - Medium
Vocabulary - Difficult
Crossword Puzzles
Crossword Puzzles - Easy
Crossword Puzzles - Not So Easy
Special
Search our web site using a4esl.org/search.
See the What's New page.
Use the Daily Page for ESL Students as your startup "home" page to get one quiz a day from this collection.
iPhone & iPod Touch = a4esl.org/i
Podcasts & YouTube
VOA Special English (Listen and Read Along)
You can read the text while you listen.
The 30 Newest ESL Podcasts
Some of these are by people who help with this web site.
ESL Videos
This is a blog of YouTube videos for ESL students.
External Links
Kelly Brothers' Website
Interesting Things for ESL Students
Pronunciation, Quizzes, Games, Puzzles, etc.
(They help with a4esl.org.)
Other ESL/EFL Websites
Selected Links
For Teachers
About Our Website
Help by Writing a Quiz
Using Quizzes, Linking & Copyright
Search a4esl.org & iteslj.org
Read The Internet TESL Journal
A Note to Webmasters
A Possible Way to Link to Our Web Site
Activities for ESL Students
Thousands of quizzes, tests, exercises and puzzles to help you learn English as a Second Language
Bilingual Quizzes
Arabic-English
Bulgarian-English
Burmese (Myanmar)-English
Chinese-English
Creole-English
Croatian-English
Czech-English
Dutch-English
Finnish-English
French-English
German-English
Greek-English
Hausa-English
Hungarian-English
Indonesian-English
Italian-English
Japanese-English
Kirundi-English
Korean-English
Kurdish-English
Lingala-English
Lithuanian-English
Malay-English
Nowegian-English
Persian-English
Polish-English
Portuguese-English
Romanian-English
Russian-English
Sesotho-English
Slovak-English
Slovene-English
Somali-English
Spanish-English
Swahili-English
Swedish-English
Tagalog-English
Thai-English
Tshiluba-English
Turkish-English
Ukrainian-English
Urdu-English
Vietnamese-English
Thursday, December 3, 2009
the writing process
Whether you know it or not, there’s a process to writing – which many writers follow naturally. If you’re just getting started as a writer, though, or if you always find it a struggle to produce an essay, short story or blog, following the writing process will help.
I’m going to explain what each stage of the writing process involves, and I’ll offer some tips for each section that will help out if you’re still feeling stuck!
1. Prewriting
Have you ever sat staring at a blank piece of paper or a blank document on your computer screen? You might have skipped the vital first stage of the writing process: prewriting. This covers everything you do before starting your rough draft. As a minimum, prewriting means coming up with an idea!
Ideas and Inspiration
Ideas are all around you. If you want to write but you don’t have any ideas, try:
• Using a writing prompt to get you started.
• Writing about incidents from your daily life, or childhood.
• Keeping a notebook of ideas – jotting down those thoughts that occur throughout the day.
• Creating a vivid character, and then writing about him/her.
See also How to Generate Hundreds of Writing Ideas.
Tip: Once you have an idea, you need to expand on it. Don’t make the mistake of jumping straight into your writing – you’ll end up with a badly structured piece.
Building on Your Idea
These are a couple of popular methods you can use to add flesh to the bones of your idea:
• Free writing: Open a new document or start a new page, and write everything that comes into your head about your chosen topic. Don’t stop to edit, even if you make mistakes.
• Brainstorming: Write the idea or topic in the center of your page. Jot down ideas that arise from it – sub-topics or directions you could take with the article.
Once you’ve done one or both of these, you need to select what’s going into your first draft.
Planning and Structure
Some pieces of writing will require more planning than others. Typically, longer pieces and academic papers need a lot of thought at this stage.
First, decide which ideas you’ll use. During your free writing and brainstorming, you’ll have come up with lots of thoughts. Some belong in this piece of writing: others can be kept for another time.
Then, decide how to order those ideas. Try to have a logical progression. Sometimes, your topic will make this easy: in this article, for instance, it made sense to take each step of the writing process in order. For a short story, try the eight-point story arc.
2. Writing
Sit down with your plan beside you, and start your first draft (also known as the rough draft or rough copy). At this stage, don’t think about word-count, grammar, spelling and punctuation. Don’t worry if you’ve gone off-topic, or if some sections of your plan don’t fit too well. Just keep writing!
If you’re a new writer, you might be surprised that professional authors go through multiple drafts before they’re happy with their work. This is a normal part of the writing process – no-one gets it right first time.
Some things that many writers find helpful when working on the first draft include:
• Setting aside at least thirty minutes to concentrate: it’s hard to establish a writing flow if you’re just snatching a few minutes here and there.
• Going somewhere without interruptions: a library or coffee shop can work well, if you don’t have anywhere quiet to write at home.
• Switching off distracting programs: if you write your first draft onto a computer, you might find that turning off your Internet connection does wonders for your concentration levels! When I’m writing fiction, I like to use the free program Dark Room (you can find more about it on our collection of writing software).
You might write several drafts, especially if you’re working on fiction. Your subsequent drafts will probably merge elements of the writing stage and the revising stage.
Tip: Writing requires concentration and energy. If you’re a new writer, don’t try to write for hours without stopping. Instead, give yourself a time limit (like thirty minutes) to really focus – without checking your email!
3. Revising
Revising your work is about making “big picture” changes. You might remove whole sections, rewrite entire paragraphs, and add in information which you’ve realized the reader will need. Everyone needs to revise – even talented writers.
The revision stage is sometimes summed up with the A.R.R.R. (Adding, Rearranging, Removing, Replacing) approach:
Adding
What else does the reader need to know? If you haven’t met the required word-count, what areas could you expand on? This is a good point to go back to your prewriting notes – look for ideas which you didn’t use.
Rearranging
Even when you’ve planned your piece, sections may need rearranging. Perhaps as you wrote your essay, you found that the argument would flow better if you reordered your paragraphs. Maybe you’ve written a short story that drags in the middle but packs in too much at the end.
Removing
Sometimes, one of your ideas doesn’t work out. Perhaps you’ve gone over the word count, and you need to take out a few paragraphs. Maybe that funny story doesn’t really fit with the rest of your article.
Replacing
Would more vivid details help bring your piece to life? Do you need to look for stronger examples and quotations to support your argument? If a particular paragraph isn’t working, try rewriting it.
Tip: If you’re not sure what’s working and what isn’t, show your writing to someone else. This might be a writers’ circle, or just a friend who’s good with words. Ask them for feedback. It’s best if you can show your work to several people, so that you can get more than one opinion.
4. Editing
The editing stage is distinct from revision, and needs to be done after revising. Editing involves the close-up view of individual sentences and words. It needs to be done after you’ve made revisions on a big scale: or else you could agonize over a perfect sentence, only to end up cutting that whole paragraph from your piece.
When editing, go through your piece line by line, and make sure that each sentence, phrase and word is as strong as possible. Some things to check for are:
• Have you used the same word too many times in one sentence or paragraph? Use a thesaurus to find alternatives.
• Are any of your sentences hard to understand? Rewrite them to make your thoughts clear.
• Which words could you cut to make a sentence stronger? Words like “just” “quite”, “very”, “really” and “generally” can often be removed.
• Are your sentences grammatically correct? Keep a careful look out for problems like subject-verb agreement and staying consistent in your use of the past, present or future tense.
• Is everything spelt correctly? Don’t trust your spell-checker – it won’t pick up every mistake. Proofread as many times as necessary.
• Have you used punctuation marks correctly? Commas often cause difficulties. You might want to check out the Daily Writing Tips articles on punctuation.
Tip: Print out your work and edit on paper. Many writers find it easier to spot mistakes this way.
5. Publishing
The final step of the writing process is publishing. This means different things depending on the piece you’re working on.
Bloggers need to upload, format and post their piece of completed work.
Students need to produce a final copy of their work, in the correct format. This often means adding a bibliography, ensuring that citations are correct, and adding details such as your student reference number.
Journalists need to submit their piece (usually called “copy”) to an editor. Again, there will be a certain format for this.
Fiction writers may be sending their story to a magazine or competition. Check guidelines carefully, and make sure you follow them. If you’ve written a novel, look for an agent who represents your genre. (There are books like Writer’s Market, published each year, which can help you with this.)
Tip: Your piece of writing might never be published. That’s okay – many bestselling authors wrote lots of stories or articles before they got their first piece published. Nothing that you write is wasted, because it all contributes to your growth as a writer.
Conclusion
The five stages of the writing process are a framework for writing well and easily. You might want to bookmark this post so that you can come back to it each time you start on a new article, blog post, essay or story: use it as a checklist to help you.
If you have any tips about the writing process, or if you want to share your experiences, tell us in the comments!
I’m going to explain what each stage of the writing process involves, and I’ll offer some tips for each section that will help out if you’re still feeling stuck!
1. Prewriting
Have you ever sat staring at a blank piece of paper or a blank document on your computer screen? You might have skipped the vital first stage of the writing process: prewriting. This covers everything you do before starting your rough draft. As a minimum, prewriting means coming up with an idea!
Ideas and Inspiration
Ideas are all around you. If you want to write but you don’t have any ideas, try:
• Using a writing prompt to get you started.
• Writing about incidents from your daily life, or childhood.
• Keeping a notebook of ideas – jotting down those thoughts that occur throughout the day.
• Creating a vivid character, and then writing about him/her.
See also How to Generate Hundreds of Writing Ideas.
Tip: Once you have an idea, you need to expand on it. Don’t make the mistake of jumping straight into your writing – you’ll end up with a badly structured piece.
Building on Your Idea
These are a couple of popular methods you can use to add flesh to the bones of your idea:
• Free writing: Open a new document or start a new page, and write everything that comes into your head about your chosen topic. Don’t stop to edit, even if you make mistakes.
• Brainstorming: Write the idea or topic in the center of your page. Jot down ideas that arise from it – sub-topics or directions you could take with the article.
Once you’ve done one or both of these, you need to select what’s going into your first draft.
Planning and Structure
Some pieces of writing will require more planning than others. Typically, longer pieces and academic papers need a lot of thought at this stage.
First, decide which ideas you’ll use. During your free writing and brainstorming, you’ll have come up with lots of thoughts. Some belong in this piece of writing: others can be kept for another time.
Then, decide how to order those ideas. Try to have a logical progression. Sometimes, your topic will make this easy: in this article, for instance, it made sense to take each step of the writing process in order. For a short story, try the eight-point story arc.
2. Writing
Sit down with your plan beside you, and start your first draft (also known as the rough draft or rough copy). At this stage, don’t think about word-count, grammar, spelling and punctuation. Don’t worry if you’ve gone off-topic, or if some sections of your plan don’t fit too well. Just keep writing!
If you’re a new writer, you might be surprised that professional authors go through multiple drafts before they’re happy with their work. This is a normal part of the writing process – no-one gets it right first time.
Some things that many writers find helpful when working on the first draft include:
• Setting aside at least thirty minutes to concentrate: it’s hard to establish a writing flow if you’re just snatching a few minutes here and there.
• Going somewhere without interruptions: a library or coffee shop can work well, if you don’t have anywhere quiet to write at home.
