workplace communications - wk 9

This morning we have the lovely Josie taking us for the unit 'Workplace Communications'. This unit could probably sit in most curriculum, for any course, as it is clearly a very important skill to bring to your working environment. With respect to Horticulture where you can be dealing with machinery and dangerous chemicals as well as being in regular contact with the public (either in a public botanic garden or at a nursery) how well, or not well, you communicate becomes even more important.



Josie asks us to list all the different forms of communication we use.

I feel reasonably confident with my communication skills, probably due to my job and perhaps also my upbringing. Because I currently work in television and in a high pressure deadline type of work environment, I have had to develop very good communication skills over the years in order to do my job well so I am very thankful for that. My mum and gran would probably both testify in a court of law that I was a somewhat chatty, overly organised, tending towards bossy child with a wide vocabulary who liked to keep my teddy's and dolls in line at all times. Following this up with aspirations to be a famous actress and plenty of drama lessons probably added fuel to the fire. (Of course I've clearly blossomed out of that into being a nearly normal person now right?!) 

Philippa regales some of her interesting communication experiences from her diverse work situations.

Anyway....... after determining all the different forms of communication currently available, from non-verbal all the way through to twitter (or twatter as Pav likes to call it!), Josie brought out some fun exercises for us to test our skills (or lack of them!) I was teamed up with Julie and blindfolded for the first test which was to build a small Lego man tower from some different coloured blocks using Julie's voice and commands as a guide. We did this really fast and finished first as Julie is very good at giving instructions  - plus I seem to spend most of my time at home building Lego masterpieces with my kids at the moment, so we really should have been handicapped for this one!



My partner Julie does very well with the communication challenge.

Next it is Julie's turn to be blindfolded and my turn to talk her through it. This time she has to draw a shape on paper and we also do this in record time after a little shaky start that involved me gesticulating some of my commands with hand gestures (not so good for a blindfolded person!) Looking around the room it highlighted to me how differently people see the same things and communicate them in such different ways. Some perhaps more productive or streamlined than others but all of them achieving the end result. Good communication really is a strong skill to have and be able to use effectively in your work environment.

Big thanks to Josie for a fun, exciting, well structured lesson plan that made this unplantlike subject very interesting and enjoyable :)