Week 8 Presentation - Communication

Continuing on the tradition (well newly established weekly tradition... that may or may not be a required assessment) of in class topical presentations was the Driving Machine group, who were given the task to teach twenty year olds how to communicate (no easy task).Use good communication skills like active listening to determine what is the best course of plan.

Comments:

• Their approach to the pres

entation (in my opinion) was very disjointed. The PowerPoint itself was minimal and had key points with supporting and mostly appropriate images which is a good thing as it shifts the focus from visual information overload to a dependency on aural information, key to a good presentation. However the layout chosen was aggressive and when paired with a minimalist design disengages the listener. This is made worse by the fact that the topic is 'communication'.

The group did quality research into the Cheney Model, which explains communication in the digital age along with its benefits and limitations. This was highly informative and a valuable piece of information that benefits the analysis of communication (if only the graphic could have been thought about more) this would have provided extra information and engagement with the topic. They subsequently researched active listening and provided in wonderful detail all the aspects there are.

• Each group member knew exactly what they were talking about and knew their topic well.

• The presentation covered a lot of material and research was evident throughout.

• Unfortunately the group made little reference to 'group work' and how they have used what has been researched to further their project. They had no mention about how active listening or the Cheney Model has been used within the group or to clients, however they listed how they communicate which is not modes of enhancing communication just streams of communication.

• Lastly During questio ntime, most of the questions were left un-answered, avoided and in one case the responder became aggressive and hostile in the response to a question. Having researched 'communication' as a topic it would be prudent to adopt what has been learnt, avoiding awkward moments where listeners feel uncomfortable.

What I Will Take from the Presentation/What I have done as a Result of Hearing the Presentation:

• I have noticed some lapse in communication within my own group and I will be employing active listening. This has become evident in our malleable approach to tasks and how they get done.

• The use of differing platforms of communication will be implemented as the team will be able to share documents that will then not become obsolete when someone else makes a new version of it (use google docs).

• Lastly we've implemented a new linear group structure, this can sometimes be inefficient as there are "too many captains on one ship", however we have taken into account each person's strengths, weaknesses and personalities, coming to realisation that each member is responsible enough to lead themselves and add new ideas to the group.

• As example of good communication; while on the site visit we quickly realised what the client was looking for in the project, communicate what our outcomes and skills were and then re-evaluate our outcomes for the project.

All images that have been used are taken from; Presentation Communication.pptx, written by the Driving Machine group and presented on the 29th Apr 2015