The play write George Bernard Shaw once quipped, “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” As a school leader how could you utilize knowledge of the 5 elements of communication and the Lionberger study to enhance communication and acceptance of ideas among staff members?
Through the identification of the five elements of communication and the Lionberger study, the key to improve communication of school staff is the process of educating and training. Through the recognition of each element, it could result in a more effective communication model with in the school. Looking at the encoder element, how the information is formulated, is an element that may have new and challenging effects on school communication. Both the source and the receiver must be able to access the information form with the same understanding. If the source uses an edu-speak acronym the expected understanding may not result. The form in which the message is developed must be analyzed critically and applied appropriately to the message and the intended receivers. As understanding of the elements of communication are better understood through training and professional collaboration, it can and will result in increased efficiency and more open line of communication internally and externally.
ReplyDeleteAs a school leader, it is important to have a good understanding of the five elements of communication. Before you communicate with your staff you must think through each of those elements (source, encoder, channel, decoder, receiver). Put yourself into the shoes of the recipient of the communication. Is the communication clear? Are they able to decode it? Will they even be able to get the message? To make sure that communication does occur and it is not an illusion one must think about all the elements and make sure they are met. Feedback is also very important. As a school leader I will ask for feedback on communications given out. It could be simply a reply to an email. If you get no feedback then there is a chance that your communication didn't get through. I believe that Lionberger's ideas on the diffusion process can be very useful in the school setting. Anytime you are looking at changing something in your school you may want to use this process. Bring awareness to what you want to change. Gauge the interest from the parties involved (get some staff members on board). Let the staff members evaluate the idea and provide feedback to you. Try the implementation of the change on a trial run. Finally adapt it to the whole school. Here is one example. Let's say the schools gradebook program is outdated and needs to be changed. Bring awareness to the staff about that and tell them what you are looking at to replace it with. Some teachers will be interested and will seek out the new gradebook to learn more. Teachers will form an evaluation on the gradebook by the information you provide to them and research they do on their own. Have a few teachers give the program a trial run in your school. Work out any problems they may have with the trial and then adopt the change.
ReplyDeleteThe school leader must assert a communication strategy that is open for change and that is willing to help others achieve their goals. As a school leader the need to connect to other people, groups, and organizations is an activity that will take consistent work and planning. Teachers need to be willing to work in tandem with school administrators to help make a lasting impression with parents and students. The style of communication is going to vary but the consistency and the ability to follow up a parent's concern or question must be similar. If a school can implement a quality communication model then, measurable success is attainable.
ReplyDeleteCommunication is a two way street. In order to know that communication is taking place information must be given, processed and feedback returned and the process continues. This is what the Lionberger study uses as a basis for defining communication in the Adoption Process. In order to build a better communication process staff must feel comfortable enough with administration to give honest, critical, timely, and constructive feedback. If the staff is not able to do this without feeling threatened then the process never will make it past the second step. With this said an open professional relationship must exist between staff and administration. This is not an easy step and needs to start with open door policies and close working relationships. This will allow the process to continue from step three to five.
ReplyDeleteSchool leaders often fall into the false impression that their communication is leading to acceptance of new ideas among all staff members. The elements of communication outlined by Lionberger, Rogers, and Topor, respectively, illustrate that simply making a person aware of an idea or product does not mean that they are accepting this idea. In the school setting, this type of misunderstanding and poor communication takes place many times. Topor's study specifically showed that an audience is more likely to be committed to an idea or product the more person to person contact there is. A school leader can use this information to design a communication strategy to implement a change to the discipline policy, a change in the school daily schedule, or change in math curriculum.
ReplyDeleteA school leader can utilize the five elements of communication and acceptance of ideas by concentrating on encoding the message in a way that acknowledges the opinions and knowledge that the receiver brings to the message that may cause them to receive the message differently than someone with different opinions and backgrounds. Often people in management forget that the people with whom they are attempting to communicate do not come to them as blank slates. The channel by which the message is delivered will not matter if the receiver is not considered in the development of the message. Further, it is important to also receive feedback regarding the message to be communicated. If the perception of a group of teachers, for example, is that their principal does not care what they think, then the principal’s efforts to increase moral by providing greater communication are thwarted. A principal may not always make decisions that her teachers agree with, but by using good communication to explain the necessity of the decision and provide support to deal with the change resulting from that decision, she may mitigate any negative effects to the moral of the faculty.