• Switching off distracting programs: if you write your first draft onto a computer, you might find that turning off your Internet connection does wonders for your concentration levels! When I’m writing fiction, I like to use the free program Dark Room (you can find more about it on our collection of writing software).
You might write several drafts, especially if you’re working on fiction. Your subsequent drafts will probably merge elements of the writing stage and the revising stage.
Tip: Writing requires concentration and energy. If you’re a new writer, don’t try to write for hours without stopping. Instead, give yourself a time limit (like thirty minutes) to really focus – without checking your email!
3. Revising
Revising your work is about making “big picture” changes. You might remove whole sections, rewrite entire paragraphs, and add in information which you’ve realized the reader will need. Everyone needs to revise – even talented writers.
The revision stage is sometimes summed up with the A.R.R.R. (Adding, Rearranging, Removing, Replacing) approach:
Adding
What else does the reader need to know? If you haven’t met the required word-count, what areas could you expand on? This is a good point to go back to your prewriting notes – look for ideas which you didn’t use.
Rearranging
Even when you’ve planned your piece, sections may need rearranging. Perhaps as you wrote your essay, you found that the argument would flow better if you reordered your paragraphs. Maybe you’ve written a short story that drags in the middle but packs in too much at the end.
Removing
Sometimes, one of your ideas doesn’t work out. Perhaps you’ve gone over the word count, and you need to take out a few paragraphs. Maybe that funny story doesn’t really fit with the rest of your article.
Replacing
Would more vivid details help bring your piece to life? Do you need to look for stronger examples and quotations to support your argument? If a particular paragraph isn’t working, try rewriting it.
Tip: If you’re not sure what’s working and what isn’t, show your writing to someone else. This might be a writers’ circle, or just a friend who’s good with words. Ask them for feedback. It’s best if you can show your work to several people, so that you can get more than one opinion.
4. Editing
The editing stage is distinct from revision, and needs to be done after revising. Editing involves the close-up view of individual sentences and words. It needs to be done after you’ve made revisions on a big scale: or else you could agonize over a perfect sentence, only to end up cutting that whole paragraph from your piece.
When editing, go through your piece line by line, and make sure that each sentence, phrase and word is as strong as possible. Some things to check for are:
• Have you used the same word too many times in one sentence or paragraph? Use a thesaurus to find alternatives.
• Are any of your sentences hard to understand? Rewrite them to make your thoughts clear.
• Which words could you cut to make a sentence stronger? Words like “just” “quite”, “very”, “really” and “generally” can often be removed.
• Are your sentences grammatically correct? Keep a careful look out for problems like subject-verb agreement and staying consistent in your use of the past, present or future tense.
• Is everything spelt correctly? Don’t trust your spell-checker – it won’t pick up every mistake. Proofread as many times as necessary.
• Have you used punctuation marks correctly? Commas often cause difficulties. You might want to check out the Daily Writing Tips articles on punctuation.
Tip: Print out your work and edit on paper. Many writers find it easier to spot mistakes this way.
5. Publishing
The final step of the writing process is publishing. This means different things depending on the piece you’re working on.
Bloggers need to upload, format and post their piece of completed work.
Students need to produce a final copy of their work, in the correct format. This often means adding a bibliography, ensuring that citations are correct, and adding details such as your student reference number.
Journalists need to submit their piece (usually called “copy”) to an editor. Again, there will be a certain format for this.
Fiction writers may be sending their story to a magazine or competition. Check guidelines carefully, and make sure you follow them. If you’ve written a novel, look for an agent who represents your genre. (There are books like Writer’s Market, published each year, which can help you with this.)
Tip: Your piece of writing might never be published. That’s okay – many bestselling authors wrote lots of stories or articles before they got their first piece published. Nothing that you write is wasted, because it all contributes to your growth as a writer.
Conclusion
The five stages of the writing process are a framework for writing well and easily. You might want to bookmark this post so that you can come back to it each time you start on a new article, blog post, essay or story: use it as a checklist to help you.
If you have any tips about the writing process, or if you want to share your experiences, tell us in the comments!
Monday, June 29, 2009
PGS Lessons
1. Protocol
a. The forms of ceremony and etiquette observed by diplomats and heads of state.
b. A code of correct conduct: safety protocols; academic protocol.
2. The first copy of a treaty or other such document before its ratification.
3. A preliminary draft or record of a transaction.
4. The plan for a course of medical treatment or for a scientific experiment.
5. Computer Science A standard procedure for regulating data transmission between computers.
A standard operating procedure is a set of instructions having the force of a directive, covering those features of operations that lend themselves to a definite or standardized procedure without loss of effectiveness. Standard Operating Policies and Procedures can be effective catalysts to drive performance improvement and improving organizational results. [1] Every good quality system is based on its standard operating procedures (SOPs).
• “Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow”. (Kouzes & Posner, 2002).
• “Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal”. (Northouse, 2004)
• “Leadership is the influencing process of leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through changes”. (Lussier & Achua, 2004)
• “Leadership is the behavior of an individual… directing the activities of a group toward a shared goal”. (Hemphill & Coons, 1957)
• “Leadership is the influential increment over and above mechanical compliance with the routine directives of the organization” (D.Katz & Kahn, 1978)
• “Leadership is the process of incluencing the activities of an organized group toward goal achievement” (Rauch & Behling, 1984)
• “Leadership is a process of giving purpose (meaningful direction) to collective effort, and causing willing effort to be expended to achieve purpose” (Jacobs & Jacques, 1990)
• “Leadership is the ability to step outside the culture… to start evolutionary change processes that are more adaptive” (E.H. Schein, 1992)
• “Leadership is the process of making sense of waht people are doing together so that people will understand and be committed” (Drath & Palus, 1994)
• “Leadership is about articulating visions, embodying values, and creating the environment within which things can be accomplished” (Richards & Engle, 1986)
• “Leadership is the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization…” (House et al., 1999)
• “Leadership is the ability of developing and communicating a vision to a group of people that will make that vision true” (Kenneth Valenzuela, 2007) <– This is mine.
The Basics of Team Building
A Basic Definition
To examine this in more depth, we need to start with a basic definition.
Some people define a team as being "the whole is greater than the sum of its' parts". But this isn't the right definition; it is a feature of good teams. 'Whole > sum' shows that they are working well together - but there are some teams whose collective performance falls short of what you might expect given the quality of individuals. The Apollo Syndrome is a good example of this - where highly intelligent people often performs worse than teams made of up 'less-able' members.
Some people define a team as being the people who report to the same boss. This can be misleading. In a well-designed organizational structure, people reporting to one boss do often form 'teams'. But when designing organizational hierarchies there are often compromises made because of pay structures or the need to have traditional reporting lines.
Whislt a team is a group of people, a group is not necessarily a team. Rather, a team is a group of people working together towards a common goal. .
Groups
If a team is a group of people working towards a common goal, 'team building' is the process of enabling that group of people to reach their goal. It is therefore a management issue, and the most effective form of team building is that undertaken as a form of management consultancy, rather than as pure training (though there is a role for training within an overall programme).
In its simplest terms, the stages involved in team building are:
• To clarify the collective goals
• To identify those inhibitors that prevent them from reaching their goals and remove them
• To put in place enablers that assist them
• To measure and monitor progress, to ensure the goals are achieved
Traditional techniques often address the inhibitors to collective performance: relationships, communication, etc.. However, if a group is only a group, then the benefits of such techniques may be limited. At best, there may be no need to resolve relationship problems; at worst it can be a waste of time and detract the people involved from achieving their individual goals.
Relationship problems
If there are problems between people working in a group, then this can have a negative impact on their individual performance. However, traditional techniques are not the solution.
The stress in a relationship between two people is governed by the formula:
(proximity of the two people) x (importance they succeed together)
-------------------------------------------------------------
(compatibility of their personalities)
In a group, the 'importance' is low. However, traditional techniques implicitly try make the importance score higher than it need be. This makes the stress score worse, because you are forcing people to work well together when they don't need to.
Also, traditional techniques sometimes tries to address the incompatibilities of the personalities involved, eg: on a personality workshop. Whilst this can be done, it is hard work and needs both parties to be committed to it. In a working group, the motivation for such difficult work is unlikely to be there - though, if they are willing to do it for personal reasons, then a personality workshop can have some effect.
However, to reduce relationship stress in a group, it is better to focus on the factor that is easiest to change: proximity. If they are only a group, then putting some distance between them (physically or by managing the boundaries between their work) will achieve a satisfactory result, without having to invest a lot of time.
Summary
• A team is a group of people working towards a common goal
• Team building is a process of enabling them to achieve that goal
• If they are only a group, then traditional techniques can be a waste of time/money or even counter-productive
• There may be better ways to resolve problems in groups: eg: putting distance between people who don't get on or, if they are both willing, building some understanding of personality differences.
Work ethic is a set of values based on hard work and diligence. It is also a belief in the moral benefit of work and its ability to enhance character.
Employee feedback is very essential for an organization's success. It will tell and keep the managers updated about the organization's strengths and weaknesses. Thus they can work upon them and try to eliminate those weaknesses. It will help them in carrying SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis in an organization, thus, contributing to organization's growth. Employee feedback should be encouraged by the managers as it tells them how motivated and satisfied the employees are in an organization. It tells the managers the reactions of employees to the company's policies. The employees should be honest enough in giving their views about a particular manager. They should be assured that their suggestions would be taken into consideration. They shouldn't be hesitant in giving their feedback.
Employees are a mediator between the managers and the customers. They can keep a company informed about customer satisfaction and customer's traits. They can give suggestions on improvement of goods and services, on what type of training sessions should be conducted in an organization for the employees, on how can their working environment be improved, on the perks and benefits which should be given to keep employees motivated. The employees can tell the managers about what they feel about the tasks assigned to them. They can make managers understand that lack of appreciation by managers can lead to less productivity and thus, to slow growth of organization. If the employees feel overburdened with work assigned to them, they can honestly discuss this with their superiors so that their work can be distributed and shared if required. Employee feedback can help measure the outcome of training sessions, the requirements of customers, quality improvement in an organization, etc.
Thus, the managers should encourage employees to give feedback and take it into consideration for the growth and smooth running of their organization.
Employee feedback is very essential for success of an organization.
The Importance of Workplace Environment
An employee’s workplace environment is a key determinant of their level of productivity. How well the workplace engages an employee impacts their level of motivation to perform. This then influences that employee’s:
• error rate
• level of innovation
• collaboration with other employees
• absenteeism
and, ultimately, how long they stay in the job.
The most important of these workplace environment factors that either lead to engagement or disengagement are shown in the following diagram. A close consideration of each of these factors is also very useful in ensuring that employees apply the skills they learn during training programs once they return to their workplace. Tending to the structural and interpersonal aspects of each of these factors enables employees to apply the required skills in a consistent and habitual way.
Figure 1 – Workplace factors affecting employee performance
Workplace Performance Factors
What does each of these factors mean? The following is a brief introduction.
Goal-setting
Employees are involved in setting meaningful goals and performance measures for their work. This can be done informally between the employee and their immediate supervisor or as part of an organization’s formal performance management process. The key here is that each employee is actively engaged in the goal-setting process and takes ownership of the final agreed goals and measures.
