Collaborating in the Workplace

C H A P T E R 3

• In What Settings Do Employees Write Collaboratively?

• How Do You Manage a Project?• How Do You Conduct Effective and Efficient

Meetings?• How Do You Collaborate Effectively?• How Do You Listen Actively?

Presentation Overview

• How Do You Disagree Respectfully and Politely?

• How Do You Respectfully Critique the Work of Your Team Members?

• What Electronic Tools Are Available for Promoting Collaboration?

Presentation Overview

• When writing for others• When working as part of a formal team

In What Settings Do Employees Write Collaboratively?

When Writing for Others

You• Gather information• Plan document• Draft document• Revise document• Possibly publish

Others• Supply information• Help with planning• Help with revisions

When Writing for Others

You Others

When Working as Part of a Formal Team

Divide work by expertise

• Subject-matter• Marketing• Legal• Writing

Divide work by stages in the

writing process

• Planning the document• Drafting the document and preparing

graphics• Revising the document• Proofreading the document

Divide work by sections in the

document

•Chapter 1•Chapter 2•Chapter 3•Chapter 4

• Define your team’s task, including the readers, purpose, and scope.

• Trade contact information.• Select a team leader.• Decide on each team member’s task.

How Do You Manage a Project?

• Set up procedures for how you will complete the project.

• Decide what word-processing and/or graphics software your team will use.

• Create a style sheet.• Set a work schedule.• Decide how you will evaluate each team

member’s contribution.

How Do You Manage a Project?

• Conduct meetings face-to-face, whenever possible.

• Be on time.• Tell your team leader if you will miss the meeting.• Be prepared.• Stick to an agenda.• Take minutes.• Make sure every team member understands his or

her task at the end of the meeting.

How Do You Conduct Effective and Efficient Meetings?

• Encourage team members to share their ideas.• Listen intently and respectfully to all team

members.• Share ideas, even when they differ from the

views of other team members.• Consider cultural differences.• Disagree respectfully and politely.• Critique team members’ work respectfully.

How Do You Collaborate Effectively?

• Maintain eye contact with the speaker.• Avoid body language that may distract the

speaker or other team members.• Let the speaker finish his or her statements

before you ask questions.• Use phrases that indicate that you agree with

the speaker.

How Do You Listen Actively?

• Ask questions when you need clarification or when you want more information.

• Ask relevant questions.• Occasionally paraphrase or summarize what

the speaker has said.– So what you’re saying is . . .

How Do You Listen Actively?

• Focus on the issue, not the individual.– Focuses on the individual: We are behind schedule

because Ed took so long to get all of the information to us.

– Focuses on the issue: We are behind schedule. We received the information needed last week and have spent the past few days going through all of it carefully.

How Do You Disagree Respectfully and Politely?

• Don’t take positions you can’t support.– Avoid absolute qualifiers: all, everything, always, none,

nothing, never, etc.– Use relative qualifiers: most, many, some, few, usually,

frequently, often, sometimes, rarely, etc.

• Look for points with which you can agree when disagreements arise.

• Be open to criticism of your ideas.• Support the team decision.

How Do You Disagree Respectfully and Politely?

• Include positive comments.1. Start with a compliment: I think this proposal is well

organized and highly persuasive.2. Move to the critique: However, I would like to see the

introduction developed further. Our audience will need more background information about our organization to understand the situation fully.

How Do You Respectfully Critique the Work of Your Team Members?

• Focus on the big picture before commenting on the local issues.– Comment on a local issue: On page 10, you misspelled

“explanation” as “explaination.”– Comment on a big picture issue: Because our audience

mainly consists of beginning users, I think we need to either define unfamiliar terms or avoid using them.

How Do You Respectfully Critique the Work of Your Team Members?

• Recommend specific ways to improve the work.– Vague: Your instructions are confusing.– Specific: Screenshots of each step in the process would

make these instructions easier to understand.

How Do You Respectfully Critique the Work of Your Team Members?

• Comment on the work, not on the team member/writer.– Subjective and offensive: I don’t like the design. It

appears that you didn’t put much into it. – Objective and polite: Adding contrasting headings and

lists would help break up the content and make it easier to scan.

• Be honest, yet polite.

How Do You Respectfully Critique the Work of Your Team Members?

• Review features of word-processing software– Comment feature– Track changes feature– Highlighting feature

• E-mail– PDF file attachments

What Electronic Tools Are Available for Promoting Collaboration?

• Groupware– File sharing and distribution– Password-protection– Synchronous conferences– Asynchronous conferences– Project management and knowledge management– Electronic calendars– Videoconferencing– Digital white boards

• Teleconferences

What Electronic Tools Are Available for Promoting Collaboration?

Questions?