ReplyDeleteAs a school leader, I think we frequently fall into the trap of assuming that if we just inform staff of new ideas or practices, they will automatically understand and accept our position as a result. It is important to remember that two-way, person-to-person communication is essential to persuading people to accept new ideas. Understanding and utilizing the elements of communication are essential to working with staff members to accept new ideas. Introduce the new idea. At a staff meeting is a good option because all the staff will hear about it at the same time. Make it clear that you are just introducing the idea right now; that you want the staff to think about it and consider the pros and cons of the idea; and that you want feedback. Follow up with the staff individually and then collectively on their thoughts of the idea. Provide the staff a chance to try out the new idea. Refine the idea based on the feedback and experiences of the staff. As Lionberger’s study demonstrated personal experience is the most important factor in continued use of an idea. Acceptance of new ideas will take time and the school leader needs to be open to the possibility that the final result may be different than originally proposed; however, staff involvement will improve the final product and ensure commitment to the idea.
ReplyDeleteHaving knowledge of the 5 elements of communication and the Lionberger study would help a school leader enhance communication and acceptance of ideas among the staff because they would understand it is a process and that not everyone is going to agree with you the first time you say something. If there is something that I wish to implement in the school then I need to use the 5 stages of communications to make the staff understand why this would benefit our school. Once the majority of the staff has adopted my idea we can implement it in the school and everyone will have some kind of ownership to it and feel like they helped make the decision. This means they are more likely to follow through with it and not complain about having to do what is being asked.
ReplyDeleteAs a school leader, I must assure that there is a system that helps assure that messages sent through any channel of school communication are clear of intent and that staff has been trained to utilize the appropriate language, symbols, tone, behavior and code to best communicate the message. The appropriate channels must be selected and evaluated for effectiveness. Are email messages being read and understood? Are voicemail messages heard and responded to? Is information on websites being accessed? Will the recipients understand the intent of the message whether they view it or hear it? Message interference (such as too much jargon and indifference to receiver mood) must be minimized. In helping the staff accept new ideas, such as a new instruction technique, administrators must recognize that employees proceed through Lionberger’s adoption process of awareness-interest-evaluation-trial-adoption at different times and in different sequences. It is important for administration to know how to gain the support of opinion leaders and key communicators to minimize the time between what is known and what is done.
ReplyDeleteSchool culture is a funny thing. It surprises me how difficult it is at times to bring about change. I don't know if it is the bureaucracy of it or maybe just fear, but I have never seen such a high level of unwillingness to change in any other business I have been a part of. I found the Lionberger study to be very interesting. These results would make sense to anyone in sales or marketing. They would also make sense to anyone in advocacy. Small group and person to person interactions usually result in better results. In a school setting, I see no reason why it would be difficult to communicate at this level. The problem lies in scale. When you are trying to reach thousands of people, it becomes much more time consuming and cost prohibitive to do this so you have to have to pick and choose which group of individuals are most productive to approach in this fashion. Research becomes very important. With teachers or even with students/parents there is no reason you couldn't apply all of these forms of communication to meet a goal.
ReplyDeleteThe ability to communicate clearly and concisely is critical to success. The message should use language (encoding) that is easily understood by the intended audience. The multiplicity of forms of media available today do not make it certain that the information will be received and understood by the desired people. The number and types of media available today mean that people have a chioce in where they get their information and what they pay attention to. Therefore, communication must utilize as many media as possible, complicating the task of the communicator. Dave Dyckes
ReplyDeleteCommunication is a not a “one size fit all” process. An effective school leader uses the five elements of communication to develop a communication strategy for the specific message being transmitted. School leaders must consider the audience, the message and the expectation. Understanding the five elements helps the school leader develop the message, use the right language, delivered through the right medium so that the message can be received, with the understanding that the leader intended.
