Core Area 4:  Communication and working with others

4a) Communication and working with others

Having strong communication skills is something that is very important in any line of work, however, I strongly believe that education matters require this skill to be present at its highest level. Whether we are trying to communicate meaning, form and function to our students during class, or we are trying to provide a thorough analysis on an "agile sprint" deliverable item to our colleagues or in a stakeholder meeting, communication is simply the key to success. 

Due to my diverse background, I pride myself for being able to navigate complex situations which required considerable adaptation of my overall approach and communication strategy; all well within the cadre of celebrating and respecting diversity in all its forms. My ability to use written speech in many formal or informal fora such as, emails, webpages, userguides and support materials, podcasts, proof reading, publications, various dissertations for my 5 academic degrees, blog posts, policy documents, manuals, applications and bidding documents for small and large scale funded projects primed me to also be able to participate and contribute in a meaningful way in verbal communication.  

Due to the fact that the Prime Press Project was a 1-year contract that involved the management of 2 separate teams, one operating in Egypt and one in Greece, led me to take the decision to create a framework for communication that involved the setup of multiple MS Teams channels, daily 15-minute team huddles where each member had 2 minutes to present to the rest of his team members his work (and any blockers that he might encounter/ask for support), a weekly catch up with all of my line managers, a bi-weekly plenary meeting (Town Hall), and "no meetings-Friday". 

Out of the many instances were communication was key to our success, I have selected to provide two examples of eFeedback and Community Building. 

Perhaps one of the best features that Articulate Rise has is the ability to add inline comments and efeedback on each "Lesson/Unit". More specifically, by opting to use Articulate Rise, I was able to share each project in real-time with all of the stakeholders. By teaching my team members that were tasked to create all of the scorm packages via Articulate Rise to publish their daily output via the "versioning" in Articulate Review 360, I was able to introduce a dialogic discussion that was taking place in real time, every day, between the creators and the stakeholders. The ability to provide real-time feedback on a daily basis, triggered a very fruitful conversation during our daily team huddles, as each developer provided acknowledgement and steps forward for each item that he had developed the previous day.  

The second example pertains to the relaunching event for all of our book series. During a series of presentations (both online, during conferences and in hotel events in Cairo and Giza, I was able to introduce all of our interventions to a community of Egyptian Teachers, School Owners and Entrepreneurs. These events were interactive as all participants had the opportunity to use their smartphone, large format TV screens and laptops to access our Moodle Platform and take the Interactive Summary Quizzes for summative purposes, the Interactive Video Quizzes for formative purposes and to also have a go at creating their own activities and materials. During the breaks and after each event had ended, I engaged in considerable community building activities by setting up follow up meetings with groups of willing teachers and school owners were we discussed further training opportunities, best practice dissemination and regular monthly meetings with various working groups. 

Reflection   

Perhaps one of the most challenging things in my career so far, has been to navigate human relationships in the workplace. Even though, you would expect that due its nature, the Education sector should be a truly open space for reflection, exchange of ideas and constant cross-fertilization, it has often proven otherwise. In recent years, I have found it increasingly difficult to build effective working relationships and build communication bridges between the various teams that I have been called upon to manage and bring together. Various instances of workplace harassment, bullying tactics and even at times bigotry and discrimination has been disguised under the mantle of "competitiveness", meritocracy and diversity. Like with any other working place, the education sector requires considerable team building, soft skills and continuous efforts to build, maintain and develop bridges of effective communication both internally and externally. This is definitely a sector that I would love to focus more, given the time, energy and necessary budget.