Business Communication

Session 1

Hello, this is me. 

I have many dreams actually in my life. I divide my dreams into 3 parts such as day goals, month goals and long-term goals but i think the most important part is long-term goals. I have a dream that I really want to achieve. I want become an successful  entrepreneur actually a Young Entrepreneur because Indonesia desperately lack of entrepreneurs. So, this is the reason why i want become a young entrepreneur. I like become a young entrepreneur in culinary because i really love food. I hope you guys also have a dream that you really need to achieve. 

Chapter 2 - Professionalism : Team, Meeting, and Etiquette

         This chapter is about Professionalism, I learn many things in this chapter, I learn the importance of working in a team, attend the meetings, and how to develop etiquette skills that can be practice. I realize that we need become a professional person in every aspects especially in business world. Unconsciously, if we do all the task professionally it can gives a good perspective from others. 

  

"I believe that no one can teach you how to act, but schools do give you an environment to make mistakes, to learn techniques and to learn professionalism." - Enrico Colantoni

Chapter 3 -  Intercultural Communication

         In this chapter, I will discuss the three significant trends that have increased the importance of intercultural communications, cultural characteristics, the ways in achieving intercultural proficiency, techniques for improving nonverbal and oral communication in intercultural settings, for improving written messages to intercultural audiences. 

                  Three significant trends that have increased the importance of intercultural communication:

a.   The globalization of markets

People need to do adapt to other culture in order to be successful because intercultural communication absolutely happens in work environment. Therefore, it is necessary to have intercultural communication skill.

b.   Technological advancements

In this globalization era, the internet and the Web play a great role in changing the way people live, the way people do business, and the way people communicate. These advancements have made markets and jobs more accessible since the internet permits instantaneous oral and written communication across time zone and continents. For example, managers in Miami can use high-speed data systems to swap marketing plans instantly with their counterparts in Milan.

c.    Intercultural workforce

Because of the prospects of prosperity and education, people are moving to countries that can change their life or fulfill their dream. The research showed that companies need to work together to strengthen the development of intercultural skills in the workplace to meet the growing globalization. Intercultural skills are important to companies for several reasons. 

Five noteworthy cultural characteristics :

• Culture is learned
• Cultures are inherently logical 
•  Culture is the basis of self-identity and community
•  Culture combines the Visible and Invisible
• Culture is dynamic

     Achieving intercultural proficiency : 

•      Avoiding ethnocentrism, Ethnocentrism is the belief in the superiority of one’s own race. For example, if you were raised in North America, many of the dimensions of culture probably seem right to you.
•      Showing tolerance, and keeping patience ; Accepting cultural differences and adapting to them with tolerance results in a harmonious compromise.

Apply techniques for improving nonverbal and oral communication in intercultural settings :

•      Nonverbal communication, Nonverbal communication includes eye contact, facial expression, posture, and gesture. Nonverbal skills are more difficult to learn because every culture of a country differs. For example, in Western cultures, silence gives negative impressions, specifically shows rejection, unhappiness, and depression. In contrast, for Japanese, silence means respect and wisdom. Therefore, as we want to to achieve nonverbal competence, we can become more aware of our nonverbal behaviors and their meaning.
•        Oral communication, English is the language used to run business when we are in intercultural environment. However, the level of proficiency may be limited among non native speakers of English. There is an assumption that people who speak English always understand what is being said. This assumption is crucial because what we think can be actually the opposite; their comprehension is superficial. Therefore, there are some suggestions in using English as a second language. I will only discuss 4 out of 10 suggestions:
  1.      Learn foreign phrases
  If we learn greetings and a few phrases, foreign nationals will appreciate it.
  2.      Use simple English
  Speak in short sentences with familiar words.
  For example, use “old” instead of “obsolete”
  And use “rich” instead of “luxurious”
  3.      Encourage accurate feedback
  We need to encourage the listener to paraphrase what we say. Do not assume a yes, a nod, a smile shows comprehension.
  4.      Smile when appropriate
  According to Roger Axtell, smile is the most useful form of communication. However, in some cultures, excessive may seem insincere.

Workforce diversity can provides both benefits and challenges in the aspect of consumers, work teams, and business organizations. 

1.    Consumers

The challenge found in consumers is an ability to read trends and respond to the increasingly diverse customer in local and world markets.

The benefit of knowing the trend is the consumers will be satisfied because

2.    Work teams

Team members with different backgrounds may come up with more creative and effective problem-solving techniques than homogeneous team.

3.   Business organizations

Having diversity in business organizations may improve employee relationships and increase productivity.

But, developing a diverse staff that can work together cooperatively is one of the 

biggest challenges in facing business organization.