Performance feedback
Information on how the employee is performing is fed back regularly to employees. This consists of both positive feedback on what the employee is doing right as well as feedback on what requires improvement. The feedback is objective and delivered with the appropriate interpersonal and conflict resolution skills and can be a mix of both informal feedback and feedback delivered as part of a formal performance management cycle.
Role congruity
The role that the employee is required to perform is consistent with their expectations on joining the organization and any subsequent training. The organization’s role expectations are typically reflected in formal documents, such as Job Descriptions and Role Specifications. These expectations are consistent with tasks allocated by the employee’s immediate supervisor.
Defined processes
The organization constrains the variability of how work is actually performed through documenting processes and communicating such expectations to employees. The organization verifies on a regular or random basis that the work is actually performed in the way required.
Workplace incentives
The organization has determined what motivates its employees and has set up formal and informal structures for rewarding employees that behave in the way required. Rewards may consist of a mix of internal rewards, such as challenging assignments, and external rewards, such as higher compensation and peer recognition.
Supervisor support
Immediate supervisors act as advocates for employees, gathering and distributing the resources needed by employees in order for them to be able to do a good job and providing positive encouragement for a job well done. Supervisors display the interpersonal skills required to engage employees and enhance their self-confidence.
Mentoring/coaching
Skilled and respected people are available to employees to help them perform better in their current role and to assist them develop further into a future role. Mentors and coaches may be internal to an organization or external. Either way, they possess the necessary facilitation skills to assist employees develop and apply new sills.
Opportunity to apply
Time and material resources are available to employees, enabling them to perform to the best of their ability. Individual workloads and organizational systems and processes do not hinder employees from applying established skills or from practicing newly learned skills.
Job aids
The work environment is set up so that templates, guides, models, checklists and other such workplace aids are readily available to help minimize error rates and customer dissatisfaction.
Paying close attention to the above workplace environment factors will heighten employee motivation to apply their skills and hence improve your workplace productivity.
The above factors are also important for getting the most out of your organizational change programs. For help in translating change initiatives into real organizational performance gains, check out our eBook Managing Change in the Workplace. << Click here to find out more.
Twelve Tips for Team Building: How to Build Successful Work Teams
• Competence: Does the team feel that it has the appropriate people participating? (As an example, in a process improvement, is each step of the process represented on the team?) Does the team feel that its members have the knowledge, skill and capability to address the issues for which the team was formed? If not, does the team have access to the help it needs? Does the team feel it has the resources, strategies and support needed to accomplish its mission?
• Charter: Has the team taken its assigned area of responsibility and designed its own mission, vision and strategies to accomplish the mission. Has the team defined and communicated its goals; its anticipated outcomes and contributions; its timelines; and how it will measure both the outcomes of its work and the process the team followed to accomplish their task? Does the leadership team or other coordinating group support what the team has designed?
• Control: Does the team have enough freedom and empowerment to feel the ownership necessary to accomplish its charter? At the same time, do team members clearly understand their boundaries? How far may members go in pursuit of solutions? Are limitations (i.e. monetary and time resources) defined at the beginning of the project before the team experiences barriers and rework?
Is the team’s reporting relationship and accountability understood by all members of the organization? Has the organization defined the team’s authority? To make recommendations? To implement its plan? Is there a defined review process so both the team and the organization are consistently aligned in direction and purpose? Do team members hold each other accountable for project timelines, commitments and results? Does the organization have a plan to increase opportunities for self-management among organization members?
• Collaboration: Does the team understand team and group process? Do members understand the stages of group development? Are team members working together effectively interpersonally? Do all team members understand the roles and responsibilities of team members? team leaders? team recorders? Can the team approach problem solving, process improvement, goal setting and measurement jointly? Do team members cooperate to accomplish the team charter? Has the team established group norms or rules of conduct in areas such as conflict resolution, consensus decision making and meeting management? Is the team using an appropriate strategy to accomplish its action plan?
• Communication: Are team members clear about the priority of their tasks? Is there an established method for the teams to give feedback and receive honest performance feedback? Does the organization provide important business information regularly? Do the teams understand the complete context for their existence? Do team members communicate clearly and honestly with each other? Do team members bring diverse opinions to the table? Are necessary conflicts raised and addressed?
• Creative Innovation: Is the organization really interested in change? Does it value creative thinking, unique solutions, and new ideas? Does it reward people who take reasonable risks to make improvements? Or does it reward the people who fit in and maintain the status quo? Does it provide the training, education, Consequences: Do team members feel responsible and accountable for team achievements? Are rewards and recognition supplied when teams are successful? Is reasonable risk respected and encouraged in the organization? Do team members fear reprisal? Do team members spend their time finger pointing rather than resolving problems? Is the organization designing reward systems that recognize both team and individual performance? Is the organization planning to share gains and increased profitability with team and individual contributors? Can contributors see their impact on increased organization success?
• Coordination: Are teams coordinated by a central leadership team that assists the groups to obtain what they need for success? Have priorities and resource allocation been planned across departments? Do teams understand the concept of the internal customer—the next process, anyone to whom they provide a product or a service? Are cross-functional and multi-department teams common and working together effectively? Is the organization developing a customer-focused process-focused orientation and moving away from traditional departmental thinking?
• Cultural Change: Does the organization recognize that the team-based, collaborative, empowering, enabling organizational culture of the future is different than the traditional, hierarchical organization it may currently be? Is the organization planning to or in the process of changing how it rewards, recognizes, appraises, hires, develops, plans with, motivates and manages the people it employs?
Does the organization plan to use failures for learning and support reasonable risk? Does the organization recognize that the more it can change its climate to support teams, the more it will receive in pay back from the work of the teams?
Spend time and attention on each of these twelve tips to ensure your work teams contribute most effectively to your business success. Your team members will love you, your business will soar, and empowered people will "own" and be responsible for their work processes. Can your work life get any better than this?
• access to books and films, and field trips necessary to stimulate new thinking?
The Awesome Power of Goal Setting: Ten Tips for Triumph
The Goal Is Yours – You Own the Goal
Whether the goal is a promotion at work, a streamlined work process, a new customer, a published article, an exercise program or weight loss, the goal must be your goal. You are unlikely to achieve your manager’s goal, your spouse’s goal or the goal you think you “ought” to work on this year. Your goals must generate excitement when you ponder their accomplishment. You must believe there is something in it for you to accomplish them.
Sometimes, especially at work, if you perceive the end reward is worth the work, you will take on challenges in support of the organization’s goals. These goals might not be as close to your heart as your personal goals, but you work to achieve them for the good of the organization and your success there.
Here are three more tips that will help you experience awesome success in accomplishing your goals and living your resolutions.
Base Your Goals Firmly in Your Values
Hyrum Smith, the founder of Franklin Quest, later Franklin-Covey, Inc., developed a model for goal setting. Smith's "Success Triangle" puts governing values at the base of the goal setting process. Smith recommends that every goal is linked specifically to a governing value. For example, if diversity in the workforce is a value espoused by your organization, then at least one goal must further diversity. Every goal should be linked to a governing value.
Short-term, mid-term and long-term goals are then established based upon the solid foundation of your values. If the goal you set is congruent with and allows you to live your most important values, you are more likely to accomplish the goal.
According to Gene Donohue, of TopAchievement.com, set goals in all aspects of your life, to maintain your life balance. The balance also helps you accomplish goals as each aspect of your life is represented in your goals. You are less likely to experience warring priorities if every aspect of your life has a value-based goal. He suggests goals in these arenas.
• Family and Home
• Financial and Career
• Spiritual and Ethical
• Physical and Health
• Social and Cultural
• Mental and Educational
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From my Favorite Quotation Series:
"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in ones favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: 'Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it.'"(Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe)
--W.H. Murray, of the Scottish Himalayan Expedition
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Believe You Can Accomplish the Goal
Each of us has a little voice in our head. It is the voice of our sub-conscious, judging self. On a daily basis, we engage in self-talk; we comment on each situation we encounter. We discuss events and plans in our minds. Our commentary is both positive and negative. Positive thoughts and planning support the accomplishment of our goals. Negative thoughts and comments undermine our self-esteem and self-confidence, and negatively impact our ability to accomplish our goals.
Listen to your voice. You can change its tone by believing in yourself and in your ability to accomplish your goals and resolutions. Use this unconscious critic to positively support your goal setting success.
If you are a manager, one of your more important tasks is to support the development of positive self-esteem by your staff members. Your positive outlook and belief in their ability to accomplish great goals fosters their increased self-esteem and self-confidence. This, in turn, magnifies their ability to accomplish more and contribute more to your business.
Paint a Vivid Outcome
Traditionally, goals were established around measurable outcomes. This works well when the outcomes are measurable. Don’t tie yourself to setting only measurable goals, however; you may find yourself concentrating on the trivial, because it is measurable, rather than on your most important outcomes. Sometimes the most important goals, the non-urgent, critical goals, are hard to measure.
“Explore alternatives for a business in the World Wide Web,” is tough to measure, whereas the steps, once you make a decision, are easy to measure. “Learn about new options and thinking around performance management,” is tough to measure in any significant way. The next step, “design a new appraisal system,” is easier to define and measure.
As you move up the management ranks, you may find more of your goals are harder to measure. The key measurable aspects of your job will likely be the results produced by your reporting staff.
With goals that are hard to measure, start with a picture in your mind, that you commit to paper, that describes the outcome you are seeking. Make the picture as vivid as you can. I have a published book in my mind, while I am still thinking about and exploring potential topics.
Here are six more tips that will help you experience awesome success in accomplishing your goals and living your resolutions.
Write Your Goals
Writing out your goal is your commitment to achieving the goal. Writing a goal is a powerful statement in comparison with half-formulated thoughts in the back of your mind. It is the conscious promise to yourself to pay attention to the accomplishment of the goal. Writing out potential action plans and due dates makes the goal even more powerful.
Share Your Goals With People Who Are Important to You
If you are certain your significant others will support the accomplishment of your goals, share them. Your manager is likely to support your goal accomplishment as your success is her success. Honestly assess the ability of family members, peers and friends to provide support. In close relationships, many different feelings, experiences and historical events are at play. If you don’t believe you will have whole-hearted support, keep the goals to yourself.
Check Goal Setting and Achievement Progress Regularly
One of the weaknesses of any annual appraisal system is the lack of frequency with which progress and success are measured and tracked. You are most likely to accomplish the goals you set if you review them daily as part of your normal planning process. (You do have a normal planning process, don’t you?)
Whether you use a paper planner or a hand held computer, you can enter your goals, and schedule daily and weekly actions that support their accomplishment. The discipline of the daily review is a powerful goal accomplishment tool.
Take Action to Identify and Eliminate Obstacles to Goal Setting Success
Simply tracking your goals daily is not enough. If you’re unhappy with your progress, you need to assess what is keeping you from accomplishing the goals. Ask yourself questions such as, “Is this goal really important?” (If not, why did you pledge to accomplish it; maybe it’s not important, or less important than other goals.)
