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Communications Profile Medaille College MBA program this page Communications Improvement Plan | How Geeky Are You?

What do MBAs need to know?

Successful managers build on their strengths and overcome their weaknesses. Just as important, they keep up with the rapidly developing communications environment. They spot new opportunities faster than competitors.

In order to succeed, business managers need to understand what their strengths are and where they need improvement. It is too easy to look at yourself and fail to see any problems, or to see strengths that are not real. (I know because I do it all the time.) You need a methodical and objective approach to improvement.

A tool that can help is a communications profile. The profile is the dividing line on a chart between what you can do and what you are still learning.

It is scalable.

It can grow with your growing needs for communication.

It is extensible.

You can add new skills.

The profile can provide a more objective view - which can then be used to support and enhance your career planning.

Learn the Net's Index of Articles

BrainBench

Communications Improvement Plan

The MBA professional communications skillset is divergent, not convergent. We may well discover a core skillset. But many more skills will depend on individual interests, industries, and organizational structures. We are striving not for a cookie-cutter MBA. We are striving for lifelong, self-conscious learners in the habit of exploring and discovering on their own.

Exploring the Internet now is like setting foot with Columbus on a Caribbean island. There are a couple of continents left to explore.

See the Gizmos, Inc., case for details.

What software tools do we need to do our jobs?

How well do we need to know how to use them? It's one thing to use them well enough to survive. What about beyond that? What software tools do we need to be able to use well in order to prosper in the new media world? Where do we draw the line?

What about the writing and speaking, the eternal communication skills that the Internet enables and makes even more important?

skill levels

Basic skills - working knowledge; needs tech support and training
Operational skills - self-sufficient; can support and train self and others
Specialized skills - differ by area
Expert skills - seldom used unless they are explicitly part of your job description

At some point, you will know enough to be able to find and evaluate the software for adoption or continued use. In many organizations, however, those who know more than other people do the evaluating, whether or not they know enough to do so.

Note | In MBA graduates, we are looking for a broad range of communications skills at the operational level.

The lists below are being generated bottom-up. Instead of my telling the students what they need to know, they are in the process of discovering what they need to know.

Writing

Professional Standards

summary

Speaking

Professional Standards

summary

Gizmos, Inc., Presentations

Research

Internet Searching

summary

Software

Operating System Utilities

software programs bundled with or added to the operating system to extend its usefulness

learn more

software | comment
checklist

Here's an example of a student who is developing a plan for learning more about her computer's operating system. This plan will be useful when she and I review it during the mods she takes MBA 600 and MBA 630. The plan will be useful because her objectives are measurable. I can turn each into a question that she can answer yes or no and perform a series of tasks on her computer to prove that she can do.

I want to perform the following actions as part of my improvement plan:

·Learn how to uninstall programs from my hard drive. I want to rid my computer of software that I do not utilize.

·Understand how much memory my computer has, and how to free up space on my drives. I would also like to know how add more memory.

·Perform a maintenance check on my PC regularly.

·Learn how to defrag my computer's drives.

·Understand where temp files are located and how to delete them when necessary.

·Learn how to hook my laptop up to my PC and gain Internet access on the laptop through the desktop.

performing routine technical tasks

Getting Started with Windows page.

Self Sufficiency – Being to react to problems on the run when MIS isn't around

customizing Windows

managing network connections
monitoring the operating system

Using Software as a means of communication - ie --> accessing e-mail from motel room while on a business trip

managing files and directories

File Management – Know where information is on your hard drive, especially your desktop

Recent documents, history, and temporary Internet files

Navigation – using Windows Explorer to get around your hard drive and to make, delete, and move files

Folder options

managing programs

Use programs that come with your operating system

Calculator (see also The Wonderful World of Interactivity)

Paint

Font Manager

CD Player

Sound Recorder

Windows Media Player

Install programs that you obtain by downloading them off the Internet or a CD-ROM.

Uninstall programs from the Start | Settings | Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs Properties box.

Keep the tools (programs) separate from the jobs -- the documents, images, and presentations that you are working on.

Keep all the programs in the C:\Program Files  directory or up a level in the C-drive root directory, C:\.

Keep all your work in the C:\My Documents directory that Windows provides by default. Instead, I use my desktop, the C:\WINDOWS\Desktop directory.

