At the end of this module, you will:

	Better understand your teammates and team dynamics
	Know how to face up and overcome a conflict when it arises
	Understand how to work in a group by creating good collaboration and communication

• Two are strongly related
• Is about working together toward a common goal with others
• Are essential in team work and multiple work environments, across disciplines and fields
• Promote trust, satisfaction and commitment in the work environment (Sousa-Poza & Sousa-Poza, 2000). These, in turn, are predictors of a better quality of life, in general (Kun & Gadanecz, 2022)
• Individual variables as personality traits can have an impact in this regard, but is something that can be learned as well

• Persuasion: changing or influencing the behaviours, beliefs or attitudes of someone or a group towards another idea, person or event.
• Compromise: making a concession or giving something up in order to reach a happy medium. It can be very easy for some people, while others struggle in this regard.
• Brainstorming: it is a specific tool of communication to arrange and attract your team to meet and share their ideas
• Diplomacy: someone who can get their message across and convince people to change without damaging the relationship
• Flexibility: effectively adjust to short-term change to successfully deal with unexpected problems or tasks. To adjust quickly and calmly is key for the flexibility concept
• Positivity: it generates health, psychical, social and psychological. It is made of positive emotions and is about mutual understanding. It is satisfying for all the parties involved.
• Long-term thinking: it is about being comfortable in envisioning new directions and consciously working towards the future.
• Reliability: present truthful and reliable information.
• Debate and mediation in the workplace: to resolve workplace conflicts or disputes.
• Respect: to be honest, open and polite, practice kindness and avoid negativity.
• Accountability: accepting responsibility for the outcome of own choices, including the successes and the failures.
• Delegation: delivering the task to your team but also monitoring the progress.
• Trust: a critical element for leaders and non-leaders. It builds loyalty and increases credibility.

• Personal space is the dynamic distance and orientation component of interpersonal relations (Gifford, 2007)
• Many personal and situational influences interact with preferences for particular interpersonal distances. For example, males have larger personal spaces
• Attraction and cooperation generally lead to smaller interpersonal distance, whereas less positive contexts, such as stigma and unequal status, lead to larger distances. When the physical setting is less spacious, larger interpersonal distances are selected
• Cultural differences in interpersonal distance exist (e.g., Costa, 2010), but other factors often alter cultural preferences

Properties of communication that are fundamental interpersonal implications (cf. Watzlawick et al. 2011):

• THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF NOT COMMUNICATING
• THE CONTENT AND RELATIONSHIP LEVELS OF COMMUNICATION
• THE PUNCTUATION OF THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
• SYMMETRICAL AND COMPLEMENTARY INTERACTION

• Every behaviour is a form of communication!
• Because behaviour does not have a counterpart (there is no anti-behaviour), it is impossible not to communicate
• Even if communication is being avoided (such as the unconscious use of non-verbal or symptom strategy), that is a form of communication. "Symptom strategy" is ascribing our silence to something beyond our control and makes no communication impossible
• Examples of symptom strategies are sleepiness, headaches, and drunkenness. Even facial expressions, digital communication, and being silent can be analysed as communication by a receiver

• All communication includes, apart from the plain meaning of words, more information. This information is based on how the speaker wants to be understood and how he himself sees his relation to the receiver of information.
• Relationship is the command part of the message or how it is non-verbally said.
• Content is the report or what is said verbally.
• Being able to interpret both of these aspects is essential in understanding something that a communicator said.
• The relational aspect of interaction is known as metacommunication. Metacommunication is communication about communication.
• Relationship messages are always the most important element in communication.

• Both the sender and the receiver of information structure the communication flow differently and therefore interpret their own behaviour during communicating as merely a reaction on the other’s behaviour (i.e., every partner thinks the other one is the cause of a specific behaviour).
• To punctuate a communication means to interpret an ongoing sequence of events by labelling one event as the cause and the following event as the response.
• In a situation with communication, if one thing happens, something else always happens.