”Are there specific obstacles you are experiencing which are interfering with your ability to accomplish the goal?” (In this case, make action plans to remove the obstacles or seek help from a co-worker, friend or family member.)
If you are not making progress on a particular goal, attempt to do a root cause analysis to determine why. Only by honestly analyzing your lack of progress can you determine steps to take to change this picture. In this era of the hand-held computer and PDA cell phones, picture your goals automatically forwarding for 365 days. Talk about a daily reminder about failure!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From my Favorite Quotation Series:
Seven Habits Revisited
“Begin With the End In Mind is the endowment of imagination and conscience. If you are the programmer, write the program. Decide what you're going to do with the time, talent, and tools you have to work with: "Within my small circle of influence, I'm going to decide."
--Stephen R. Covey
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reward Yourself and Celebrate Goal Accomplishment
Even the accomplishment of a minor goal is cause for celebration. Don’t depress yourself with thoughts about all you still have to do. Celebrate what you have done. Then move on to the next milestone.
Goals and New Year Resolutions Change
Periodically look at the goals you have set for this year. Are the goals still the right goals? Give yourself permission to change your goals and resolutions based on changing circumstances.
Don’t spend an entire year failing to achieve a particular goal. Your time is better spent on achievement than on beating yourself up for lack of progress. Maybe you made the goal too big; maybe you set too many goals. Do an honest assessment; change what needs to change periodically, and move on.
Paying attention to these ten guidelines can make all the difference in your year. Will this year be a year of triumph for you, a year of awesome success? Whatever your goals and resolutions, these tips can help power your success.
Definition: Team Development
Team Development creates a winning atmosphere by:
• Developing Trust among team members
• Opportunity to Practice Openness
• Enhances Cooperation Through Realization of Objectives
• Promotes Interdependence (Collaboration, Teamwork, Camaraderie, etc.)
Team Development’s purpose is to help a team engage in the process of self-examination to gain awareness of those conditions which are the sources of its strength and those conditions that keep it from functioning effectively. Through the team development process, the group learns how to make decisions and take those actions that will lead to better efficiency, productivity, product quality and quality of work life.
Whether it's on the sports field or in the workplace, teams take time to come together. There is a natural development process every team progresses through. It is useful to examine this maturation so that as a team member, leader or facilitator you can be prepared to work effectively with the team.
• Recognize that teams mature over time and develop along commonly defined paths and milestones.
• Teams develop through four stages: Initial stage, Processing, Coming Together— Normalizing and Performing. Good leader facilitation skills will help teams progress through the stages.
• Teams develop in unique ways, and they can move back and forth between one development stage and another based on team membership, outside influences or redirection of the team's purpose.
As a result of Team Development, team members set higher goals, people are more motivated to achieve their goals, everyone receives more assistance, support, and coaching, and the group produces more and better ideas.
Surveys with Team Development participants reveal that problems do not go away; they only get worse. By spending time working on solutions day-to-day in a Team mode, groups save time and money in the long run by not allowing problems to get worse.
The results are: Time saved, problems solved, more team cooperation, better communication, higher morale, more energy, synergy, enthusiasm, creativity, commitment, participation and hig
a. The forms of ceremony and etiquette observed by diplomats and heads of state.
b. A code of correct conduct: safety protocols; academic protocol.
2. The first copy of a treaty or other such document before its ratification.
3. A preliminary draft or record of a transaction.
4. The plan for a course of medical treatment or for a scientific experiment.
5. Computer Science A standard procedure for regulating data transmission between computers.
A standard operating procedure is a set of instructions having the force of a directive, covering those features of operations that lend themselves to a definite or standardized procedure without loss of effectiveness. Standard Operating Policies and Procedures can be effective catalysts to drive performance improvement and improving organizational results. [1] Every good quality system is based on its standard operating procedures (SOPs).
• “Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow”. (Kouzes & Posner, 2002).
• “Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal”. (Northouse, 2004)
• “Leadership is the influencing process of leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through changes”. (Lussier & Achua, 2004)
• “Leadership is the behavior of an individual… directing the activities of a group toward a shared goal”. (Hemphill & Coons, 1957)
• “Leadership is the influential increment over and above mechanical compliance with the routine directives of the organization” (D.Katz & Kahn, 1978)
• “Leadership is the process of incluencing the activities of an organized group toward goal achievement” (Rauch & Behling, 1984)
• “Leadership is a process of giving purpose (meaningful direction) to collective effort, and causing willing effort to be expended to achieve purpose” (Jacobs & Jacques, 1990)
• “Leadership is the ability to step outside the culture… to start evolutionary change processes that are more adaptive” (E.H. Schein, 1992)
• “Leadership is the process of making sense of waht people are doing together so that people will understand and be committed” (Drath & Palus, 1994)
• “Leadership is about articulating visions, embodying values, and creating the environment within which things can be accomplished” (Richards & Engle, 1986)
• “Leadership is the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization…” (House et al., 1999)
• “Leadership is the ability of developing and communicating a vision to a group of people that will make that vision true” (Kenneth Valenzuela, 2007) <– This is mine.
The Basics of Team Building
A Basic Definition
To examine this in more depth, we need to start with a basic definition.
Some people define a team as being "the whole is greater than the sum of its' parts". But this isn't the right definition; it is a feature of good teams. 'Whole > sum' shows that they are working well together - but there are some teams whose collective performance falls short of what you might expect given the quality of individuals. The Apollo Syndrome is a good example of this - where highly intelligent people often performs worse than teams made of up 'less-able' members.
Some people define a team as being the people who report to the same boss. This can be misleading. In a well-designed organizational structure, people reporting to one boss do often form 'teams'. But when designing organizational hierarchies there are often compromises made because of pay structures or the need to have traditional reporting lines.
Whislt a team is a group of people, a group is not necessarily a team. Rather, a team is a group of people working together towards a common goal. .
Groups
If a team is a group of people working towards a common goal, 'team building' is the process of enabling that group of people to reach their goal. It is therefore a management issue, and the most effective form of team building is that undertaken as a form of management consultancy, rather than as pure training (though there is a role for training within an overall programme).
In its simplest terms, the stages involved in team building are:
• To clarify the collective goals
• To identify those inhibitors that prevent them from reaching their goals and remove them
• To put in place enablers that assist them
• To measure and monitor progress, to ensure the goals are achieved
Traditional techniques often address the inhibitors to collective performance: relationships, communication, etc.. However, if a group is only a group, then the benefits of such techniques may be limited. At best, there may be no need to resolve relationship problems; at worst it can be a waste of time and detract the people involved from achieving their individual goals.
Relationship problems
If there are problems between people working in a group, then this can have a negative impact on their individual performance. However, traditional techniques are not the solution.
The stress in a relationship between two people is governed by the formula:
(proximity of the two people) x (importance they succeed together)
-------------------------------------------------------------
(compatibility of their personalities)
In a group, the 'importance' is low. However, traditional techniques implicitly try make the importance score higher than it need be. This makes the stress score worse, because you are forcing people to work well together when they don't need to.
Also, traditional techniques sometimes tries to address the incompatibilities of the personalities involved, eg: on a personality workshop. Whilst this can be done, it is hard work and needs both parties to be committed to it. In a working group, the motivation for such difficult work is unlikely to be there - though, if they are willing to do it for personal reasons, then a personality workshop can have some effect.
However, to reduce relationship stress in a group, it is better to focus on the factor that is easiest to change: proximity. If they are only a group, then putting some distance between them (physically or by managing the boundaries between their work) will achieve a satisfactory result, without having to invest a lot of time.
Summary
• A team is a group of people working towards a common goal
• Team building is a process of enabling them to achieve that goal
• If they are only a group, then traditional techniques can be a waste of time/money or even counter-productive
• There may be better ways to resolve problems in groups: eg: putting distance between people who don't get on or, if they are both willing, building some understanding of personality differences.
Work ethic is a set of values based on hard work and diligence. It is also a belief in the moral benefit of work and its ability to enhance character.
Employee feedback is very essential for an organization's success. It will tell and keep the managers updated about the organization's strengths and weaknesses. Thus they can work upon them and try to eliminate those weaknesses. It will help them in carrying SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis in an organization, thus, contributing to organization's growth. Employee feedback should be encouraged by the managers as it tells them how motivated and satisfied the employees are in an organization. It tells the managers the reactions of employees to the company's policies. The employees should be honest enough in giving their views about a particular manager. They should be assured that their suggestions would be taken into consideration. They shouldn't be hesitant in giving their feedback.
Employees are a mediator between the managers and the customers. They can keep a company informed about customer satisfaction and customer's traits. They can give suggestions on improvement of goods and services, on what type of training sessions should be conducted in an organization for the employees, on how can their working environment be improved, on the perks and benefits which should be given to keep employees motivated. The employees can tell the managers about what they feel about the tasks assigned to them. They can make managers understand that lack of appreciation by managers can lead to less productivity and thus, to slow growth of organization. If the employees feel overburdened with work assigned to them, they can honestly discuss this with their superiors so that their work can be distributed and shared if required. Employee feedback can help measure the outcome of training sessions, the requirements of customers, quality improvement in an organization, etc.
Thus, the managers should encourage employees to give feedback and take it into consideration for the growth and smooth running of their organization.
Employee feedback is very essential for success of an organization.
The Importance of Workplace Environment
An employee’s workplace environment is a key determinant of their level of productivity. How well the workplace engages an employee impacts their level of motivation to perform. This then influences that employee’s:
• error rate
• level of innovation
• collaboration with other employees
• absenteeism
and, ultimately, how long they stay in the job.
The most important of these workplace environment factors that either lead to engagement or disengagement are shown in the following diagram. A close consideration of each of these factors is also very useful in ensuring that employees apply the skills they learn during training programs once they return to their workplace. Tending to the structural and interpersonal aspects of each of these factors enables employees to apply the required skills in a consistent and habitual way.
Figure 1 – Workplace factors affecting employee performance
Workplace Performance Factors
What does each of these factors mean? The following is a brief introduction.
Goal-setting
Employees are involved in setting meaningful goals and performance measures for their work. This can be done informally between the employee and their immediate supervisor or as part of an organization’s formal performance management process. The key here is that each employee is actively engaged in the goal-setting process and takes ownership of the final agreed goals and measures.
Performance feedback
Information on how the employee is performing is fed back regularly to employees. This consists of both positive feedback on what the employee is doing right as well as feedback on what requires improvement. The feedback is objective and delivered with the appropriate interpersonal and conflict resolution skills and can be a mix of both informal feedback and feedback delivered as part of a formal performance management cycle.
Role congruity
The role that the employee is required to perform is consistent with their expectations on joining the organization and any subsequent training. The organization’s role expectations are typically reflected in formal documents, such as Job Descriptions and Role Specifications. These expectations are consistent with tasks allocated by the employee’s immediate supervisor.
Defined processes
The organization constrains the variability of how work is actually performed through documenting processes and communicating such expectations to employees. The organization verifies on a regular or random basis that the work is actually performed in the way required.
