Competency M

During my undergraduate studies at the University of Wyoming, I took a series of art classes that prepared me for the world of professional communication. In them, I learned to give and take criticism. The students would display our work in front of the class, and critically examine which elements of art were executed well and which were not successful. I learned to criticize specific elements and aspects of execution; not the person or overall work. We learned not to take criticism personally and to be genuinely grateful for feedback. By graduation, me and my colleagues were masters at giving and receiving criticism. That blessing has followed me into work and graduate school.

To convey what I have learned about professional communication at San Jose State University (SJSU), I offer an analogy. Professional communication is thinking of yourself, not as an individual, but as an instrument in a symphony: You must listen carefully for your part. Just as a musician would not play over the soloist, a professional communicator does not speak out of turn; she listens. She recognizes that each member is accountable and essential to the unit.

Listening for your part

The role I have settled into during group assignments at SJSU is: Listen/ start. It means, I tend to listen to the group until I have a grasp of their strengths, weaknesses, temperament and preferences. Then, I reflect what I’ve heard in terms of the tasks. For example, to a person who expressed interest in the technical tasks, I echoed that it sounded like they would be good at the vocabulary design or website development. In one group, a student expressed apprehension about sharing responsibility, so I nominated her to be our managing editor and time-line auditor. Next, I volunteered for the role my skills matched and listened for feedback. Last, I usually started introducing ideas to commence projects—just to establish a base for the group to agree or disagree with. Orienting to each team by listening, reflecting and starting was an effective way to produce successful work-products.

Be accountable/ You are Essential

Group-work is a core component of SJSU classes. Out of the nine groups I worked with, only two individuals failed to contribute their part. In both circumstances, the member should have communicated that they were not going to communicate! This basic step would have saved several late-night brushes with failure. Now I know that expressing expectations, even when they seem obvious, and getting group buy-in for those expectations, is important. Each member was essential to the group projects. Frequently, whole team’s production was augmented by the focused effort of one or two super-achievers. Similarly, two projects were placed in jeopardy by team members who thought they were not essential. They were not thinking about their role in the band. The editor could not edit: The webmaster could not post.

Collaborating is richer.

Like a symphony is richer than a string quartet, a team that is communicating is richer than one working in isolation. Communicating professionally is knowing your role. In the library it means listening respectfully to every person. It means only speaking when you have the right piece of information to add. It means that if you are not able to add value, acknowledge it and refer a patron or coworker to the most relevant person or resource possible.

Today, collaboration is synonymous with the information professions. Consortia are vital to stretching budgets. Collaborating with colleagues is central to learning about recent technology and adopting new applications, marketing trends and creative budgeting. Because the information professionals’ job is to connect patrons to the information they need to be successful, professional communication and collaboration must be the center of our skillset. I plan to stay informed and excited about library communication by attending professional conferences such as the ALA Annual Conference. Reading library journals will help keep my communication relevant. I am particularly eager to collaborate with colleagues because of my positive experiences as an artist who grew from classmates’ criticism. Because of my SJSU group experiences, I am confident that working in a group yields richer results.

From our introduction to our culminating experience, SJSU prepared students to work in groups.

First, I created a database in a LIBR 203 group project. Then, I created a budgeting document and presentation with three other students. Next, I co-created a series of education pieces for Dr. Loertcher’s education resources class. I contributed to a more complex business database in Oracle. I created team-teaching materials; in a team. Moreover, instructors made collaboration mandatory within classes by requiring smaller team tasks like collecting supplemental materials and forming questions for the weekly discussion requirements. I feel well-prepared to communicate, collaborate and contribute appropriately.

I choose evidence from LIBR 204, Information Professions, because I am proud of my team’s ability to collaborate across four time-zones including Japan and because one of the members dropped out near the end of the project without alerting us: The team pulled together to finish strong. This project is an ideal example of a group coping with an emergency and communicating under duress, differences and deadlines. When a group member failed to contribute his section the group collaborated on a Google document. We quickly voiced our concerns so they could be addressed and proceeded to divide and conquer the missing section. The project shows the importance of division of labor, how well we organized; it shows polished editing and creative presentation. The group contributed its skills to produce a richer product than any one of us would have created on our own.

We choose to analyze the United Nations University Collection (UNUC) located in Tokyo Japan. I communicated the group’s analysis via website. The website has five concise navigation tabs along the header: Presentation, part one, part two, media and contact. I was responsible for the website, presentation and a combination of parts one and two. The sections were distributed evenly amongst five team-members during live group discussions. Part one communicates the history and context of the university. Part two reports the organizational analysis of the UNUC. I volunteered to create the website and presentation because I had prior experience with several appropriate tools and platforms. The team performed multiple analyses, collaborated on Blackboard Collaborate, and assigned writing roles to the member with the strongest opinions about each section. Then the group sent their notes to the person nominated, and he or she synthesized the group’s research and observations. We choose this method because the purpose of the assignment was to analyze as a team. Pre-dividing the workload would have been more efficient, but we wanted to honor the purpose of the assignment by keeping everyone engaged at every step. Even the editor, whose primary purpose was to maintain the time-line by holding everyone accountable, wrote a section.

When two teammates dropped out of their group projects, they did not inform the team. They disappeared. This lack of communication was unprofessional and made the situations more urgent. As a result, I learned that communicating about mistakes and weaknesses can be more important than reporting successes because it prepares the team to increase their contributions to the problem area. Communicating problems allows teammates the opportunity to provide extra support or change one’s task before onerous consequences develop.

I have learned the value of listening, reflecting and starting. Listen to colleagues and patrons without bias or distraction. Check for understanding by reflecting what you thought you heard. Start. Just begin somewhere and make it clear that you are just getting the process started—not forming edicts. Finally, give and take criticism. I would not be timid towards a colleague who violated my library’s core values and would be confident that I could communicate a criticism without offence by focusing on the incident particulars; not the character or value of the colleague.

I have had time to rethink my professional communication prior to graduate school. Upon reflection, I would have handled several exchanges differently. For example, I fixed a student group’s problem by creating a partnership with a community business without first asking the managing director for her advice. What I thought was proactive problem-solving was interpreted as a lack of collaboration that impacted my relationship with the whole department. Similarly, I voiced concern for several student and colleague injustices, some of which were crimes, only to learn they were ordered by the campus leadership. Today I would listen for clues and respond to evidence by forming an investigative team right away. A team is equipped to handle complex problems: Any one individual cannot have the breadth of perspective to address large workplace problems and opportunities alone. An advisory team could have saved my department’s relationship with another department. A team meeting would have revealed company-wide corruption so that workers and students could react appropriately. At future workplaces, I will make professional communication and group-work as ubiquitous as possible for excellent productivity, accelerated growth and company security. Because of my SJSU training and work history, I have the confidence to form teams to solve such complex problems.

Evidence

Website http://unuc.weebly.com/

Accompanying Presentation https://prezi.com/s9246at-vpzk/united-nations-university-collection/