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Showing posts with label communication verbal nonverbal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label communication verbal nonverbal. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Training New Employees - What's a Genuine Mistake?
Training New Employees - What's a Genuine Mistake?
by Dr. Diane M. Hoffmann
As Featured on EzineArticles
It's a sure thing that, while being trained (and even after), people will make mistakes. It is up to management and supervisors to identify what types of mistakes are being made and recognize the context within which these mistakes are made. There are three types of mistakes:
1. silly mistakes
2. stupid mistakes and
3. genuine mistakes
Management might come across mistakes made by the new employee and perceive them as "stupid", while in actual fact, the individual had not been instructed properly by the people who were "supposed to train them". I see that happening a lot in companies and it is a very unfair judgment on the new person starting out. That's why I always say that, first, management must make sure to place new people in the hands of high caliber staff members for training.
The 80/20 formulae can be used as a measuring tool to ask, "what ratio of error is taking place here?" If the mistakes occur 20% of the time or less, then that's OK. They will decrease through repetition of the tasks. But if they occur at 80% or more, there's a problem, and the next step is to find out what the problem is -- not ignore it.
For example, an office clerk might tell another office clerk that a certain computer disk is to be found in a "pouch". While the new person is looking for a "pouch", the boss pressuring for it, the disk is actually filed uncovered in a disk tray. The new person is looking for one thing and the manager is upset because the new office clerk can't locate "a simple disk". What the manager does not know is the context within which the new person is working: under someone else's misinformation.
A new manager might have been mislead by a trainer to believe that a support person would provide all the accurate and current price lists for an upcoming presentation. But during the new manager's presentation meeting, this information proved to be false -- the support person did not provide the correct information. This makes the new manager look bad, but he had been told by the trainer that he could rely on the support personnel -- and he did. Being new, he had no benchmark to verify the information given to him.
Now, of course, he has learned, the hard way, that he cannot trust this support person. Before judging the new manager to be incompetent, or inexperienced, those witnessing this genuine "mistake" must use the context and realize there must be some factor unknown to them. A genuine mistake will be most likely to occur within the 20% of the 80/20 formulae.
On the other hand "Stupid" or "Silly" mistakes are more likely to occur in the 80% range. If a person is truly incompetent, immature, inexperienced or unsuitable for the job, mistakes will be of a different nature and more frequent. Fortunately these will show up in the first week or two of training, or within the first month at least.
However, if the new person will be performing monthly tasks, when the task comes up again in a month, the trainer will have to take into consideration that, although the new clerk has been working there for a month, performing the task will only be the second time. To the new person, this will be a whole new review of the task, and training will still be required during the process as the trainee recalls the steps covered a month earlier. Nobody can remember a task done once, a month later.
If there is an indication of real problems (such as making too many mistakes, or silly and stupid), it is critical to make sure to consider all possible contextual influences. The key is to recognize and identify its existence right away and deal with it before the probation period is over or before it grows into a bigger problem. Sometimes one may have to bring in an outside consultant to discuss the problem and possible solutions.
Management can't just shake its head when a mistake is made. It has to recognize and examine situations within the context of the surrounding training. It has to find out why and how a problem happened before it goes further. This is done through the tools and activities of the communication process. But sadly very few do it.
It's a sure thing that, while being trained, people will make mistakes. It is up to management and supervisors to identify what mistakes are being made within the three types and positively accept what a genuine mistake is as part of the training process./dmh
Article Copyright(c)Diane M. Hoffmann. You may print this article making sure to include the following bio without any changes.
Diane M. Hoffmann is the founder of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications and author of the 296-page printed book "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training". Diane also provides a 2-part e-book version of her printed book, "Improve Communication, Verbal and Nonverbal" and "Improve Communication, Organization and Training" as well as many free articles which can be seen at her blog at http://contextual-communication-hrd.blogspot.com/.
