Helps engineers, and others with a technical or numerate background, to communicate effectively with non-engineers and non-technical people, chiefly in the context of business.
Inspec keywords: information management; business communication; personnel; information technology
Other keywords: engineers; personal action plan; business communication; business meetings; written communication; communication skills; business presentations; information technology; spoken communication
Subjects: Business and administrative computing; Management and business; Information management; Business applications of IT
This book concentrates on the process of communication in business. It analyses why we need to communicate, and what can go wrong. It is aimed at engineers and those from a similar technical or numerate background, because their needs and strengths are different from those of other professional groups. The book will help you to understand the process of communication, and become more effective at it. It is about developing your personal skill in a number of areas.
This chapter provides the foundation for the rest of the book. It introduces some concepts that are used in later chapters to discuss the individual methods of communication in business. It is therefore important to get a good grasp of the ideas before moving on. Section 2.2 deals with human communication. This is a fascinating topic, of which we all have a great deal of experience. Much of our time is spent in communication, whether formal or informal. What we need to do is understand the general process which operates, and its practical limitations. We need some general principles which will guide us in our attempts to communicate more effectively. Section 2.3 attends to the business enterprise, picking up some of the ideas from Chapter 1 and identifying the increasing importance of communication in making business work effectively. Section 2.4 looks in more detail at the crucial role of management and how it is underpinned by the use of information. This gives a framework for understanding the purpose, aim and scope of any particular business communication process. That's important: business is purposeful, and business communication must support that purpose. It is not just idle or irrelevant chatter. As with the other main chapters in the book there is a concluding section which summarises the main ideas. This should help you check your understanding before you move on.
This chapter first looks at spoken communication inside the business enterprise, then at communication outside, with the varied people we encounter in the business environment. Finally, we look at language itself, and how to avoid some of the possible pitfalls in using it.
Written material in business is very important; it records ideas and decisions on major issues. As with spoken communication, we can distinguish between internal and external communication. Written communication must be accurate; we take responsibility when we sign it. The written word lacks immediacy, but it has the potential to be a much more carefully argued and logical form of business communication. It can convey complex ideas and facts in a way which a continuous spoken message cannot. The most important ideas in business usually have to be set down on paper. The very act of doing so is a discipline which tests and refines the logic of what we wish to say.
Business presentations are an important method of communication, both internally (with colleagues) and externally (with customers and others outside your department). They can be needed for many reasons, but notably to convey information, or to support or promote a product. An important case is a presentation in support of a management report which is being considered by senior people. For every presentation, you must decide the purpose, aim and scope. For more complex presentations, use the same principles as for structuring a management report. This completes the overall planning: purpose, aim, scope and structure (PASS). Section 5.3 details the planning of the presentation. Section 5.4 considers the actual delivery of the presentation. This includes preparation, reception of the members of the audience, the opening of the proceedings, the delivery of the presentation, questions and the smooth flow into any wider discussion.
This chapter considers meetings which are convened deliberately, away from the operational business environment. In general, such meetings have four tasks: to receive information; think carefully about it in discussion; reach decisions; and then plan the implementation of those decisions. The scope of individual meetings will vary, but these four tasks together provide a general template. The overall shape of those four tasks is converge-diverge. However, when each item is dealt with in the meeting the chair needs to introduce it, state the aim to be achieved, and then give a summary at the end. For a complex meeting with several major agenda items, the chair must do this for each such item and also for the meeting as a whole. This is an important and challenging responsibility.
This chapter considers business communication from a different perspective, as a transaction within the total business information system rather than as one step in solving a management problem. The first section invites you to consider your own information system, the way you collect, store, process and communicate information to carry out your job. Another section looks at the role of IT in the wider business enterprise, and the final section looks at some of the likely trends for the future.
Every good business communication ends with a summary of the main points. For this book, it is in this section. After the introductory chapter, each of the main chapters had its own summarising conclusion. This section simply reminds you of the main points covered.