Workplace incentives
The organization has determined what motivates its employees and has set up formal and informal structures for rewarding employees that behave in the way required. Rewards may consist of a mix of internal rewards, such as challenging assignments, and external rewards, such as higher compensation and peer recognition.
Supervisor support
Immediate supervisors act as advocates for employees, gathering and distributing the resources needed by employees in order for them to be able to do a good job and providing positive encouragement for a job well done. Supervisors display the interpersonal skills required to engage employees and enhance their self-confidence.
Mentoring/coaching
Skilled and respected people are available to employees to help them perform better in their current role and to assist them develop further into a future role. Mentors and coaches may be internal to an organization or external. Either way, they possess the necessary facilitation skills to assist employees develop and apply new sills.
Opportunity to apply
Time and material resources are available to employees, enabling them to perform to the best of their ability. Individual workloads and organizational systems and processes do not hinder employees from applying established skills or from practicing newly learned skills.
Job aids
The work environment is set up so that templates, guides, models, checklists and other such workplace aids are readily available to help minimize error rates and customer dissatisfaction.
Paying close attention to the above workplace environment factors will heighten employee motivation to apply their skills and hence improve your workplace productivity.
The above factors are also important for getting the most out of your organizational change programs. For help in translating change initiatives into real organizational performance gains, check out our eBook Managing Change in the Workplace. << Click here to find out more.
Twelve Tips for Team Building: How to Build Successful Work Teams
• Competence: Does the team feel that it has the appropriate people participating? (As an example, in a process improvement, is each step of the process represented on the team?) Does the team feel that its members have the knowledge, skill and capability to address the issues for which the team was formed? If not, does the team have access to the help it needs? Does the team feel it has the resources, strategies and support needed to accomplish its mission?
• Charter: Has the team taken its assigned area of responsibility and designed its own mission, vision and strategies to accomplish the mission. Has the team defined and communicated its goals; its anticipated outcomes and contributions; its timelines; and how it will measure both the outcomes of its work and the process the team followed to accomplish their task? Does the leadership team or other coordinating group support what the team has designed?
• Control: Does the team have enough freedom and empowerment to feel the ownership necessary to accomplish its charter? At the same time, do team members clearly understand their boundaries? How far may members go in pursuit of solutions? Are limitations (i.e. monetary and time resources) defined at the beginning of the project before the team experiences barriers and rework?
Is the team’s reporting relationship and accountability understood by all members of the organization? Has the organization defined the team’s authority? To make recommendations? To implement its plan? Is there a defined review process so both the team and the organization are consistently aligned in direction and purpose? Do team members hold each other accountable for project timelines, commitments and results? Does the organization have a plan to increase opportunities for self-management among organization members?
• Collaboration: Does the team understand team and group process? Do members understand the stages of group development? Are team members working together effectively interpersonally? Do all team members understand the roles and responsibilities of team members? team leaders? team recorders? Can the team approach problem solving, process improvement, goal setting and measurement jointly? Do team members cooperate to accomplish the team charter? Has the team established group norms or rules of conduct in areas such as conflict resolution, consensus decision making and meeting management? Is the team using an appropriate strategy to accomplish its action plan?
• Communication: Are team members clear about the priority of their tasks? Is there an established method for the teams to give feedback and receive honest performance feedback? Does the organization provide important business information regularly? Do the teams understand the complete context for their existence? Do team members communicate clearly and honestly with each other? Do team members bring diverse opinions to the table? Are necessary conflicts raised and addressed?
• Creative Innovation: Is the organization really interested in change? Does it value creative thinking, unique solutions, and new ideas? Does it reward people who take reasonable risks to make improvements? Or does it reward the people who fit in and maintain the status quo? Does it provide the training, education, Consequences: Do team members feel responsible and accountable for team achievements? Are rewards and recognition supplied when teams are successful? Is reasonable risk respected and encouraged in the organization? Do team members fear reprisal? Do team members spend their time finger pointing rather than resolving problems? Is the organization designing reward systems that recognize both team and individual performance? Is the organization planning to share gains and increased profitability with team and individual contributors? Can contributors see their impact on increased organization success?
• Coordination: Are teams coordinated by a central leadership team that assists the groups to obtain what they need for success? Have priorities and resource allocation been planned across departments? Do teams understand the concept of the internal customer—the next process, anyone to whom they provide a product or a service? Are cross-functional and multi-department teams common and working together effectively? Is the organization developing a customer-focused process-focused orientation and moving away from traditional departmental thinking?
• Cultural Change: Does the organization recognize that the team-based, collaborative, empowering, enabling organizational culture of the future is different than the traditional, hierarchical organization it may currently be? Is the organization planning to or in the process of changing how it rewards, recognizes, appraises, hires, develops, plans with, motivates and manages the people it employs?
Does the organization plan to use failures for learning and support reasonable risk? Does the organization recognize that the more it can change its climate to support teams, the more it will receive in pay back from the work of the teams?
Spend time and attention on each of these twelve tips to ensure your work teams contribute most effectively to your business success. Your team members will love you, your business will soar, and empowered people will "own" and be responsible for their work processes. Can your work life get any better than this?
• access to books and films, and field trips necessary to stimulate new thinking?
The Awesome Power of Goal Setting: Ten Tips for Triumph
The Goal Is Yours – You Own the Goal
Whether the goal is a promotion at work, a streamlined work process, a new customer, a published article, an exercise program or weight loss, the goal must be your goal. You are unlikely to achieve your manager’s goal, your spouse’s goal or the goal you think you “ought” to work on this year. Your goals must generate excitement when you ponder their accomplishment. You must believe there is something in it for you to accomplish them.
Sometimes, especially at work, if you perceive the end reward is worth the work, you will take on challenges in support of the organization’s goals. These goals might not be as close to your heart as your personal goals, but you work to achieve them for the good of the organization and your success there.
Here are three more tips that will help you experience awesome success in accomplishing your goals and living your resolutions.
Base Your Goals Firmly in Your Values
Hyrum Smith, the founder of Franklin Quest, later Franklin-Covey, Inc., developed a model for goal setting. Smith's "Success Triangle" puts governing values at the base of the goal setting process. Smith recommends that every goal is linked specifically to a governing value. For example, if diversity in the workforce is a value espoused by your organization, then at least one goal must further diversity. Every goal should be linked to a governing value.
Short-term, mid-term and long-term goals are then established based upon the solid foundation of your values. If the goal you set is congruent with and allows you to live your most important values, you are more likely to accomplish the goal.
According to Gene Donohue, of TopAchievement.com, set goals in all aspects of your life, to maintain your life balance. The balance also helps you accomplish goals as each aspect of your life is represented in your goals. You are less likely to experience warring priorities if every aspect of your life has a value-based goal. He suggests goals in these arenas.
• Family and Home
• Financial and Career
• Spiritual and Ethical
• Physical and Health
• Social and Cultural
• Mental and Educational
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From my Favorite Quotation Series:
"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in ones favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: 'Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it.'"(Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe)
--W.H. Murray, of the Scottish Himalayan Expedition
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Believe You Can Accomplish the Goal
Each of us has a little voice in our head. It is the voice of our sub-conscious, judging self. On a daily basis, we engage in self-talk; we comment on each situation we encounter. We discuss events and plans in our minds. Our commentary is both positive and negative. Positive thoughts and planning support the accomplishment of our goals. Negative thoughts and comments undermine our self-esteem and self-confidence, and negatively impact our ability to accomplish our goals.
Listen to your voice. You can change its tone by believing in yourself and in your ability to accomplish your goals and resolutions. Use this unconscious critic to positively support your goal setting success.
If you are a manager, one of your more important tasks is to support the development of positive self-esteem by your staff members. Your positive outlook and belief in their ability to accomplish great goals fosters their increased self-esteem and self-confidence. This, in turn, magnifies their ability to accomplish more and contribute more to your business.
Paint a Vivid Outcome
Traditionally, goals were established around measurable outcomes. This works well when the outcomes are measurable. Don’t tie yourself to setting only measurable goals, however; you may find yourself concentrating on the trivial, because it is measurable, rather than on your most important outcomes. Sometimes the most important goals, the non-urgent, critical goals, are hard to measure.
“Explore alternatives for a business in the World Wide Web,” is tough to measure, whereas the steps, once you make a decision, are easy to measure. “Learn about new options and thinking around performance management,” is tough to measure in any significant way. The next step, “design a new appraisal system,” is easier to define and measure.
As you move up the management ranks, you may find more of your goals are harder to measure. The key measurable aspects of your job will likely be the results produced by your reporting staff.
With goals that are hard to measure, start with a picture in your mind, that you commit to paper, that describes the outcome you are seeking. Make the picture as vivid as you can. I have a published book in my mind, while I am still thinking about and exploring potential topics.
Here are six more tips that will help you experience awesome success in accomplishing your goals and living your resolutions.
Write Your Goals
Writing out your goal is your commitment to achieving the goal. Writing a goal is a powerful statement in comparison with half-formulated thoughts in the back of your mind. It is the conscious promise to yourself to pay attention to the accomplishment of the goal. Writing out potential action plans and due dates makes the goal even more powerful.
Share Your Goals With People Who Are Important to You
If you are certain your significant others will support the accomplishment of your goals, share them. Your manager is likely to support your goal accomplishment as your success is her success. Honestly assess the ability of family members, peers and friends to provide support. In close relationships, many different feelings, experiences and historical events are at play. If you don’t believe you will have whole-hearted support, keep the goals to yourself.
Check Goal Setting and Achievement Progress Regularly
One of the weaknesses of any annual appraisal system is the lack of frequency with which progress and success are measured and tracked. You are most likely to accomplish the goals you set if you review them daily as part of your normal planning process. (You do have a normal planning process, don’t you?)
Whether you use a paper planner or a hand held computer, you can enter your goals, and schedule daily and weekly actions that support their accomplishment. The discipline of the daily review is a powerful goal accomplishment tool.
Take Action to Identify and Eliminate Obstacles to Goal Setting Success
Simply tracking your goals daily is not enough. If you’re unhappy with your progress, you need to assess what is keeping you from accomplishing the goals. Ask yourself questions such as, “Is this goal really important?” (If not, why did you pledge to accomplish it; maybe it’s not important, or less important than other goals.)
”Are there specific obstacles you are experiencing which are interfering with your ability to accomplish the goal?” (In this case, make action plans to remove the obstacles or seek help from a co-worker, friend or family member.)
If you are not making progress on a particular goal, attempt to do a root cause analysis to determine why. Only by honestly analyzing your lack of progress can you determine steps to take to change this picture. In this era of the hand-held computer and PDA cell phones, picture your goals automatically forwarding for 365 days. Talk about a daily reminder about failure!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From my Favorite Quotation Series:
Seven Habits Revisited
“Begin With the End In Mind is the endowment of imagination and conscience. If you are the programmer, write the program. Decide what you're going to do with the time, talent, and tools you have to work with: "Within my small circle of influence, I'm going to decide."
--Stephen R. Covey
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reward Yourself and Celebrate Goal Accomplishment
Even the accomplishment of a minor goal is cause for celebration. Don’t depress yourself with thoughts about all you still have to do. Celebrate what you have done. Then move on to the next milestone.
