Week 2: Communication

Skill #1- Communicate well in multiple ways, modes and listen actively to those with whom you are communicating.

The design staff at EW often complains that the team leader Josh is hard to work with but they cannot do without him. He has great ideas and knows how to implement them well but in terms of getting the work done the team complains he is a nightmare. We send him emails and he either gives us one word answers, fails to edit what he sends or fails to reply. Sometimes he tells two people to do the same thing not remembering he has given the assignment to someone else. The worse problem is that he prioritizes work in an email and then changes things when events interfere. Again, not communicating the change. Last week two of us edited a design for a custom front carrier basket for a customer whose deadline was this week only to find that Josh had changed the deadline to last week. The basket design that was completed by us both had to be adjusted to one design and the rear basket had to be done in two days. This meant long nights. Creating the printer design code takes time. We have tried to talk with Josh about things like this and he gets better for a while and then things are back to normal. He just doesnt listen.

Josh was asked about the teams concerns and he replied I spend a lot of time prioritizing and delegating job tasks to the team. I always ask people if they are clear about what they have to do and ninety percent of the time there are no answers. I have to assume they are fine with what has been said by me. I am the first to admit that I could be better about my emails. However, I often call people to check on what is being done or stop by to see if things are going okay. I dont want to micromanage what they do. The problem last week is an example, I went to check up on the front basket design Dan was assigned only to find that Joan was doing the same project (and not working on the rear basket like the schedule said). The customer called me with changes, including a deadline change, and I saw Joan in the hallway and told her about the changes. I did not tell her she was to edit the basket design. She just assumed that was what I was telling her to do. I went to Dan and gave him the changes. Why didnt she say that I had gotten the wrong basket design person? I sometimes think that they are not listening to me.

Dwight is curious how a new hire like you would handle the situation. He wants an email from you by the end of the week. It should contain the following discussion:

Directions: Complete the following:

Create an email to Dwight, outline, with enough detail, the approach you would take to resolve Joans complaints. Identify the communication issues that are causing the problems with the team scenario. An explanation of at least six techniques you would employ to make the communication better between Josh and team. An explanation of how you would communicate all this information to the people involved.