Bring the tool to the job, and then take it away. Don't bring the job to the tool and leave it there.

managing security and privacy

hacking, viruses, and corporate/government intrusion

Anti-Virus – Keep viruses off of your system

Passwords & Security - Keeping access to your computer to a minimum

advanced features

Registry (what not to fuss with)

Rights Management – responsibility of using the software and system

make your own desktop icons

Web Making Tools

common software tools and utilities to design, assemble, optimize, and run a laptop-based communications center and World Wide Web site

FTP

HTML

editors: Text editor, Front page, high-end

Collaboration Tools

the Web for research, presentations, team meetings, discussions, calendaring, shared whiteboards, individual and group emails, conferencing, and Internet telephony

Email

Outlook

Instant Messaging

ii) Chatting

c) NetMeeting

i) Chatting

ii) Audio, talking

iii) Video Conference

Business Media Software

slide shows, web sites, charts and graphs, and images both still and moving, including music and audio

Visio
1. View documents
2. Arrange simple flowcharts
3. Add stencils
4. Save as picture type
5. Create multi-level complex documents
6.

Animation Shop
1. View animation
2. Drag images into animation routine
3. Control duration, looping
4. Optimize animation for fast loading
5.
6.

PowerPoint
1. View Document
2. Produce simple, slide shows
3. Synchronize slides with clicker
4. Embed multimedia applications
5. Create Professional quality multimedia presentation
6.

Paint Shop Pro
1. View images
2. Save images in various formats
3. Cut, paste, and mirror
4. Use various effects, clone tools, rotation and resizing
5. Adjust hue, saturation, and contrast.
6. Produce images from scratch in a photo-realistic level

Sound Recorder
1. Open wav. files
2. Record sound files
3. Edit length of sound file
4. Adjust volume and pitch. Make distortions (ex. reverb)
5.
6.

Webtop Tools

software programs on the Web designed to be used on the Web, for example a search engine or banner maker

Search the web, with Boolean searches, using a variety of search engines and to understand the differences between the various engines

Download and activate the add-ons, such as Shockwave and Flash, and understand the pro/con impact on the web creator and surfer

Download and activate document formatting tools such as Adobe Acrobat Reader- both as a user and a webpage creator.

Able to locate, download and use Plugin productivity improvement tools to save time and clicks.

Follow and attempt to understand the evolving trends so as to update Browser functionality and Search Engine capabilities as needed

Appreciate that nothing is static on the web and tracking changes is a constant process

in the loop

napster

Office Productivity software packages

process and display words, numbers, data sets, and images; hand-held and other embedded and portable devices

Excel

Word

Access

Outlook

Text Editor

Keyboard shortcuts in Word and Excel

Excel: calculation
set up data base
formulas & values
use of the wizard
tables - pivot tables
sort
queries
Courses: Finance/Statistics/Economics/Operations Management
macros
flow chart
word processing

Outlook: file management
e-mail

Access: capturing data

Text editor: HTML

Word: printed text user friendly

How geeky are you?

Could you teach at ExecuTrain? Do you know more than almost everyone else at work? Are you confidently able to do everything you need to? Are you pretty far behind but catching up? Are you worried that you're getting left behind?

Having taught in a computerized classroom for six years now, I have come to see a pattern. At the beginning, many of you fear that you don't know enough about computers. At the end, you're surprised that even the ones who appeared to know a lot at first learned plenty, too.

Now that everyone was filled out the basic skills form, let's take a look at the aggregate results (February 2001).

Toolkit skills at beginning of course

As several of you pointed out, the four choices are inadequate. However, they give us a place to start. The chart clearly reveals room for growth toward the left.

Getting all zeros in the right-hand column isn't hard. The idea behind Your Communications Profile above is to create a sophisticated version of this chart that will have more rows and columns and will let individual students chart their progress through the MBA program -- moving from right to left.

For purposes of this course, I've made six groups out of the list along the left-hand side of the chart above. Each of the six has its own forum at the Bistro and each team of two or three students is hosting that forum. I expect the hosts to shape each forum's direction by asking questions and responding to messages.

As a host, you are the ringleader for your forum, somewhere between traffic cop and cruise director. To learn more about hosting discussions, Mauri Collins and Zane L. Berge of Berge Collins Associates has links to Resources for Moderators and Facilitators of Online Discussion. If you're going to read only one, try The Role of the Online Instructor/Facilitator, which emphasizes focusing on the right questions to ask, rather than the right answer to give. As an MBA working in a networked organization, you will facilitate (fancy word for "lead") online discussions with the people you supervise. Now is a good time to try it out.

The dates below spread the discussion through the rest of the mod, but these forums are all open now and the hosts should write their Welcome messages.