Business Communication and “A Long Walk to Water”

Standards: 1) National Standards for Business Education (NBEA) Communication Standard II Interpersonal Skills — “Apply interpersonal skills in personal and professional environments to communicate effectively.”2) National Standards for Business Education (NBEA) Communication Standard IV Spoken Communication — “Demonstrate professional speaking techniques and strategies”

Objective: Given a scenario in which the student is required speak to someone in a professional capacity, students will demonstrate the skills necessary to communicate effectively using verbal and non-verbal communication.

The Grand Challenge for this lesson is teaching students how to listen to each other and how to effectively communicate their wants and needs. While this is taught in a professional setting, being able to communicate and motivate others is an essential tool for many aspects of life.

Part 1 — Writing (and reading) — Students are assigned to read the article Communication Skills for Workplace Success by Alison Doyle. They are then asked to read the thirteenth chapter of A Long Walk to Water, focusing on page 81 which discusses how Salva communicated with uncooperative workers. Students will then be asked to use Google Docs with a partner to identify what Salva might have said or done to show each of the traits. The students would signify who wrote the entry by putting their name in parentheses at the end. A partial example is shown below:

Listening: Salva might have practiced active listening when the boys in his group complained about not wanting to work and responded by rephrasing — “What I am hearing is that you are tired.”(Jenny M.)

Non-verbal communication: Salva might have stood tall to assert his authority or he might have stood with an open stance with his arms at his side to show that he was open to what the boys were saying. (Alex P.)

Clarity and Concision: In order to get the boys to work, Salva might tell them what needed to be done and what their job was. He might also tell them that the group is relying on them to follow through. He would not give a long speech. On the other hand, he would not use vague language such as “get to work.” (Jenny M.)

Part 2 — Speaking — Once students have completed this task, they are given a list of scenarios (examples below) that might occur at work and are asked to role play how they might communicate using the methods they have learned. While students are role playing, the list of nine skills (the tenth skill, picking the right medium, does not apply in this case) will be projected onto a Smartboard for easy reference. After students have completed three of the scenarios, they will develop one for presentation to the class. They will demonstrate the role play for the class and then tell the class which skills they used in their communication.

Students will be graded on the use of the skills and their ability to correctly identify the skills they used and explain how they believe those skills contributed to effective communication.

Once all students have presented their role plays, the class will discuss the question, “How will better communication make the world a better place?”

Possible scenarios for role play

A co-worker is upset about a change in the dress code at work.

A co-worker says disparaging remarks about your political party.

Your boss asks you to work late, but you have concert tickets.

You must lay off an employee.

You are asked to reprimand an employee who is often late to work.

You have been asked to lead a team and you need to motivate them to increase production by 10%.

You have been falsely accused of making racist comments. You are called into the Human Resources Manager’s office and asked to explain yourself.

You were given the promotion that several of your co-workers wanted. How do you tell them?

You need to ask your boss for a raise.