ReplyDeleteEducators tend to speak in “academia;” gaining acceptance among staff may require that the message is delivered in layman’s terms. Lionberger’s study can guide the school leader in the information flow process to determine the phase that is most likely to influence the staff. Such as, consensus gathering among staff members is more likely to be favorable when you appeal to the personal values and interests of the staff members and presented face-to-face.
Bagin says, “Communication is the mechanism through which human relations exist and develop;” yet, experience has shown that we fail miserably at communicating. The five elements of communication and Lionberger’s phases of communication are not only tools for educators but for everyone – simple tools that too often are forgotten or overlooked in the realities of public education.
By utilizing the five elements of communication and the Lionberger study, a school leader can enhance communication and acceptance of ideas among staff members by first establish the best channel of communication. The best communication channel usually is face to face dialog to avoid any wrong decoder as identified by the one of the five elements. Next, the decoder process must have common language so as the source a common or familiar conversation should start off before getting into what the real intent of the message. When the source has had a friendly dialog with the receiver, the receiver is more receptive, clear, and open to hearing the real intent of the message. The friendly dialog gives a leader the opportunity to avoid the preconceived block of their message before the source can send the message. The source and receiver are both in a two-way communication mode because the source is sending the message so the receiver is listening awaiting to determine if the message requires decoding to reply if the message received requires a response. The source has encoded the message to see if the receiver is decoded the message as sent. If a leader consider the five elements of communication and Lionberger study before communication to staff members the acceptance of ideas among staff will be receive the message as intent; therefore the communication is good and successful.
ReplyDeleteSchool leaders are responsible for investing staff around new ideas and disseminating vital information that is key to the improvement of the school. Sometimes leaders feel as though they are delivering the same information many times,not quite understanding why members did not hear it the first time. Understanding the five elements of communication and Lionberger's study can help assist leaders with delivering a message more effectively. For instance, my co-teacher does not process information orally, so a school leader that only delivers oral messages will surely view my co-teacher as incompetent because he will constantly ask questions based on something that was just stated. A school leader that understands this and enlists several modes of cummunication based on the needs of the message and the needs of the staff. By understanding your staff or community and how they process information will help to make informed decisions as to how others will best receive and respond appropriately to the information. Two-way communication is key to having staff really evaluate, try and adopt new ideas. School leaders should check-in with staff members individually and always be open to specific feedback. I say specific feedback because leaders do not want to fall into the trap of being so open to all feedback that it inhibits the decision making process. Also emphasizing how feedback lead to final decisions will increase future evaluation, trial and adoption of ideas.
ReplyDeleteMarie H. says:
ReplyDeleteEnhancing communication and acceptance of ideas among staff members, utilizing the knowledge of the 5 elements of communication and the Lionberger study, means that you must give information in the same gist that you would to your students, no matter what the age. This means that the source must be clear and concise. The different learning styles must be used to make sure that the information will be able to be encoded. Delivering the information in groups give the sociological learners the ability to talk it over and talk it through. The Auditory learners will hear the information and be able to have their needs met. The visual learners will be able to channel their focus into the samples of the new material that is needed for change. The tactile learners can be given sample forms and given chances to put their hands to work doing the activities as they need t be done. This way each adult learner has been channeled in a way that they can understand and focus on what they are being led to change. Some adults need the same stimuli as any other age group to be able to decode new information. Once this information has been decoded the brain is ready to receive the new information and to put it into action. This is how we transition others from their old ways to their perspective on the hindrances of making changes. It should also be mentioned that change can be tedious for anyone who has information thrown on them without a little, not a great deal, of time to incorporate and adjust to the new situation that is needed to transpire. Educational Leaders need to make sure that they are well informed about the information that they must bring to the staff so that every step can be calculated for, as much as possible, with a little flexibility for those that are not ready for the challenge.