Collage

On 16 Oct 2009, we had Diwali calibration in my company(Cross Country InfoTech). Collage competition was one of the event, where my team won the prize for presenting the concept in a creative and most expressive way. Here is the theme

World Peace

Probably, the most difficult questions we can ask anybody today is if there is peace in their lives. Today, because of the philosophy “I’m right and everybody else is wrong” life has become so vulnerable and insecure. Where planet is struggling to sustain its ecosystem against ever growing civilization. Hungry and malnourish child still waits for a piece of a bread every day. Large number of population is dying because of scarcity of medical facilities and undiagnosed diseases.

Having said that, all issues world has today, there are some passionate human beings trying to solve these problems on their front. Spending their whole life for the cause. Their passion is to make the difference is lives of sufferers. Bringing their lives to comfort and livable circumstances. Theme of our collage was to highlight how lives have been destroyed in the different parts of the world because all dark reasons. How people are working on the causes and bringing life to the light. Motivation was to remember and appreciate the work of people who has worked hard for establishing peace and helped human kind in their difficult situations by going out of their comfort zones. And as an inspiration or moral responsibility “We” should perform our part to uplift the human life.

Collage Structure

Collage is divided horizontally into three parts viz.

Lower – Represents destruction, pain, sufferings, war, antisocial and inhuman happenings

Upper – Symbolizes peace, harmony, joy, love and freedom

Middle – Memories of people who have worked hard in bridging the gap between uproar(1) and peace(2).

Also collage has a white dove with an olive branch in its beak a symbol of peace, hope and love. Breaking little into lower and upper part of the collage and most of its body is in middle part, trying to bridge the gap.

Business Communication

Lifeline of any business which exists on the planet wouldn’t deny the need for the excellent and effective communication. Growth of any organization has a direct correlation with how good the communication model it has. Expressing and organizing ideas through writing and speaking is essential part of the daily business communications its effectiveness determines growth of a overall growth of the an organization. There can be several objectives of business communication like conveying messages, expectations, information, motivation, rising moral, order and instruction and education and training.

Running a business is like running an acrobatic group activity and it’s impossible without effective communication within that group. Communication is the means to connect the people together in an organization to achieve the common goal and purpose. Since the communication so important to the organizations, they want and need people with excellent communication skills. One of the studies conducted on communication and career success says that good writing and speaking skills, along the proper etiquettes and listening skills – determines the career success and same applies to any organization.

Psychological and cultural dimensions of business communication

As per Moslow most people will responds positively to the massages that will meet their particular needs at times. To be successful communicator in the business of business you have to understand the need to of the people to whom you are communicating. Human need theory goes here again. But here in communication customer is ultimate entity we need to understand the needs. In most of the global businesses it becomes little complex and needs more sophisticated methods for successful execution of the business objectives. Cultural differences are biggest communication challenges for virtual teams and in almost all international businesses. In low-context culture expectations are expressed through words or verbalization, instead of context. People from this culture generally prefer explicit statements and directness is desirable. And in high context culture there is high tendency of use of indirect way of communication, most of the things left unsaid and meaning relies on cultural influence and parameters. Group of people with same expectations and experiences cater to this culture. Directness is considered to be rude here.

Communication, organizations and their network

Need for flowing information faster is immensely important today because of the globalization of the business territories and the competition. Not bulk of information but the relevant information is equally important to maximize the usefulness. The information received on different ends would be used for decision making and that might have very significant impact on the business growth. There are two types of communication networks in organizations i.e. formal and informal.The formal communication network is operational communication and has three main type

Downward communication

Communication flows from people at higher level to those at lower level in the hierarchy of the organization. This implies the authoritarian structure of an organization. One of the main concerns of this type of communication is lost or distorted information. And differences in the communication priorities of top management and workers are another problem. Performance feedback is one of the examples.

Upward communication

For making smart business decision management must learn what is happening in the organization. The reason they can’t be everywhere at the same time. This type of the communication helps a lot in providing new ideas and information on the work. Generally this type is found in the participative and democratic organizational environment. Techniques for upward communication – besides chi of command – are suggestion system, appeal, complaint system, counseling sessions, open door policy, and attitude survey. Here the information flow is horizontal and diagonal. This is very effective model and it speed up the information flow, understanding and coordination. Oral communication is one of the examples of this.Information communication network and relations between communicating entities are very complex to comprehend. Formal organization can’t stop people from talking to each other. And it makes really hard to understand since this group of network are continuously changing, so no clue to interlink them. It’s called as “grapevine” effect, since grapevine has no certain path of growth. Smart management will use this network effectively to spread good will among people in the organization but it’s very unpredictable type.

Better business communication

Last week I was reading Peter Drucker in his book “The Daily Drucker” and he said in one the chapters its recipient who communicates and without the listening its only noise and it’s not a communication. Active listening and reading plays as significant role in the communication. Where communication is perception, and information is logic such information is purely formal and has no meaning. It can be improved by asking recipient to initiate an information exchange. Better the communication model company has better the growth it has. Organization needs introspection, reflection and research to refine its communication model. Message is central to the all communication. Below, are some important parameters in this process should be considered to make message and model itself effective.

• Clear purpose of business message

Dealing with intra-organization communication is less complex that inter- organization communication. Hence, the business messages that are sent to the external agencies need to be carefully well thought, planned and crafted. And it should result in the good will, favorable impression of an organization.