Goals and New Year Resolutions Change
Periodically look at the goals you have set for this year. Are the goals still the right goals? Give yourself permission to change your goals and resolutions based on changing circumstances.
Don’t spend an entire year failing to achieve a particular goal. Your time is better spent on achievement than on beating yourself up for lack of progress. Maybe you made the goal too big; maybe you set too many goals. Do an honest assessment; change what needs to change periodically, and move on.
Paying attention to these ten guidelines can make all the difference in your year. Will this year be a year of triumph for you, a year of awesome success? Whatever your goals and resolutions, these tips can help power your success.
Definition: Team Development
Team Development creates a winning atmosphere by:
• Developing Trust among team members
• Opportunity to Practice Openness
• Enhances Cooperation Through Realization of Objectives
• Promotes Interdependence (Collaboration, Teamwork, Camaraderie, etc.)
Team Development’s purpose is to help a team engage in the process of self-examination to gain awareness of those conditions which are the sources of its strength and those conditions that keep it from functioning effectively. Through the team development process, the group learns how to make decisions and take those actions that will lead to better efficiency, productivity, product quality and quality of work life.
Whether it's on the sports field or in the workplace, teams take time to come together. There is a natural development process every team progresses through. It is useful to examine this maturation so that as a team member, leader or facilitator you can be prepared to work effectively with the team.
• Recognize that teams mature over time and develop along commonly defined paths and milestones.
• Teams develop through four stages: Initial stage, Processing, Coming Together— Normalizing and Performing. Good leader facilitation skills will help teams progress through the stages.
• Teams develop in unique ways, and they can move back and forth between one development stage and another based on team membership, outside influences or redirection of the team's purpose.
As a result of Team Development, team members set higher goals, people are more motivated to achieve their goals, everyone receives more assistance, support, and coaching, and the group produces more and better ideas.
Surveys with Team Development participants reveal that problems do not go away; they only get worse. By spending time working on solutions day-to-day in a Team mode, groups save time and money in the long run by not allowing problems to get worse.
The results are: Time saved, problems solved, more team cooperation, better communication, higher morale, more energy, synergy, enthusiasm, creativity, commitment, participation and hig
The Portfolio
Portfolio assessment is a multi-faceted process characterized by the following recurrent qualities:
• It is continuous and ongoing, providing both formative (i.e., ongoing) and summative (i.e., culminating) opportunities for monitoring students' progress toward achieving essential outcomes.
• It is multidimensional, i.e., reflecting a wide variety of artifacts and processes reflecting various aspects of students' learning process(es).
• It provides for collaborative reflection, including ways for students to reflect about their own thinking processes and metacognitive introspection as they monitor their own comprehension, reflect upon their approaches to problem-solving and decision-making, and observe their emerging understanding of subjects and skills.
Although approaches to portfolio development may vary, all of the major research and literature on portfolios reinforce the following characteristics:
• They clearly reflect stated learner outcomes identified in the core or essential curriculum that students are expected to study.
• They focus upon students' performance-based learning experiences as well as their acquisition of key knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
• They contain samples of work that stretch over an entire marking period, rather than single points in time.
• They contain works that represent a variety of different assessment tools.
• They contain a variety of work samples and evaluations of that work by the student, peers, and teachers, possible even parents' reactions.
• It is continuous and ongoing, providing both formative (i.e., ongoing) and summative (i.e., culminating) opportunities for monitoring students' progress toward achieving essential outcomes.
• It is multidimensional, i.e., reflecting a wide variety of artifacts and processes reflecting various aspects of students' learning process(es).
• It provides for collaborative reflection, including ways for students to reflect about their own thinking processes and metacognitive introspection as they monitor their own comprehension, reflect upon their approaches to problem-solving and decision-making, and observe their emerging understanding of subjects and skills.
Although approaches to portfolio development may vary, all of the major research and literature on portfolios reinforce the following characteristics:
• They clearly reflect stated learner outcomes identified in the core or essential curriculum that students are expected to study.
• They focus upon students' performance-based learning experiences as well as their acquisition of key knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
• They contain samples of work that stretch over an entire marking period, rather than single points in time.
• They contain works that represent a variety of different assessment tools.
• They contain a variety of work samples and evaluations of that work by the student, peers, and teachers, possible even parents' reactions.
The cover letter
Cover letter
A cover letter or covering letter or motivation letter or motivational letter or letter of motivation is a letter of introduction attached to, or accompanying another document such as a résumé or curriculum vitae.
For employment
Job seekers frequently send résumés or employment applications as attachments to a cover letter, by way of introducing themselves to recruiters or prospective employers and indicating their interest in the positions. Employers may look for individualized and thoughtfully written cover letters to screen applicants who are not sufficiently interested in their position or who lack the required writing skills. A cover letter is an accompanying letter that introduces you and your resume to a potential employer. You can send a cover letter with every resume you submit. A cover letter should not be longer than one page in length and contain 2 to 3 short paragraphs. There are three types of cover letters:
• The application letter which responds to a known job opening
• The prospecting letter which inquires about possible positions
• The networking letter which requests information and assistance in your job search
Format
Cover letters are generally one page at most in length, divided into a header, introduction, body, and closing.
• Header. Cover letters use standard business letter style, with the sender's address and other information, the recipient's contact information, and the date sent after either the sender's or the recipient's address. Following that is an optional reference section (e.g. "RE: Internship Opportunity at Global Corporation") and an optional transmission note (e.g. "Via Email to jobs@example.net"). The final part of the header is a salutation (e.g., "Dear Hiring Managers").
• Introduction. The introduction briefly states the specific position desired, and should be designed to catch the employer's immediate interest.
• Body. The body highlights or amplifies on material in the resume or job application, and explains why the job seeker is interested in the job and would be of value to the employer. Also, matters discussed typically include skills, qualifications, and past experience. If there are any special things to note such as availability date, they may be included as well.
• Closing. A closing sums up the letter, and indicates the next step the applicant expects to take. It may indicate that the applicant intends to contact the employer, although many favor the more indirect approach of simply saying that the applicant will look forward to hearing from or speaking with the employer. After the closing is a valediction ("Sincerely"), and then a signature line. Optionally, the abbreviation "ENCL" may be used to indicate that there are enclosures.
Other uses
Cover letters may also serve as marketing devices for prospective job seekers. Cover letters are used in connection with many business documents such as loan applications (Mortgage loan), contract drafts and proposals, and executed documents. They may serve the purpose of trying to catch the reader's interest or persuade the reader of something, or they may simply be an inventory or summary of the documents included along with a discussion of the expected future actions the sender or recipient will take in connection with the documents.
A cover letter or covering letter or motivation letter or motivational letter or letter of motivation is a letter of introduction attached to, or accompanying another document such as a résumé or curriculum vitae.
For employment
Job seekers frequently send résumés or employment applications as attachments to a cover letter, by way of introducing themselves to recruiters or prospective employers and indicating their interest in the positions. Employers may look for individualized and thoughtfully written cover letters to screen applicants who are not sufficiently interested in their position or who lack the required writing skills. A cover letter is an accompanying letter that introduces you and your resume to a potential employer. You can send a cover letter with every resume you submit. A cover letter should not be longer than one page in length and contain 2 to 3 short paragraphs. There are three types of cover letters:
• The application letter which responds to a known job opening
• The prospecting letter which inquires about possible positions
• The networking letter which requests information and assistance in your job search
Format
Cover letters are generally one page at most in length, divided into a header, introduction, body, and closing.
• Header. Cover letters use standard business letter style, with the sender's address and other information, the recipient's contact information, and the date sent after either the sender's or the recipient's address. Following that is an optional reference section (e.g. "RE: Internship Opportunity at Global Corporation") and an optional transmission note (e.g. "Via Email to jobs@example.net"). The final part of the header is a salutation (e.g., "Dear Hiring Managers").
• Introduction. The introduction briefly states the specific position desired, and should be designed to catch the employer's immediate interest.
• Body. The body highlights or amplifies on material in the resume or job application, and explains why the job seeker is interested in the job and would be of value to the employer. Also, matters discussed typically include skills, qualifications, and past experience. If there are any special things to note such as availability date, they may be included as well.
• Closing. A closing sums up the letter, and indicates the next step the applicant expects to take. It may indicate that the applicant intends to contact the employer, although many favor the more indirect approach of simply saying that the applicant will look forward to hearing from or speaking with the employer. After the closing is a valediction ("Sincerely"), and then a signature line. Optionally, the abbreviation "ENCL" may be used to indicate that there are enclosures.
Other uses
Cover letters may also serve as marketing devices for prospective job seekers. Cover letters are used in connection with many business documents such as loan applications (Mortgage loan), contract drafts and proposals, and executed documents. They may serve the purpose of trying to catch the reader's interest or persuade the reader of something, or they may simply be an inventory or summary of the documents included along with a discussion of the expected future actions the sender or recipient will take in connection with the documents.
Communication
.
Communication is a process of transferring information from one source to another. Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs". Communication can be perceived as a two-way process in which there is an exchange and progression of thoughts, feelings or ideas towards a mutually accepted[clarification needed] goal or direction.
The exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behavior
Communication is a process whereby information is encoded and imparted by a sender to a receiver via a channel/medium. The receiver then decodes the message and gives the sender a feedback. Communication requires that all parties have an area of communicative commonality. There are auditory means, such as speaking, singing and sometimes tone of voice, and nonverbal, physical means, such as body language, sign language, paralanguage, touch, eye contact, by using writing.
Communication is thus a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in intrapersonal and interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluating. It is through communication that collaboration and cooperation occur.[2]
There are also many common barriers to successful communication, two of which are message overload (when a person receives too many messages at the same time), and message complexity.[3]
Types of communication
There are three major parts in human face to face communication which are body language, voice tonality, and words. According to the research:[4]
• 55% of impact is determined by body language--postures, gestures, and eye contact,
• 38% by the tone of voice, and
• 7% by the content or the words used in the communication process.
Nonverbal communication
Nonverbal communication is the process of communicating through sending and receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gesture, body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact, object communication such as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture, or symbols and infographics, as well as through an aggregate of the above, such as behavioral communication. Nonverbal communication plays a key role in every person's day to day life, from employment to romantic engagements.
Speech may also contain nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, emotion and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the use of emoticons.A portmanteau of the English words emotion (or emote) and icon, an emoticon is a symbol or combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written or message form.
Other communication channels such as telegraphy fit into this category, whereby signals travel from person to person by an alternative means. These signals can in themselves be representative of words, objects or merely be state projections. Trials have shown that humans can communicate directly in this way[5] without body language, voice tonality or words.
Visual communication
Visual communication as the name suggests is communication through visual aid. It is the conveyance of ideas and information in forms that can be read or looked upon. Primarily associated with two dimensional images, it includes: signs, typography, drawing, graphic design, illustration, colour and electronic resources. It solely relies on vision. It is form of communication with visual effect. It explores the idea that a visual message with text has a greater power to inform, educate or persuade a person. It is communication by presenting information through visual form.