***Sign up above for my weekly "TipSheet" on Communication Verbal-Nonverbal, Organization and Training...***
by Dr. Diane M. Hoffmann
As Featured on EzineArticles
It's a sure thing that, while being trained (and even after), people will make mistakes. It is up to management and supervisors to identify what types of mistakes are being made and recognize the context within which these mistakes are made. There are three types of mistakes:
1. silly mistakes
2. stupid mistakes and
3. genuine mistakes
Management might come across mistakes made by the new employee and perceive them as "stupid", while in actual fact, the individual had not been instructed properly by the people who were "supposed to train them". I see that happening a lot in companies and it is a very unfair judgment on the new person starting out. That's why I always say that, first, management must make sure to place new people in the hands of high caliber staff members for training.
The 80/20 formulae can be used as a measuring tool to ask, "what ratio of error is taking place here?" If the mistakes occur 20% of the time or less, then that's OK. They will decrease through repetition of the tasks. But if they occur at 80% or more, there's a problem, and the next step is to find out what the problem is -- not ignore it.
For example, an office clerk might tell another office clerk that a certain computer disk is to be found in a "pouch". While the new person is looking for a "pouch", the boss pressuring for it, the disk is actually filed uncovered in a disk tray. The new person is looking for one thing and the manager is upset because the new office clerk can't locate "a simple disk". What the manager does not know is the context within which the new person is working: under someone else's misinformation.
A new manager might have been mislead by a trainer to believe that a support person would provide all the accurate and current price lists for an upcoming presentation. But during the new manager's presentation meeting, this information proved to be false -- the support person did not provide the correct information. This makes the new manager look bad, but he had been told by the trainer that he could rely on the support personnel -- and he did. Being new, he had no benchmark to verify the information given to him.
Now, of course, he has learned, the hard way, that he cannot trust this support person. Before judging the new manager to be incompetent, or inexperienced, those witnessing this genuine "mistake" must use the context and realize there must be some factor unknown to them. A genuine mistake will be most likely to occur within the 20% of the 80/20 formulae.
On the other hand "Stupid" or "Silly" mistakes are more likely to occur in the 80% range. If a person is truly incompetent, immature, inexperienced or unsuitable for the job, mistakes will be of a different nature and more frequent. Fortunately these will show up in the first week or two of training, or within the first month at least.
However, if the new person will be performing monthly tasks, when the task comes up again in a month, the trainer will have to take into consideration that, although the new clerk has been working there for a month, performing the task will only be the second time. To the new person, this will be a whole new review of the task, and training will still be required during the process as the trainee recalls the steps covered a month earlier. Nobody can remember a task done once, a month later.
If there is an indication of real problems (such as making too many mistakes, or silly and stupid), it is critical to make sure to consider all possible contextual influences. The key is to recognize and identify its existence right away and deal with it before the probation period is over or before it grows into a bigger problem. Sometimes one may have to bring in an outside consultant to discuss the problem and possible solutions.
Management can't just shake its head when a mistake is made. It has to recognize and examine situations within the context of the surrounding training. It has to find out why and how a problem happened before it goes further. This is done through the tools and activities of the communication process. But sadly very few do it.
It's a sure thing that, while being trained, people will make mistakes. It is up to management and supervisors to identify what mistakes are being made within the three types and positively accept what a genuine mistake is as part of the training process./dmh
Article Copyright(c)Diane M. Hoffmann. You may print this article making sure to include the following bio without any changes.
Diane M. Hoffmann is the founder of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications and author of the 296-page printed book "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training". Diane also provides a 2-part e-book version of her printed book, "Improve Communication, Verbal and Nonverbal" and "Improve Communication, Organization and Training" as well as many free articles which can be seen at her blog at http://contextual-communication-hrd.blogspot.com/.
***Sign up above for my weekly "TipSheet" on Communication Verbal-Nonverbal, Organization and Training...***
Monday, February 28, 2011
The Miracle of Language and Linguistics
The Miracle of Language and Linguistics
by Diane M. Hoffmann
Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications
Language and linguistics are the names that refer, respectively, to the spoken forms of communication among the members of the various human cultures, and the science of such languages.
Linguistics include the study of human language and its phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics within the descriptive, historical, comparative and geographical structure and development and the relationship to other languages.
Language is the human speech or expression of communication of thoughts and feelings by means of vocal sounds.
A good cross-section of the meaning and descriptions of language and linguistics can be found in the Internet's Wikipedia.