• Organizing business message

Composing message and presenting the message should be done very carefully. Message should be understandable to focused audience; it should be acceptable, should save their time and should not be distracting. Human brain has tremendous capacity to store messages but only messages those are sequential and correlated only will make the impression in the audience’s mind.

• Integrity of the message

The proof of the sincerity and seriousness are the uncompromised aspects of the business message. That help and organization or a presenter create a trust in the audience of that message.

Growing businesses, them becoming global has increased the challenges for all organizations. And to meet challenges and breaking new grounds in this competition, organization needs effective communication models and people with excellent communication skills. The demand is mounting every quarter.

References

Books –

J. V. Thill and C. L. Bovee, Excellence in Business Communication, New York, McGraw Hill, Inc. 1991

J. M. Penrose, R. W. Rasberry, and R. J. Myers, Advanced Business Communication Singapore: Thompson Asia Pte Ltd. 2002

Peter F. Drucker, The Daily Drucker, New York, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. 2004

Websites –

http://www.wikipedia.org/

http://en.thinkexist.com/

Yahoo- Microsoft deal less than 24 hours to go

Long awaited and one of the exciting merger in the information technology will have a showdown in next 24 hours. It would be interesting to see how this text base search advertising giants (not literally the giant since Google eats up more of the market share) settle on agreement. In the search market Microsoft has market share of 8%, Yahoo search contributes 20% and Google off course sweeps rest of 65%. This deal might give life to Bing, Microsoft's new born search engine since agreement may have using Bing on the Yahoo sites. For us it's interesting to watch how this companies drives internet marketing and advertising market in next coming years. Google needs be aware.

Renewal

In January 2009 I went to Velneshwar, in the Kokan region of Maharashtra. It’s a very beautiful and calm place. When we were preparing to go there, everybody was very excited and kept saying “change chahiye yarr” (we need change). It was clear that one of the motivations for every one of us on the journey was the desire for change. The trip went well and everybody came back feeling renewed and energetic. In fact, it was one of the best experiences in my life. A few days after the trip, the question came into my mind: Why do we want change?

There might be a million reasons for change. Perhaps we want to try some new and exciting or we want a change in our lifestyle. Change may be of any sort; positive or negative. But positive change is all about lifting life and the people around us to the next level of potential. We want change for renewal, freshness, and to gain balance. Talking about balance, it is essential for a happy life. Balance between what we think and what we do; balance between work and health. According to the great philosopher Herbs Shepherd, leading a healthy, balanced life involves valuing the physical, mental, social, and spiritual aspects of life. Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Physical

Fitness should be the first passion of life. Going to gym, doing yoga, walking, running, playing sports; all these are the premium we pay for life insurance. Flexibility and strength should be part of our exercise. We should eat what our bodies need, and not what our tongues demand. It’s the best thing we can do for ourselves. It helps us look good, look young, and feel enthusiastic and more optimistic towards life.

No matter what we have, it amounts to nothing if we don’t have our health. By concentrating on earning wealth and ignoring fitness, we might end ruining up our health. It’s not worth it!

Mental

Once we are out of the education system, reading is something that we often ignore. Reading on a variety of subjects brings up new experiences, new ideas, new skills, and ultimately helps mental growth. Reading helps us challenge our assumptions and makes us more open. What we read is very important. Instead of always reading books of the same genre, it’s better to try branching out into different genres.

Writing is another great tool that can help us to clarify our thoughts and experiences. By helping us to understand our patterns of behavior, it may also indicate how we can change them over time. Keeping a diary is one way to get into the habit of writing.

Social

Everybody wants to feel noticed; social recognition is very important for every individual. A simple rule of thumb is that we should earn respect by giving it. A bunch of people may approach the same problem differently; so why don’t we agree to communicate until we find the solution? The key to solving problems is to listen and understand. Most people are more interested in pushing their own viewpoint than solving the problem. Differences and individuals are not important; solutions are important. Lately, I came across a simple quote, and it greatly affected me in many ways.

“Make a careful list of all things done to you that you abhorred. Don’t do them to others, ever. Make another list of things done for you that you loved. Do them for others, always.”– Dee Hock

Spiritual

Spiritual dimensions represent our inspiration, the core of our life, our value system, ultimate satisfaction, and happiness. Some of us may find renewal in daily prayers or meditation on scriptures because they represent our value system. By reading and meditating we become stronger and more focused. How many of us say prayers and how many of us believe in them? Martin Luther King used to say that, for him, prayer was not a mechanical duty but rather a source of power in releasing and multiplying his energy. Prayer has a tremendous power and that helps us in understanding our center and our purpose, which maintains inner peace.

All these four areas—physical, mental, social, and spiritual—are interdependent. As we renew our physical dimension, we strengthen our personal vision, self-awareness, and free will. As we renew our spiritual dimension, we strengthen our personal leadership. We increase our ability to understand ourselves and to make things happen in the future rather than dwelling in the past. As we renew our mental paradigm, we reinforce our personal management. As we renew our social paradigm, we reinforce our relationships, social responsibilities, and recognition.

Renewal in each area is important and is only effective if we deal with them in a balanced manner. Positive or negative progression in one area impacts the other areas. As a matter of fact, this is true for an organization as well as for an individual. When an organization’s employees and processes improve in these different areas, it helps the entire organization. Creative energies could be used to promote the growth, effectiveness, creativity, and productivity of the organization. This is why the continuous improvement of an individual or an organization is so important. It may come with practice and persistence. The simple formula to achieve this balance is LEARN-COMMIT-DO.

So, let’s try to harness our energy in all areas of life!