Communication as academic discipline
Communication as an academic discipline, sometimes called "communicology,"[8] relates to all the ways we communicate, so it embraces a large body of study and knowledge. The communication discipline includes both verbal and nonverbal messages. A body of scholarship all about communication is presented and explained in textbooks, electronic publications, and academic journals. In the journals, researchers report the results of studies that are the basis for an ever-expanding understanding of how we all communicate.
Developing Communication Skills
Communication skills must be developed; they do not occur automatically. The ability to effectively communicate stems from experience. The experience of instructional
communication begins with role playing during the training to be an instructor, continues during the actual instruction and is enhanced by additional training.
Role Playing
Experience in instructional communication comes from actually doing it. This is learned in the beginning by way of role playing during the instructor's initial training. A
new instructor can try out different instructional techniques with an assigned instructor in the
case of a flight instructor applicant, or with a mentor or supervisor in the case of a maintenance instructor.
Instructional Communication
Instruction has taken place when the instructor has explained a particular procedure and subsequently determined that the desired student response has occurred. The instructor can improve communication by adhering to several techniques of good communication. One of the basic principles used in public speaking courses is to encourage students to talk about something they understand. It would not be good if an instructor without a maintenance background tried to teach a course for aviation maintenance. Instructors will perform better when speaking of something that they know very well and for which they have a high level of confidence.
Listening
Instructors must know something about their students in order to communicate effectively. As discussed earlier, an instructor needs to determine the abilities of the students and understand the students to properly communicate. One way of becoming better acquainted with students is to be a good listener. Instructors can use a number of techniques to become better at listening. It is important to realize that in order to master the art of listening, an attitude of wanting to listen must be developed.
Questioning
Good questioning can determine how well the student understands. It also shows the student that the instructor is paying attention. And it shows that the instructor is interested in the student's response. An instructor should ask both open-ended and focused
questions. Open-ended questions allow the student to explain more fully, Focused questions allow the instructor to concentrate on desired areas. An instructor may ask for additional details, examples, and impressions from the student. This allows the instructor to ask further questions if necessary. The presentation can then be modified to fit the understanding of the student.
Two ways of confirming that the student and instructor understand things in the same way are the use of paraphrasing and perception checking.
Instructional Enhancement
The deeper the knowledge of a particular area, the better the instructor is at conveying that information. For example, a maintenance instructor teaching basic electricity might be able to teach at a minimally satisfactory level if the instructor had only the same
training level as that being taught. If asked a question that exceeded the instructor's knowledge, the instructor could research the answer and get back to the student. It would be much better if the instructor, through experience or additional training, was prepared to answer the question initially. Additional knowledge and training would also bolster the instructor's confidence and give the instructional presentation more depth. Advanced courses in the instructional area and on instructional techniques are widely available. s taken place is to determine if the desired results have been achieved.
Barriers to Effective Communication
The nature of language and the way it is used often lead to misunderstandings. An example might be a maintenance instructor telling a student to time the magnetos. A student new to the maintenance field might think a stopwatch or clock would be necessary to do the requested task. Instruction would be necessary for the student to understand that the procedure has nothing to do with the usual concept of time. This is an example of a lack of common experience, one of four barriers to effective communication.
Lack of Common Experience
Lack of common experience between instructor and student is probably the greatest single barrier to effective communication. Many people seem to believe that words transport meanings from speaker to listener in the same way that a truck carries bricks from one location to another. Words, however, rarely carry precisely the same meaning
from the mind of the instructor to the mind of the student. the students understand that terminology.
Confusion Between the Symbol and the Symbolized Object
Languages abound with words that mean different things to different people. Confusion between the symbol and the symbolized object results when a word is confused with what it is meant to represent.
Although it is obvious that words and the connotations they carry can be different, people sometimes fail to make the distinction. An aviation maintenance technician (AMT) might be introduced as a mechanic. To many people, the term mechanic conjures up images of a person laboring over an automobile. Being referred to as an aircraft mechanic might be
an improvement in some people's minds, but neither really portrays the training and skill of the trained AMT. Words and symbols do not always represent the same thing to every person. To communicate effectively, speakers and writers should be aware of these differences. Words and symbols can then be carefully chosen to represent exactly what the speaker or writer intends.
Overuse of Abstractions
Abstractions are words that are general rather than specific. Concrete words or terms refer to objects that people can relate directly to their experiences. They specify an idea that can be perceived or a thing that can be visualized. Abstract words, on the other hand, stand for ideas that cannot be directly experienced, things that do not call forth mental images in the minds of the students. The word aircraft is an abstract word. It does not call to mind a specific aircraft in the imaginations of various students. One student may visualize an airplane, another student might visualize a helicopter, and still another student might visualize an airship. Although the word airplane is more specific, various students might envision anything from a Boeing 777 to a Piper Cub.
Interference
Barriers to effective communication are usually under the direct control of the instructor. However, interference is made up of factors that are outside the direct control of the instructor: physiological, environmental, and psychological interference. To communicate effectively, the instructor should consider the effects of these factors.
Psychological interference is any biological problem that may inhibit symbol reception, such as hearing loss, injury or physical illness. These, and other physiological factors, can inhibit communication because the student is not comfortable. The instructor must adapt
the presentation to allow the student to feel better about the situation and be more receptive to new ideas. Adaptation could be as simple as putting off a lesson until the
student is over an illness. Another accommodation could be the use of a seat cushion to allow a student to sit properly in the airplane.
Environmental interference is caused by external physical conditions. One example of this is the noise level found in many light aircraft. Noise not only impairs the communication process, but also can result in long- term damage to hearing. One solution to this problem is the use of headphones and an intercom system. If an intercom system is not available, a good solution is the use of earplugs. It has been shown that in addition to protecting hearing, use of earplugs actually clarifies speaker output.
Psychological interference is a product of how the instructor and student feel at the time the communication process is occurring. If either instructor or student is not committed to the communication process, communication is impaired. Fear of the situation or mistrust between the instructor and student could severely inhibit the flow of information.
The ABC ‘s of Speaking
• An effective speaker approaches his audience amiably .
• He applies brevity in his utterances.
• He exudes confidence.
• His diction is clear .
• He is oozing with enthusiasm .
• He is fluent in the language .
• His gestures come naturally .
• He avoids harsh comments .
• He uses illustrations to supplement his talk .
• He is jovial .
• He is knowledgeable about the subject .
• He has a liaison or link with his audience .
• He is well aware of his mannerisms .
• He is natural when he talks .
• He uses interesting openings or introduction .
Communication is a process of transferring information from one source to another. Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs". Communication can be perceived as a two-way process in which there is an exchange and progression of thoughts, feelings or ideas towards a mutually accepted[clarification needed] goal or direction.
The exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behavior
Communication is a process whereby information is encoded and imparted by a sender to a receiver via a channel/medium. The receiver then decodes the message and gives the sender a feedback. Communication requires that all parties have an area of communicative commonality. There are auditory means, such as speaking, singing and sometimes tone of voice, and nonverbal, physical means, such as body language, sign language, paralanguage, touch, eye contact, by using writing.
Communication is thus a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in intrapersonal and interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluating. It is through communication that collaboration and cooperation occur.[2]
There are also many common barriers to successful communication, two of which are message overload (when a person receives too many messages at the same time), and message complexity.[3]
Types of communication
There are three major parts in human face to face communication which are body language, voice tonality, and words. According to the research:[4]
• 55% of impact is determined by body language--postures, gestures, and eye contact,
• 38% by the tone of voice, and
• 7% by the content or the words used in the communication process.
Nonverbal communication
Nonverbal communication is the process of communicating through sending and receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gesture, body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact, object communication such as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture, or symbols and infographics, as well as through an aggregate of the above, such as behavioral communication. Nonverbal communication plays a key role in every person's day to day life, from employment to romantic engagements.
Speech may also contain nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, emotion and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the use of emoticons.A portmanteau of the English words emotion (or emote) and icon, an emoticon is a symbol or combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written or message form.
Other communication channels such as telegraphy fit into this category, whereby signals travel from person to person by an alternative means. These signals can in themselves be representative of words, objects or merely be state projections. Trials have shown that humans can communicate directly in this way[5] without body language, voice tonality or words.
Visual communication
Visual communication as the name suggests is communication through visual aid. It is the conveyance of ideas and information in forms that can be read or looked upon. Primarily associated with two dimensional images, it includes: signs, typography, drawing, graphic design, illustration, colour and electronic resources. It solely relies on vision. It is form of communication with visual effect. It explores the idea that a visual message with text has a greater power to inform, educate or persuade a person. It is communication by presenting information through visual form.
Communication as academic discipline
Communication as an academic discipline, sometimes called "communicology,"[8] relates to all the ways we communicate, so it embraces a large body of study and knowledge. The communication discipline includes both verbal and nonverbal messages. A body of scholarship all about communication is presented and explained in textbooks, electronic publications, and academic journals. In the journals, researchers report the results of studies that are the basis for an ever-expanding understanding of how we all communicate.
Developing Communication Skills
Communication skills must be developed; they do not occur automatically. The ability to effectively communicate stems from experience. The experience of instructional
communication begins with role playing during the training to be an instructor, continues during the actual instruction and is enhanced by additional training.
Role Playing
Experience in instructional communication comes from actually doing it. This is learned in the beginning by way of role playing during the instructor's initial training. A
new instructor can try out different instructional techniques with an assigned instructor in the
case of a flight instructor applicant, or with a mentor or supervisor in the case of a maintenance instructor.
Instructional Communication
Instruction has taken place when the instructor has explained a particular procedure and subsequently determined that the desired student response has occurred. The instructor can improve communication by adhering to several techniques of good communication. One of the basic principles used in public speaking courses is to encourage students to talk about something they understand. It would not be good if an instructor without a maintenance background tried to teach a course for aviation maintenance. Instructors will perform better when speaking of something that they know very well and for which they have a high level of confidence.
Listening
Instructors must know something about their students in order to communicate effectively. As discussed earlier, an instructor needs to determine the abilities of the students and understand the students to properly communicate. One way of becoming better acquainted with students is to be a good listener. Instructors can use a number of techniques to become better at listening. It is important to realize that in order to master the art of listening, an attitude of wanting to listen must be developed.
Questioning
Good questioning can determine how well the student understands. It also shows the student that the instructor is paying attention. And it shows that the instructor is interested in the student's response. An instructor should ask both open-ended and focused
questions. Open-ended questions allow the student to explain more fully, Focused questions allow the instructor to concentrate on desired areas. An instructor may ask for additional details, examples, and impressions from the student. This allows the instructor to ask further questions if necessary. The presentation can then be modified to fit the understanding of the student.
Two ways of confirming that the student and instructor understand things in the same way are the use of paraphrasing and perception checking.
Instructional Enhancement
The deeper the knowledge of a particular area, the better the instructor is at conveying that information. For example, a maintenance instructor teaching basic electricity might be able to teach at a minimally satisfactory level if the instructor had only the same
training level as that being taught. If asked a question that exceeded the instructor's knowledge, the instructor could research the answer and get back to the student. It would be much better if the instructor, through experience or additional training, was prepared to answer the question initially. Additional knowledge and training would also bolster the instructor's confidence and give the instructional presentation more depth. Advanced courses in the instructional area and on instructional techniques are widely available. s taken place is to determine if the desired results have been achieved.