So, in this case, a conflict may arise on what is believed to be the cause and what is considered the effect of the mutual behaviours, when instead the interaction is circular!  Therefore, none of the versions of the partners can be considered correct (the husband neglects his wife because she has no self-care and the wife has no self-care because the husband neglects her)!

• This axiom focuses on metacommunication with two main components called symmetrical and complementary interchange.
• Symmetrical interchange is an interaction based on equal power between communicators.
• Complementary interchange is an interaction based on differences in power.
• Within these two interchanges there are three different ways they can be used:
  • one-up
  • one-down
  • one-across

• With one-up communication, one communicator attempts to gain control of the exchange by dominating the overall communication.
• A one-down communication has the opposite effect. A communicator attempts to yield control of an interaction or submit to someone.
• The final message is a one-across communication. This communication moves to neutralise a situation.
• This is also called transitory if only one communicator is attempting this style.
• When two communicators use the same style of one-up, one-down, or one-across, it is symmetrical.
• If they are opposing one another, it is complementary.
• This axiom allows us to understand how an interaction can be perceived by the styles a communicator is using.

Bodily communication, other than words and language

Categorisation of NVC (i.e., Paralanguage).

• Paralanguage consists of the non-verbal elements that accompany speech. It includes:
• The way we speak (also known as prosodic features)
• Volume, pitch, intonation, speed of delivery, articulation, rhythm
• The sounds we make other than the language
• Laughter, crying, yawning, sighing, screeching, coughing
• Filled pauses such as ‘Ummm’, well’
• Unfilled pauses
• Physical Appearance (You only have to think of the huge industries associated with the above examples to recognise the cultural significance of physical appearance). It is the body’s capacity to communicate aspects of an individual’s identity which makes us so aware of our physical appearance

NVC has a particularly important role in establishing and maintaining relationships, otherwise known as an affective function.

• We rely more heavily on NVC in this area of personal communication
• Looks, glances, and changes in orientation allow others to know what sort of relationship we want to have
• We use NVC to establish a mutually acceptable level of intimacy).
• Replacing and regulating language (i.e., the role of NVC in inflecting the meaning of a sentence can be explored by ‘performing’ the following sentence in different ways).

A competent communicator will:

• Recognise and use different verbal and non-verbal styles as they are suited to different social situations
• Recognise the relation between verbal and non-verbal elements in communication
• Compensate for possible misinterpretations in communication with others

It is highly possible that not long after the very beginning of your professional journey, you will find yourself pitching a “crisp” idea to a senior of yours, a potential partner or a potential client.

By default, assume that your interlocutor is very much busy and might not be able (or willing) to give you more than a few minutes of his / her precious time.

Your best interest is to maximise the quality of the time you have available with your audience without “sacrificing” any of the details leading to your conclusions. The rules are simple:

All in all, the visual breakdown of your intervention should look like something as follows:

Additional tips for the application of Minto’s Principle: TIME ORDER: If some cause-effect relationship exists between your arguments/support evidence, make sure to highlight the underlying sequence of events   STRUCTURAL ORDER: Break down your discussion into singular thoughts. The more granular you will be, the easier it is for your interlocutor to understand your thoughts process  DEGREE ORDER: Make sure to disclose your thoughts in order of importance

Impactful and effective communication starts from the very way you design and structure your verbal and written communication.

Mastering the MECE and Minto’s principles is just the cherry on the cake of business communication, indeed, there are many other easy tricks that you can rely on to be more effective, clear and lean in your day-by-day communication with colleagues, clients and supervisors.

These types of recommendations can be divided into two categories:

Who Am I?

Let’s pair up, people, please, and describe one part of your own to the other (just a brief presentation of something relevant for you to answer the question “who you are”).

The other in front of you should listen to your description and then do the same. (time 5 minutes).

Afterwards, the conductor will invite you to introduce yourself by pretending to be the other, speaking in the first person.