1. Business Communication
Making Connections in a Digital World
Business Communication
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You can use the cover to talk about what kind of “connections” are important in business communication—not only computer connections but also connections between ideas (which communicators need to make in order to make good decisions) and connections between people (which are important not only to convey information but also to build relationships).
Lesikar + Flatley + Rentz
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Communication in the Workplace
chapter one
Communication in the Workplace
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Use this slide to point out the purpose of the first chapter: to convey some fundamental facts about the nature of business communication and the business-communication environment.

3. Overview The importance of communication
The three main categories of communication in business
Formal and informal networks
The business communication process
Basic truths about communication
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Use this overview slide to introduce the topics in this chapter.

4. The Importance of Communication Skills as Expressed by Business Authorities
“Top executives from Fortune 500 companies rate communications skills as the most important quality for business leaders.” Business Section New York Times
“There may be no single thing more important in our efforts to achieve meaningful work and fulfilling relationships than to learn and practice the art of communication.” Max De Pree, Author The Art of Leadership
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Use this slide to support the value of the course.

5. Evidence of Communication Weakness in Business
“I’m surprised how so many people struggle with communication.”
--Michael Rook, Production Manager Hewlett Packard, San Diego, CA
“The first thing the Human Resources Department did was give me a writing book.”
--Sam Reeves, IT Consultant AMS, Denver, CO
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Similarly, you can use this slide to show the widespread need for better communication in business.

6. Main Forms of Communication in Business
Operational
Internal
External
Personal
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This slide lists the three main categories of communication in business. The screenshot of the intranet at Deere & Co. provides a talking point for operational communication.
Intranets (or portals) like this one from Deere & Company are used for internal communication.

7. Communication Networks
Formal Network
Well-established, usually along operational lines
Depends on certain established forms or “genres” in the company
Planned and managed
Informal Network
Complex
Dynamic
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This outline emphasizes the points in your review of networks.

8. The Formal and Informal Communication Networks in a Division of a Small Manufacturing Company
Department Manager
Supervisor
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This illustration from the text can aid your description of the structure of communication in one organization.
Black Solid Lines = Formal Network
Brown Dashed Lines = Informal Network (at a moment in time, for they change often)

9. Factors Affecting the Communication in a Business
Nature of the business
Operating plan
Business environment
Geographic dispersion
People
Company culture
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You can use this outline to emphasize the factors affecting how much and what kind of communication goes on in an organization.

10. The Business Communication Process
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This model guides your discussion of the 10 steps in the business communication process. You can point out that the communication process here is viewed as part of a larger problem-solving process, in which the two communicators work together to achieve business-related goals. You might want to go through the 10 steps by using a sample scenario—for example, an employee who decides that he or she needs a certain kind of training and wants to ask his or her supervisor for permission to take an online course at the company’s expense.

11. The Contexts for Communication
The larger context
Business-economic
Sociocultural
Historical
The relationship of the communicators
The communicators’ particular contexts
Organizational
Professional
Personal
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This slide enables you to highlight the different contextual factors that need to be taken into account when planning an act of communication in business. Here again, a sample scenario, such as the one described on the previous slide (an employee composing a request to a supervisor for company-sponsored training), can help you explain the importance of each factor.

12. Business Communication as Problem Solving
Most business-communication problems are ill-defined problems requiring
Analysis
Creativity
Judgment
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This slide can help you help your students understand the nature of business communication as a problem-solving activity requiring careful analyzing of the facts, creative generating of possible solutions, and judging among various alternatives to pick the solution most likely to succeed.

13. Some Basic Truths about Communication
Meaning is in the mind, and no two minds are alike.
The symbols for communicating are imperfect, and so are our best communication efforts.
Communication is about information and relationships.
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Use this outline to emphasize basic truths about communication.

14. Adaptation
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The slide emphasizes the point that adaptation is the key strategy for overcoming communication challenges – a point that will be emphasized in the following sessions.

15. “Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”
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This thought for the day is a fitting end to your lecture, calling attention to the importance of wise decision-making in business communication.
--Benjamin Franklin