Communicatievaardigheden voor Informatici Prof. Dr. Olga De Troyer.

Communicatievaardigheden voor Informatici

Prof. Dr. Olga De Troyer

© Prof. Dr. Olga De Troyer 2000

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Onderwerpen• Inleiding• Vergaderen• Mondelinge presentaties• Het schrijven van rapporten• Negotiëren• Interviews• User documentatie• Opleiden van gebruikers


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Communication Models

• Communication involves:– constructing a message– transmitting the message– receiving the message


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• People misunderstand one another all the time for all sorts of reasons:– noise– difficulties in encoding the ideas

• e.g. don’t find the words to express your thoughts

or encoding them in an appropriated manner• e.g. put complex ideas into simple words

– difficulties in decoding the message– difficulties in understanding the ideas


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• Our perceptions are intimately tied up with our experience– we recognize tree because we have seen

many

• We can be misled by our perceptionexample:

you have been working late,

are walking home in the rain; the street is wide.Suddenly a figure on the other side of the road jumps out of an alley,throws a brick through a shop window, scoops up the goods,makes off with them back down the alley.

As a good citizen you report what you have seen to the police.


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• Your brain takes in all data and tries to make sense of it.– it was dark and raining– you were tired and not paying proper attention– it all happens very quickly

you sorted out what happened to the best (E2)

E2 event in V1’s

mind

V1 interprets V1 interprets

To form

event E1Viewer V1Viewer V1

V1 perceives E1

E1 is the actual event, V1 is the viewer (you)


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• You talk to the police, encoding your message (E3)

E2 event in V’s

mind

event E1 V interprets V interprets Viewer V1Viewer V1

To form V1 perceives E1

E3

put into transmissible

form

becoming

encoding


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• The police (V2) listen to it and decode it.

Viewer V2Viewer V2

decodes

E4 The event in V2’s mind

V2 interprets V2 interprets

To form

E3

put into transmissible

form

becoming

E2 event in V’s

mind

event E1 V interprets V interprets Viewer V1Viewer V1

To form V1 perceives E1

encoding

• It is raw data which they examine in the light of their own background and experience (E4)


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Communication is more than verbal language

Also• body language, • diagrams, • manuals and general company documentation,

All together intimately affect the progress and success of the work.


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Factors that affects communication

• All senders are affected by– their milieu, – the image they have of themselves, – certain fears and expectations they

have, – their experiences from similar situations, – changing political and economical

circumstances,– ...


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Factors that affects communication (2)

• For receivers – Same as for senders– In addition:

• Compounded by their position in the receiving audience and hierarchical position vis-à-vis the sender.


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Codes and Jargon

• Words may have several meanings, depending on the contextExample: cat– soft friendly feline, wild cat, woman next door, two-hulled

sailing craft

• To reduce the ambiguity – Use of an artificial language or develop a

restricted version of an existing one. Ex . Computing jargon (program, byte, bus, ring, RAM, ...)

– or develop a restricted version of an existing one.

Ex . “International English” (1500 words) for business English,


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• Code is an advantage as long as personnel is communication with one another.

• For communication with the outside world it is a problem, e.g. “what you need is a Pentium III 133MHz with 128 megs of RAM running NT.”

IS professionals should be bi-lingual.


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Non-verbal communication

Any action, event or state pertaining to a human being which is intentionally used by that human being to convey information to others.– Dress– Non-speech utterances– Proximity– Gesture– Position– Posture– Gaze– Facial expression– Touch


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Dress

• flag for the sub-group that we which to be part of at that time– e.g. student dresses in black, leather jacket,

earrings, ...

• companies have dress code or modes of dressing which are not acceptable – e.g. IBM as the “Big Blue”

• clothes are seen as a badge of respectability and a reflection of the wearer’s competence.

• in general, it is better to be ‘overdressed’ than ‘underdressed’


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Non-speech utterances• The words are only a half of the message. The

other half is made up of tone and context.– ex. “You are clever”, “Are you going out tonight?”

• Fillers, e.g. ‘um’, ‘err’, ‘like’, ‘you know’, ....– to cover the space seeking for the exact words– in normal conversation, acceptable if below certain

level– in formal presentation, acceptable level is much

lower.• Too many fillers “implies” that the speaker is not in control

of its basic details.• If the audience begins to distrust the messenger it will also

question the validity of the message.


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Non-speech utterances (2)

• Accent– stereotypes

• e.g. dutch people are straightforward, flemish people are somewhat stupid, Mediterranean people are slow, ...

– a strong (regional) accent • you will be perceived as less intelligent

and less of an authority in the field.


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Proximity

• An invisible aura defines our personal space. When others come within this aura:– we become defensive– make verbal comments

• Coming too close at work or to an interviewee can seriously unsettle that person.

e.g. sit on the edge of one’s desk

• Invading the private space of others is a bad way to begin a business relationship


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Gesture

• Subject to culturee.g. British vs. Italians

• Keeping an audience interested with words alone for any length of time is extremely difficult; gestures add a visual impact.

• Also gestures of audience may impact the speaker– when listening, nodding the head is used to

encourage the other to continue. Interviewers use this deliberately.


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Position• Authority position:

ex: boss sitting behind a desk, the other staying on the other

side. The desk is as a barrier and the situation emphasizes the inferior position.

• Co-operative position:sitting next to someone, united against the world

• Eye contact is important and is taken as a guarantee of honesty.

Interviewees at 90° to the interviewer to keep the right balance between formality and informality (this also allows eye contact and allows to watch involuntary movements).


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Posture

• It is possible to deduct a person’s interest from his posture– yawning ostentatiously, stretching backwards, gazing

abstractedly, taking notes, quizzical expression on the face

• Posture can be used to put ourselves into different ‘mind sets’

• Our posture affects the view that others have of us

• sit straight and slightly forward at interviews• Don’t slouch across the projector or lounge in seats.

“If person is as casual as in this presentation, how can we rely on the accuracy of his work?”


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Gaze• Staring at others is not acceptable.

– e.g. in crowded trains or lifts we avoid making eye contact.

• When talking to people look at them – to show that we are paying attention– to pick up extra clues from their facial expression

• At presentations: – We look at a speaker for 75% of the time.– The speaker looks at us only 40% of the time – Speaker and listener gaze at the other for around 3

seconds at the time.• Staring all the time will disconcerting people


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Facial expression

• great sensitivity to facial expression. • e.g. joy, fear, sadness, terror, delight ,

disbelief, ....

• facial expressions – Some are purely involuntary

– e.g. grimace of pain, pleasurable laugh

• this is also called a leakage of information

– some are produced at will– e.g. grimace of pain, pleasurable laugh

• Careful with the interpretation.


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Touch

• Varies greatly from culture to culture. • e.g. North-Europe: formal handshake, not to be

prolonged beyond a few seconds; South America: a kiss

• A light touch enhances the persuasive power of the message by a factor 10!– Other forms of touch may be seen as

aggressive– In general: Avoid touching, unless you do it so

lightly that they almost do not notice.


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Non-verbal communication- conclusions

• Language on its own ? learn it to find out what others are

thinking?

• Should only be seen as complementary to speech.– non-verbal signals are important if

they conflict with the verbal message.

Communicatievaardigheden voor Informatici Prof. Dr. Olga De Troyer.

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