Week One

Countdown to the Finish Line!!!!

This looks to be a very good class!
I am excited to see what our project journey has in store each of us!

Thank You Week 8

Thank you to all of my fellow colleagues.  This has been by far the most difficult course for me personally in this program.  I have been dealing with major hardships at work which have lead to personal illness and personal inner conflict.  I have been challenged both professional and personally on my ability to communicate.  I realized early on that I can talk but I can not communicate.  Thank you to everyone who has shared and encouraged me through this self discovery process.

Union Conflicts

The organization that I work for is regulated by a local Union.  The Union has an established contract that has been abided by or given guidance in the regulation of fair labor practices.  In the last six months new officers were elected to the local post and have begun demanding respect and inquiring into the way I have carried out my recent decision to terminate employment and have a caregiver investigated for allegation of mishandling a child inside the classroom.  These events have drawn attention to my management style and practices and have led to several violations and citations.  In order to try and diffuse the conflict and refocus the attention of Union officers elsewhere, I have deployed several non violent tactics to resolve the conflict between my management team and the Union.  Though I really would like to drive a Mack truck through the branch office, I have been respectful and tried to take the third side approach to get a better understanding for all of the perspectives involved.  Through many mediations, deliberations, arguments and successions I have realized that I will not compromise on my principles.  I will not allow an employee to jeopardize the safety and well being of a child and I will not allow an employee’s performance to jeopardize other employee’s safety or well being.  I have learned through this excoriating process that I must follow the rules and the policies that have been established in order to support the fundamentals of my principles I want to uphold.

The Big Test

I chose to send the surveys to my spouse and my closest co-worker.  I was hoping to see that I am different in a professional mode from my personal life.  I was surprised to see the results.  Both people were very close to my own results.  I was hoping that the people that are closest to me get to see a more relaxed and calm version than my co-workers.  It resulted that I am a passionate and empathetic communicator.  I express myself aggressively in certain situations and end up being so compassionate to those I am listening to that I can be fooled. I want to work on varying the different perceptions and hope that this class will give me strategies to do just that.

Delicate Dance

Communicating within my home and professional life.

I am completely two different people when it comes to communicating at home and at work.  I have to really challenge myself and use my educational strategies to communicate on the level in which is expected at work.  I have such a diverse group of staff and families to interact with daily that usually deals with highly emotional subject matters.  From a child being sick, to a parents divorcing I find myself using my counseling hat to help those around me.  At home the family unfortunately gets the short end of the stick.  Being a single mother for so many years, I have found myself being with my children all the time but rarely present.  I have had to work in the past few years really listening and using better communication skills to create a two street with my children.  As they have gotten older it has become even more important to tell them how I feel, and hear what they have to say.  Looking from the outside in, some might observe that my children cross the lines of respect and appropriate behavior.  I have worked very hard not to impede the communication with my children, even though sometimes it can be very challenging.  Our rules of engagement, if you will, are that if they are upset  and the challenges they face as children that they will use trial and error with the types of response they receives and to be able to learn the benefits of responding verses reacting.  Communication for me is a work of art that is a delicate dance between emotion and strategies that yield the anticipated outcome. 

Week 2

Duck Dynasty

No Sound

I observed laughter, smiling, and close interaction with a small group of people, hunting, and working in some type of warehouse.

The interactions between the characters varied but for the most part looked like they enjoyed each other’s company. The show looks like funny acts are taking place, and common livelihoods are being depicted.

Each of the family member talk to each other looking and expressing emotions through facial expression. At the end of the episode all of the characters ate at the same table.

Sound

This episode of Duck Dynasty was hilarious. This is a family owed business that even the workers who are not family are adopted family. The family interacts well with each other and expresses using language that is not offensive and is funny to each other. Each member has a good rapport with each other, and each has their own role within the family. The dad is the CEO of the duck call making company and their family is very different from the lifestyle they grew up in. The teenage sons are verbally challenged by technology and the teenage daughter relies on texting for all communication. Even communicating through text when she is in the same room with the person. I love that even though they give each other a hard time and joke with one another they are all able to communicate to one another how important family is to each of them. I actually thought from the characters appearance that they would communicate with very little skill or sensitivity. That was not the case. Even with the southern accent the characters were able to communicate effectively.

Communicating Excellence

I would have to say that my worst critic would also be my greatest mentor.  The division branch manager for our program.  This is a true professional who has worked many years perfecting her communication behaviors.  I believes that she demonstrated wonderful communication skills in relaxed casual setting as well as a professional audience.  Her demeanor, her presences and her calming affect that she has on every person she comes into contact with wants to hold a conversation.  Her best quality is her ability to listen and respond to people appropriately. When she finds herself in confrontational or uncomfortable scenarios she responds instead of reacting to the situation.  This is something that I work for every time I find myself in a highly volatile or emotional situations.  This division branch manager is very quick to critic how that I handle stressful types of situations and conversations.  I have grown tremendously as a professional communicator because of her leadership.