80155 Lecture 4

1
80155 Lecture 4

• Communication - Staff

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Objectives Lecture 4

• Refine oral communication strategies
• Apply communication principles to staff
  situations
• Recognise features of effective staff
  communication strategies

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Useful resources

• Storm - Human Side of Child Care Administration
• Sonnenschein - Practical Executive Workforce
  Diversity
• Groundwater-Smith - Teaching Challenges Dilemmas

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Oral Communication

• Two way sharing
• I messages or assertive communication
• Active reflective listening

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I Messages

• When you .
• I feel ..
• Because ..
• Particularly helpful for needs conflict situations

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Active or Reflective Listening

• Restatement of persons feeling
• NOT stating that you understand, but reflecting
  their emotion
• Youre feeling because..
• Youre feeling anxious about because ..

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Workplace Diversity- communication styles

• Unspoken rules of communication differ from
  culture to culture
• Non-verbals e.g. proximity, eye contact, voice
  tone/volume
• Direct-indirect wording
• Explicit (words only ) or implicit (context as
  part of message)
• Formality of style

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Staff Meetings

• Level of formality and structure
• Timing of meetings
• Content
• Involving hearing all staff
• Maintenance of meeting minutes

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Sharing Programming

• Meetings to discuss planning i.e. teams, whole
  staff
• Overlap of shifts and ways of enabling
  communication
• Written and oral sharing
• Feedback about program aspects

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Staff-staff communication

• Supporting clear assertive individual
  communication
• Journals/diaries/ day books
• Opportunities for whole centre discussion on
  shared interests
• Affirming messages

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Conflict Resolution within Staff

• Needs, values or emotion conflict, and selection
  of strategies
• Collaborative problem solving process within
  staff
• Directors guidance

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Discussing Challenging Issues

• Problem- solving regarding potential staff
  burnout
• Workplace Health and Safety
• Issues raised during Accreditation discussions

13
Raising Difficult Issues

• Sandwich technique of locating negative between
  positives
• Careful wording avoiding emotion
• Opportunity for discussion

14
Written Communication

• Meeting minutes
• Telephone messages
• Staff memo
• Staff newsletter/ noticeboard

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Alerting Staff to Written Policies

• Meetings
• Accreditation Committee
• Staff Noticeboard
• Staff Memo
• Staff Handbook

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Staff Noticeboards

• Professional development opportunities/processes
• Photo and other displays of work
• New issues in the field
• Program ideas
• Changes to dates/schedules
• Location of awards etc

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Staff Newsletters

• Updates on professional trends
• Interesting ideas for work with children/ parents
• Forward notice of important dates
• Personal celebrations e.g. staff finished course,
  married

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Staff Memo

• Update on urgent information
• Reminder about policies or procedures
• Change of dates
• Affirmation of sound practices
• Roster information