Chapter 4 - Planning Business Messages

         This chapter will discuss four basic principles of writing, the 3-x-3 writing process, the phase of the writing process, the “you” view, conversational but professional language, bias-free language, simple expression, and vigorous words, how teams approach collaborative writing projects and what collaboration tools support team writing, and the legal and ethical responsibilities of business communications.

          The 3-x-3 Writing Process

The writing process will be easier if you follow the 3-x-3 writing process: prewriting – 25% (thinking and planning), writing – 25% (organizing and composing), and revising – 50% (45% revising and 5% proofreading ). This writing process allows you to have a systematic plan, as it is described below.

                     

            Adapting to the Task and Audience

•  Developing audience benefits
• “You” view is necessary used to give emphasize on the audience. The sender focus must be changed to audience focus to show the “you” view as it is shown in this example.

• Being conversational but professional, adapting to the task and audiences

• Expressing yourself  positively
• Being courteous
• Choosing bias-free Language
• Employing Precise, Vigorous Words 

Chapter 5 - Organizing and Writing Business Messages

3-x-3 Writing Process according to Guffey's

Prewriting: analyze, anticipate and adapt

Writing: Research, organize and compose

Revising: Revise, proofread and evaluate

Formal and Informal Research Methods 

Formal research methods: access electronically, search manually, go to the sourche, investigate primary sources and conduct scientific experiments.

Informal research methods: we look in the flies, talk with your boss, interview the target audience, conduct an informal survey, creating cluster diagrams and brainstorming for ideas.

Organizing Ideas Using Lists and Outlines

There are two outlining formats: format for alphanumeric outline and format for decimal outline.

Organizing Ideas into Patterns

We need to organize ideas into pattern to attract audience attention. There are two pattern such as direct pattern and indirect pattern.

Direct pattern used : 

- When the audience seem to be pleased

- midly interested 

- neutral

Indirect pattern used:

- If unwilling or uninterested

- If displeased or disappointed

- If hostile

Direct Pattern for Receptive Audiences

Chapter 6 - Revising Business Messages

Revising for conciseness

a.       Eliminating flabby expression

Flabby expression is extra words that make your writing seems unclear, weak, rambling, and unstructured. It often contains overused words which seem meaningless to the reader.

It is required to eliminate the unnecessary words in order to make your writing reach a higher level.

b.      Limiting Long Lead-Ins

This means you need to delete unnecessary introductory words.

c.       Dropping unnecessary there is/ are and it is/ was fillers

d.      Rejecting Redundancies

Redundancies are expressions with repeating meaning or including unnecessary words (redundant. For example,  the word unexpected surprise can be changed into surprise because unexpected carries the same meaning as surprise.

e.      Purging empty words

Empty words and phrases: case, degree, the fact, factor, instance, nature and quality.

Revising for clarity
1.      KISS
KISS stands for Keep It Short and Simple. KISS formula is using active-voice sentences that avoid indirect, pompous language.

2.      Cliches and Slang
Cliches are expressions, words, and phrases which are overused. For example, you say “below the belt” instead of “last but least”.

3.       Unburying Verbs

(buried)Conduct a discussion of - Discuss (Unburied)
(buried)Create a reduction of - reduce (Unburied)
(buried)Give consideration to - consider (Unburied)
(buried)Make an assumption of - Assume (Unburied)

4.      Controlling Exuberance
Exuberance is commonly shown by using  very, definitely, quite, extremely, really, totally,etc.


Chapter 7 - Electronic Messages and Digital Media

Most of people use electronic messages and digital media rather than traditional paper for writing and sharing messages to each other.Electronic messages and digital media are not unfamiliar things for us, especially when we live in business world.There are many electronic messages that we have commonly used such as  electronic mail, instant messaging, text messaging, podcasts, blogs, wikis, and social networking. There are pros and cons of instant messaging and text. There are two different perspective about it, the first perspective is some people say that it really useful for doing business and develop our business and the second perspective say that it may be dangerous for business.

Here is the pros and cons :

The pros :

1. Messaging avoids phone tag and eliminates the downtime associated with personal telephone conversations.
2. Texting can be a low-cost substitute for voice calls.
3. Both IM and text enable users to get answer quickly and allow multitasking.
4. Instant Messaging (IM) allows people to share information immediately and make decisions quickly.

The cons :

1. Organizations fear that privileged information and company records will be revealed through public instant messaging systems.
2. Companies worry about phishing (fraudulent) schemes, viruses, malware (malicious software programs), and spim (IM spam).
3. Companies fear that business track and store messaging conversations need to comply with legal requirement.



The existence of electronic messages and digital media cannot be avoided. You just need to use electronic media professionally. 
To keep  instant messaging and texts professional, you must know your company’s policies, separate personal from business contacts, stay away from personal messaging at work, make yourself unavailable when you need to concentrate, wait until receiving a reply before shooting off multiple messages, avoid sending confidential information, and use correct grammar and spelling.