Corporate Communication Relevance

The relevance of communication keeps growing and growing. If you can't communicate with another person than you are lost. How does someone know what you expect of them or if you are pleased with them or not if you cannot communicate appropriately? There are many different forms of communication that I had the experience to use during this class and were able to determine the relevance of each:

An on-line class Having the opportunity to do the class whenever I wanted to was very convenient. Answering questions, and not having to sit in class to submit the answers but sending them over Web CT was a new experience. It saved me a trip to school.

Chat Room When we did the chat room that was the first experience I ever had with talking to someone on line at the same time. I have emailed people and gotten their responses, but by actually sending a message and them getting back to me at the same time was a new experience. I did find it difficult to use this method with more than one person. I didn't know how long it would take to type my answer and then someone else would think I wasn't responding so they would type. It did get confusing until we all got onto the same page. It was still frustrating for me to wait for a response. I much rather call and speak to someone directly or on conference call than to use a Chat room. However, I can see where younger people would really enjoy using this form of communication. Possibly if I got more comfortable with it, I would not mind using it in business.

"30 Seconds of Fame" This is an interesting concept. What can you get across to someone in a short period of time so they want to contact you or your company again? I can see this being very useful for everyone. With today's busy schedules, people may only have the time they are walking from their car to the building to discuss a concept. Learning how to get someones attention and get your point across is very challenging to do in a few seconds.

Power Point Presentation When the 21st Century Trends were presented on power point this was a great way to communicate to the class. The different ways you can create the power points to keep your audience interested was also useful and fun to watch. I know I had no idea what power point was capable of producing until watching the other presentations in class.

Blog Getting on line to produce this blog was also a learning experience and throughout the course I can see how helpful blogs and the internet can be in the communication process. In the book, Mistaken Identity, the sister kept a blog so family and friends could check on "Laura's" progress throughout her recovery. This was quite easier for the family to keep everyone who was interested in Laura's progress up to date.

All the above methods are helpful in communicating. If you can't get your point across to your constituents than you won't be successful. If you don't communicate with others, there is no way for them to know what your expectations or dreams are and there is no way that those expectations and dreams can be met.

Most companies may think that if they can communicate with their employees that is sufficient, however, a company needs to know if they are successful with communicating with other companies, vendors and customers.

Personal Experience
The company I am employed by is very small. There are currently 15 employees within the company. At one time there were only 6 of us and at one time there were about 23 of us. One may think that in a company so small that communication would not be an issue. WRONG!! Within the company there are 5 different manufacturing departments (Machining, Grinding, Wire, RAM, & Inspection). When an order is received, the part may need to go to each department, or it may only need to go to one, two, or three of the departments. This is where communication is so important within the company. If the wire department doesn't know that the part needs to go to grinding when they are done with it, it could be shipped without all the work being completed. Therefore, we created what we call "Travelers" that are attached to each blue print that we receive. On the traveler, each department that needs to do work on the part is listed. It is also listed in the order it should be completed. This has helped the flow of communication significantly within the company. At one time the travelers did not exist. Of course at that time, we didn't have as many departments as we currently have, however, as the company grew, we saw the need to make sure everyone that had their hand on the part knew what was to be done to it before it left the company.

References
http://www.relevantcommunications.com/
http://www.it-director.com/enterprise/content.php?cid=10030
http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/2005/02/signs_of_increa.html