But in this article, I'd like to give you a different perspective on the subject which you will not read anywhere else.
A few years ago, a prominent newspaper reported that until recently, science knew little of how humans developed language; through experiments with specially devised tools at the University of Indiana, researchers were able to send sounds of the human voice to children who are totally deaf.
The miracle, as described by those witnessing the scene, was not that children who were born deaf and never learned to speak were hearing and using spoken language for the first time… but ccording to Dr. Mary Joe Osberger, director of research in the department of otolaryngology, that until now, their ability to speak was zero, no matter how intensely they were trained.
This was a quantum step indeed into the sciences of the brain and language. It went on to say that because language is so important to humans, the brain “will not let it go”. For example, it says that children who suffer major damage on the left side of the brain from accidents or disease, can acquire language using the right side of the brains.”
The expert team said that after the age of seven, the flexibility to bounce language around in the brain diminishes… then relearning a language as a result of brain damage becomes more difficult.
It is beyond full explanation how important language is. Some evolutionists place language as the line between humans and animals.
But those who believe in God’s creation realize the magnitude of this fearfully and wonderfully made human body, in all its intricacies, which is made “a little lower than the angels” and which has been crowned “with glory and honor” (Psalms 8:4-6).
With language, we communicate in family and society, we learn, we teach our children, we run our communities and nations.
With language we can bless or curse our fellow human being… we exert power to move ahead in careers and in life. How wonderful God’s gift of tongue is.
The awesome complexity of language is further explained, in part, in the article reporting that, before birth human brain cells are created and assigned general jobs. After birth, a second wave of structural changes occurs as the number of connections, called synapses, are increased between brain cells.
The report explained that between birth and about age 1, the number of connections multiplies from about 50 trillion to 1,000 trillion. Then a third res-tructuring takes place between the ages of 4 and 10 where the brain seems “to glow like a nuclear reactor, pulsating at levels 225 percent higher than adult brains.”
It is said that during this time, learning a foreign language, math, a musical instrument or anything else is easy. Then beyond the age of 10, when the brain’s maps have been made, learning a language involves the building of new connections and the tearing apart of old ones. Wow!
This is where the real miracle comes in…
In Genesis, chapter 11, we read the story of Babel where God broke up the one world language of that time into many languages:
“Therefore is the name of it called, Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth”. (verse 9). That is a mighty miracle of God. These people had gone through all the biological and psychological transformations of language learning, and contained a whole nation of people including the old who had long passed the scientific reasoning “when the brain’s maps have been made and learning a language involves the building of new connections and the tearing apart of old ones.”
But “instantly” God changed their language and “confounded” them all into speaking many tongues right there and then so as to scatter them from their rebellious plan!
In light of what we discover today through science and technology, miracles we read about in the Bible are becoming more and more awesome./dmh
Article copyright(c)2009-2011, Diane M. Hoffmann. You may reprint this article without any changes, making sure to include this bio.
Diane M. Hoffmann is founder/director of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications and the web site http://communicationverbalnonverbal.blogspot.com which offers free articles and tips on verbal and nonverbal communication. Diane is the author of the 296-page "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training and the 2-part ebook version of the same.
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Diane M. Hoffmann is founder/director of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications and the web site http://communicationverbalnonverbal.blogspot.com which offers free articles and tips on verbal and nonverbal communication. Diane is the author of the 296-page "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training and the 2-part ebook version of the same.
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Saturday, February 5, 2011
History Of Communication – In Quirks And Quartz
by Diane M. Hoffmann, ph.d./th.
The history of communication is a large subject to cover. Communication encompasses so many facets that it is not possible to cover it all in its diversity of topics. Its history is just as far and wide reaching, but I’ll share the following with you.
History books tell us that we do not have any written record of man’s development beyond approximately three thousand years BC. That is when we begin to read about some of the history of communication as it was written from that time onward.
It is obvious that people communicated, verbally and nonverbally, before that time. We do find archaeological tablets of Phoenicians origins showing pictographs and hieroglyphic writings dating back some thirty five thousand years. But only from written records available do we know anything about ancient times.
