How to Read Building Better Communication in Teams (The Little Books Book 1) PDF
Technology has enabled individuals and teams to contemplate new ways of working. The opportunity to leverage digital communication to allow workers to feel connected whilst being physically remote from their colleagues enables empowerment of the individual, not possible even a decade ago. The counter to this is that leading a business or team can be more challenging as remote working creates literal distance between individuals, undermining the unifying sense of presence.This book has been written for individuals that are new to these new ways of working, and also for seasoned ‘Zoomers’, ‘Skypers’ and ‘Google Hang-outers’. The various software platforms allowing digital communication are wonderfully smart and intuitive to use. However, no matter how successful they become in their ability to provide a sense of presence, the users will always experience a degree of remoteness. The technology will always have a mediating effect on communication between individuals and within teams. Human conversation is so much more than the content of the dialogue. We use tone, pitch and volume in our voices, pausing for effect, increasing speed to convey urgency, importance, and dynamism. All of these various facets of the spoken and unspoken word can be somewhat stilted through a microphone or speaker, thereby lessening effective communication. Face to Face allows other clues in communication style to be conveyed and received. Yet we are also aware that communication is simply not about the spoken word, it encompasses many other subtleties from facial expressions, gesticulations, to posture, and the sense of presence. This core understanding of how we communicate with each other is vital as a key concept prior to appreciating how a virtual environment can be anathema to effective communication. Even the word virtual may suggest to some an inferior notion, as it conjures up associations relating to lesser forms of existence - unreal, not true, potentially a false state. Nevertheless, this is the reality for many and we must adapt to these new states even if we consider them a poor substitute to the ‘gold-standard’ of face-to-face’ meetings. This book will empower leaders to make strategic changes in communicating with their team’s and thereby creating the right environment to deliver greater team-performance.