Barriers to Effective Communication
The nature of language and the way it is used often lead to misunderstandings. An example might be a maintenance instructor telling a student to time the magnetos. A student new to the maintenance field might think a stopwatch or clock would be necessary to do the requested task. Instruction would be necessary for the student to understand that the procedure has nothing to do with the usual concept of time. This is an example of a lack of common experience, one of four barriers to effective communication.
Lack of Common Experience
Lack of common experience between instructor and student is probably the greatest single barrier to effective communication. Many people seem to believe that words transport meanings from speaker to listener in the same way that a truck carries bricks from one location to another. Words, however, rarely carry precisely the same meaning
from the mind of the instructor to the mind of the student. the students understand that terminology.
Confusion Between the Symbol and the Symbolized Object
Languages abound with words that mean different things to different people. Confusion between the symbol and the symbolized object results when a word is confused with what it is meant to represent.
Although it is obvious that words and the connotations they carry can be different, people sometimes fail to make the distinction. An aviation maintenance technician (AMT) might be introduced as a mechanic. To many people, the term mechanic conjures up images of a person laboring over an automobile. Being referred to as an aircraft mechanic might be
an improvement in some people's minds, but neither really portrays the training and skill of the trained AMT. Words and symbols do not always represent the same thing to every person. To communicate effectively, speakers and writers should be aware of these differences. Words and symbols can then be carefully chosen to represent exactly what the speaker or writer intends.
Overuse of Abstractions
Abstractions are words that are general rather than specific. Concrete words or terms refer to objects that people can relate directly to their experiences. They specify an idea that can be perceived or a thing that can be visualized. Abstract words, on the other hand, stand for ideas that cannot be directly experienced, things that do not call forth mental images in the minds of the students. The word aircraft is an abstract word. It does not call to mind a specific aircraft in the imaginations of various students. One student may visualize an airplane, another student might visualize a helicopter, and still another student might visualize an airship. Although the word airplane is more specific, various students might envision anything from a Boeing 777 to a Piper Cub.
Interference
Barriers to effective communication are usually under the direct control of the instructor. However, interference is made up of factors that are outside the direct control of the instructor: physiological, environmental, and psychological interference. To communicate effectively, the instructor should consider the effects of these factors.
Psychological interference is any biological problem that may inhibit symbol reception, such as hearing loss, injury or physical illness. These, and other physiological factors, can inhibit communication because the student is not comfortable. The instructor must adapt
the presentation to allow the student to feel better about the situation and be more receptive to new ideas. Adaptation could be as simple as putting off a lesson until the
student is over an illness. Another accommodation could be the use of a seat cushion to allow a student to sit properly in the airplane.
Environmental interference is caused by external physical conditions. One example of this is the noise level found in many light aircraft. Noise not only impairs the communication process, but also can result in long- term damage to hearing. One solution to this problem is the use of headphones and an intercom system. If an intercom system is not available, a good solution is the use of earplugs. It has been shown that in addition to protecting hearing, use of earplugs actually clarifies speaker output.
Psychological interference is a product of how the instructor and student feel at the time the communication process is occurring. If either instructor or student is not committed to the communication process, communication is impaired. Fear of the situation or mistrust between the instructor and student could severely inhibit the flow of information.
The ABC ‘s of Speaking
• An effective speaker approaches his audience amiably .
• He applies brevity in his utterances.
• He exudes confidence.
• His diction is clear .
• He is oozing with enthusiasm .
• He is fluent in the language .
• His gestures come naturally .
• He avoids harsh comments .
• He uses illustrations to supplement his talk .
• He is jovial .
• He is knowledgeable about the subject .
• He has a liaison or link with his audience .
• He is well aware of his mannerisms .
• He is natural when he talks .
• He uses interesting openings or introduction .
Reading Techniques
A Survey of Reading Techniques
Dechant ( 1970 ) defines reading as the process of giving the significance intended by the writer to the graphic symbols by relating them to one’s own fund of experience .
The process of putting the reader in contact and communication with ideas and that it requires higher order thinking .
Some Reading Techniques
1. Skimming
2. Previewing
3. Scanning
Levels of Comprehension
1. Literal
2. Interpretative
3. Critical
4. Application
Reading Techniques
1. Skimming. This technique in reading focuses attention on the main idea of a paragraph or longer discourse . The reader is interested only in the overall picture of the text and does not intend to pick up the details . Thus , it is selective reading .
2. Previewing . Sometimes called prereading , this technique enables a reader to examine the material on the surface and to size up its length , organization , and content before reading it completely . The overall purpose , is to identify the central thoughts of the selection and to determine how they are organized .
Skim – reading . The reader who employs this technique uses skimming as an end in itself . He is interested only in the main idea contained in the reading material without concern for the details . His primary purpose is to obtain an overall impression of the selection .
The following procedure may be followed for effective skim – reading .
1. Review reading . This technique involves a procedure whch enhances the ability to store and retrieve information .
2. The SQ3R Method .
Steps :
a. Survey
b. Question
c. Read
d. Recite
3. Joeffe’s Formula
a. Associate
b. Visualize
c. Concentrate
d. Repeat
4. Mnemonics . A kind of memory system involving techniques that avoid rote learning .
Principles .
a. Use mental pictures.
b. Make things meaningful.
c. Make information familiar
d. Form unusual or exaggerated mental associations .
3. Scanning . The reader skips most of the lines and words in the selection as he searches for the particular information that he needs .
Let There Be Peace on Earth
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me .
Let there be peace on earth
The peace that was meant to be .
With God as our Father
Brothers all are we.
Let me walk with my brother
In perfect harmony.
Let peace begin with me
Let peace be the moment now.
With every step I take
Let peace be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
In peace eternally
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me
Dechant ( 1970 ) defines reading as the process of giving the significance intended by the writer to the graphic symbols by relating them to one’s own fund of experience .
The process of putting the reader in contact and communication with ideas and that it requires higher order thinking .
Some Reading Techniques
1. Skimming
2. Previewing
3. Scanning
Levels of Comprehension
1. Literal
2. Interpretative
3. Critical
4. Application
Reading Techniques
1. Skimming. This technique in reading focuses attention on the main idea of a paragraph or longer discourse . The reader is interested only in the overall picture of the text and does not intend to pick up the details . Thus , it is selective reading .
2. Previewing . Sometimes called prereading , this technique enables a reader to examine the material on the surface and to size up its length , organization , and content before reading it completely . The overall purpose , is to identify the central thoughts of the selection and to determine how they are organized .
Skim – reading . The reader who employs this technique uses skimming as an end in itself . He is interested only in the main idea contained in the reading material without concern for the details . His primary purpose is to obtain an overall impression of the selection .
The following procedure may be followed for effective skim – reading .
1. Review reading . This technique involves a procedure whch enhances the ability to store and retrieve information .
2. The SQ3R Method .
Steps :
a. Survey
b. Question
c. Read
d. Recite
3. Joeffe’s Formula
a. Associate
b. Visualize
c. Concentrate
d. Repeat
4. Mnemonics . A kind of memory system involving techniques that avoid rote learning .
Principles .
a. Use mental pictures.
b. Make things meaningful.
c. Make information familiar
d. Form unusual or exaggerated mental associations .
3. Scanning . The reader skips most of the lines and words in the selection as he searches for the particular information that he needs .
Let There Be Peace on Earth
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me .
Let there be peace on earth
The peace that was meant to be .
With God as our Father
Brothers all are we.
Let me walk with my brother
In perfect harmony.
Let peace begin with me
Let peace be the moment now.
With every step I take
Let peace be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
In peace eternally
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me
The Phrase
Syntax is that part which deals with the structure of the sentence
PHRASES
A phrase is a group of words without subject or predicate , that functions as a single part of speech.. The following expressions are phrases :
Along the road
To the bank
In the garden
To dance in the program
Near the park
Types of phrases
A. Prepositional Phrase . A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition, object of the preposition and any modifiers of the object . An object of the preposition is the noun or pronoun after a preposition .For example : toward the ocean , after him .
In the following sentences , the prepositional phrases are enclosed in parentheses. The preposition is marked prep . and the object of the preposition , o.p.
Prep. Op Prep. Op Prep. Op
Frequent changes ( in the weather ) are hard ( on all kinds ) ( of roads ) .
Prep. Op Prep. Op
We went ( to the movie ) (after the examination ) .
B. Verbal Phrase . A verbal phrase consists of a verbal and all its complements and modifier . There are three types of verbal phrases :
1. Participial Phrases . A participial phrase is a group of words that contains a participle and all its modifiers and complements . It functions like an adjective . Participles are verb forms that end with ing , ed or en .
Examples :
The little girl , dancing gracefully , smiles at me .
We went to the party bringing our escorts .
2. Infinitive Phrase . An infinitive phrase is a group of words that contains an infinitive verb form ( to + verb ) and that functions like a noun , an adjective , or an adverb . It may contain objects , subject complements , or modifiers .
Examples :
I hope to visit Mexico this summer.
In order to fly , a duck must be about six weeks old .
3 . Gerund Phrase. A gerund phrase is a group of words that contains a gerund ( ing verb form ) and that functions like a noun . It may contain objects , subject complements , or modifiers .
Examples :
Driving when you are overly tired is dangerous .
Winning this contest made her popular in the school .
PHRASES
A phrase is a group of words without subject or predicate , that functions as a single part of speech.. The following expressions are phrases :
Along the road
To the bank
In the garden
To dance in the program
Near the park
Types of phrases
A. Prepositional Phrase . A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition, object of the preposition and any modifiers of the object . An object of the preposition is the noun or pronoun after a preposition .For example : toward the ocean , after him .
In the following sentences , the prepositional phrases are enclosed in parentheses. The preposition is marked prep . and the object of the preposition , o.p.
Prep. Op Prep. Op Prep. Op
Frequent changes ( in the weather ) are hard ( on all kinds ) ( of roads ) .
Prep. Op Prep. Op
We went ( to the movie ) (after the examination ) .
B. Verbal Phrase . A verbal phrase consists of a verbal and all its complements and modifier . There are three types of verbal phrases :
1. Participial Phrases . A participial phrase is a group of words that contains a participle and all its modifiers and complements . It functions like an adjective . Participles are verb forms that end with ing , ed or en .
Examples :
The little girl , dancing gracefully , smiles at me .
We went to the party bringing our escorts .
2. Infinitive Phrase . An infinitive phrase is a group of words that contains an infinitive verb form ( to + verb ) and that functions like a noun , an adjective , or an adverb . It may contain objects , subject complements , or modifiers .
Examples :
I hope to visit Mexico this summer.
In order to fly , a duck must be about six weeks old .
3 . Gerund Phrase. A gerund phrase is a group of words that contains a gerund ( ing verb form ) and that functions like a noun . It may contain objects , subject complements , or modifiers .
Examples :
Driving when you are overly tired is dangerous .
Winning this contest made her popular in the school .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.jpg)