To corroborate this three thousand years of recorded accounts, my research on the history of communication took me to historical beginnings from around twenty-nine hundred BC. So where do we place our focus on the history of communication – verbal, nonverbal?
For this article, we touch on written communication and its means, which entail the Greek phonetic alphabet to Chinese writings on bones dating back to fourteen hundred BC; the first encyclopedia written in Syria circa late twelve hundred BC; the first postal service in China around nine hundred BC.
Then we read about first recordings of homing pigeons to communicate messages, the first library, the first portable writing surfaces known as papyrus – all between the eight to one hundreds BC from the Greek civilization.
Even before that, humans rode on horseback or on foot relaying communication messages from stations to stations throughout Egypt and China and anywhere else that followed suit in the broad expanse of the old world.
Then of course in the more recent centuries of our AD era, we have the inventions of heliographs, the Gutenberg printing press, first image making, first newspapers, first typewriters, books and paper as we know it, the telegraph line, the talking machine, the morse code, mimeograph equipment, telephone, radio, motion picture, television, computer, and everything in between that is not mentioned here – right up to our present Internet wonder.
So you can see what I mean about communication being an unlimited subject to write about. Every step of the development in the history of communication and every facet of communication can be written about directly, individually and collectively forever.
But I want to tell you about one of my own little time facet of the history of communication that I came across in a news item today.
It is about a man who was a punctuality fanatic. When I heard the story, I was really excited. Why? Because, I too, am a punctuality fanatic. That’s an important part of communication. I really do not appreciate when people are late for meetings or seminars, etc. I was at a community meeting just last Saturday which was announced to begin at 11 am. As usually, I arrived to sign up about five minutes before eleven. At 11:30 the meeting had still not begun.
With each passing moment, I was getting more and more agitated and frustrated at the lack of leadership. “Why don’t they get started”, I repeated to my husband who came along for the ride. I find it very discourteous, and downright rude, to let the people who are there on time, go beyond schedule for the sake of a few undisciplined, unprofessional and disrespectful time robbers.
Time is money to business people. And that’s what folks do when they don’t show up on time -- they rob others of their time and the cost of it.
But the biggest blame has to be placed squarely on the shoulders of the leaders who should start promptly whether those late comers are there or not. And don’t flatter them either when they do stroll in late. If people who run meetings would stick to the scheduled time and agenda, folks would get the message and we would become a more punctual society.
So what is the name of my double on punctuality fanaticism in this current history of communication bit? His name was Sir Thomas Roddick. He was a renowned surgeon and the Dean of Medicine from 1901 to 1908 at McGill University. It is written about him that he would arrive at a lecture a few minutes early and then walk through the door on the dot. Isn’t that the kind of surgeon you want yours to be? Oh that we would have more of these professional people around!
The news item of the day was that for the 85th anniversary of the Roddick Gates at the University, the clocks and bells in its tower were re-started at a ceremony on October 1, 2010, after decades of stillness. So this is just another part of the history of communication in its time facet. And I was glad to be a part of it and to find out that I’m not the only punctuality fanatic./dmh
Article Copyright(c)Diane M. Hoffmann. You may print this article making sure to include the following bio without any changes.
Diane M. Hoffmann is the founder of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications and author of the 296-page printed book "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training". Diane also provides a 2-part e-book version of her printed book, "Improve Communication, Verbal and Nonverbal" and "Improve Communication, Organization and Training" as well as many free articles which can be seen at her blog at http://contextual-communication-hrd.blogspot.com/. Rondeau Communications and author of the 296-page printed book "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training". Diane also provides a 2-part e-book version of her printed book, "Improve Communication, Verbal and Nonverbal" and "Improve Communication, Organization and Training" as well as many free articles which can be seen at her blog at http://contextual-communication-hrd.blogspot.com/.
***Sign up for my weekly "TipSheet" on Communication Verbal-Nonverbal, Organization and Training...***
The history of communication is a large subject to cover. Communication encompasses so many facets that it is not possible to cover it all in its diversity of topics. Its history is just as far and wide reaching, but I’ll share the following with you.
History books tell us that we do not have any written record of man’s development beyond approximately three thousand years BC. That is when we begin to read about some of the history of communication as it was written from that time onward.
It is obvious that people communicated, verbally and nonverbally, before that time. We do find archaeological tablets of Phoenicians origins showing pictographs and hieroglyphic writings dating back some thirty five thousand years. But only from written records available do we know anything about ancient times.
To corroborate this three thousand years of recorded accounts, my research on the history of communication took me to historical beginnings from around twenty-nine hundred BC. So where do we place our focus on the history of communication – verbal, nonverbal?
For this article, we touch on written communication and its means, which entail the Greek phonetic alphabet to Chinese writings on bones dating back to fourteen hundred BC; the first encyclopedia written in Syria circa late twelve hundred BC; the first postal service in China around nine hundred BC.
Then we read about first recordings of homing pigeons to communicate messages, the first library, the first portable writing surfaces known as papyrus – all between the eight to one hundreds BC from the Greek civilization.
Even before that, humans rode on horseback or on foot relaying communication messages from stations to stations throughout Egypt and China and anywhere else that followed suit in the broad expanse of the old world.
Then of course in the more recent centuries of our AD era, we have the inventions of heliographs, the Gutenberg printing press, first image making, first newspapers, first typewriters, books and paper as we know it, the telegraph line, the talking machine, the morse code, mimeograph equipment, telephone, radio, motion picture, television, computer, and everything in between that is not mentioned here – right up to our present Internet wonder.
So you can see what I mean about communication being an unlimited subject to write about. Every step of the development in the history of communication and every facet of communication can be written about directly, individually and collectively forever.
But I want to tell you about one of my own little time facet of the history of communication that I came across in a news item today.
It is about a man who was a punctuality fanatic. When I heard the story, I was really excited. Why? Because, I too, am a punctuality fanatic. That’s an important part of communication. I really do not appreciate when people are late for meetings or seminars, etc. I was at a community meeting just last Saturday which was announced to begin at 11 am. As usually, I arrived to sign up about five minutes before eleven. At 11:30 the meeting had still not begun.
With each passing moment, I was getting more and more agitated and frustrated at the lack of leadership. “Why don’t they get started”, I repeated to my husband who came along for the ride. I find it very discourteous, and downright rude, to let the people who are there on time, go beyond schedule for the sake of a few undisciplined, unprofessional and disrespectful time robbers.
Time is money to business people. And that’s what folks do when they don’t show up on time -- they rob others of their time and the cost of it.
But the biggest blame has to be placed squarely on the shoulders of the leaders who should start promptly whether those late comers are there or not. And don’t flatter them either when they do stroll in late. If people who run meetings would stick to the scheduled time and agenda, folks would get the message and we would become a more punctual society.
So what is the name of my double on punctuality fanaticism in this current history of communication bit? His name was Sir Thomas Roddick. He was a renowned surgeon and the Dean of Medicine from 1901 to 1908 at McGill University. It is written about him that he would arrive at a lecture a few minutes early and then walk through the door on the dot. Isn’t that the kind of surgeon you want yours to be? Oh that we would have more of these professional people around!
The news item of the day was that for the 85th anniversary of the Roddick Gates at the University, the clocks and bells in its tower were re-started at a ceremony on October 1, 2010, after decades of stillness. So this is just another part of the history of communication in its time facet. And I was glad to be a part of it and to find out that I’m not the only punctuality fanatic./dmh
Article Copyright(c)Diane M. Hoffmann. You may print this article making sure to include the following bio without any changes.
Diane M. Hoffmann is the founder of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications and author of the 296-page printed book "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training". Diane also provides a 2-part e-book version of her printed book, "Improve Communication, Verbal and Nonverbal" and "Improve Communication, Organization and Training" as well as many free articles which can be seen at her blog at http://contextual-communication-hrd.blogspot.com/. Rondeau Communications and author of the 296-page printed book "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training". Diane also provides a 2-part e-book version of her printed book, "Improve Communication, Verbal and Nonverbal" and "Improve Communication, Organization and Training" as well as many free articles which can be seen at her blog at http://contextual-communication-hrd.blogspot.com/.
***Sign up for my weekly "TipSheet" on Communication Verbal-Nonverbal, Organization and Training...***
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