GROUP DECISIONMAKING PROJECT

REPORT
COMM-1010-F14-Johnston
Mackenzie Evans
Luseane Funaki
Nathan Christensen
Cami Christensen
Mary Helms

Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Project Description
Methods
Problem Question
Analyzing the Problem
Setting Criteria
Brainstorming Solutions
Analyzing Solutions
Implementing the Solution
Conclusion
Works Cited
Appendices
Appendix 1: Team Contract
Appendix 2: Comparison Chart
Appendix 3: Participation Points

Executive Summary
How do you give feedback to someone without possibly offending them? That is the
question my group and I hope to answer. We've brainstormed a few characteristics,
of others, that might cause this problem to arise. We then came up with a lasting
solution that will, hopefully, work for anyone in this situation. Our paper will explain
the process of how we came up with our solution, and how others can implement it
into their situation. We also hope our solution improves the work environment and
helps everyone to feel comfortable.

Project Description
Together our team decided to use what we have learned through our readings and
assignments to come up with a way that a team of supervisors could learn to
communicate feedback to each other more effectively. As our book states
communication is the receivers job as well as the one speaking to communicate.
This is proving to be a problem in this situation where the receiver is not taking the
feedback for what it is but rather is reading into the feedback and taking it more as
an attack. We incorporated ideas that will cover both side of the communication in
order to resolve this problem.
We decided to do this because no one likes to go to a place where there is tension.
Tension among the supervisor team will have an impact on all levels of the business
not just amongst themselves. Not working together isnt an option in the real
world and neither is acting like everything everyone does it correct, so the only
solution is going to be to figure out how to communicate effectively in order to

handle the business in the most effective manner and get the job taken care of to
the best of their ability. This will help the team learn to use each others strengths
and lean on each other for their weekends.

Methods
Part 1: Problem Question
What is the best way to communicate with your peers without causing
anyone to/being offended from the feedback in order to more efficiently
accomplish a task at hand?
Part 2: Analysis of the Problem
A. Characteristics
1. Communication problems Between the sender and receiver the
message is coming across is a way that is negative. The message
being sent may not be worded in the best way or the receiver
may be taking offense to something that wasnt meant in a
negative way due to psychological noise.
2. Insecurities/trust problems Supervisors do not have a trusting
relationship with one another where they feel that the message
being sent to them is truly to help them and this is having an
impact on how they are taking what is said. They feel they are
being questioned or told they are wrong rather than just
accepting someone sharing a best practice with them.
3. Pride pride is a major psychological noise and it is impacting
the ability to give and take feedback in a positive way rather
than as a personal attack. Due to pride, supervisors want to tell

everyone how they are doing well and other supervisors do not
want to accept that they need to help, especially not from a peer.
They do not want to admit that what they are doing isnt working
and that they need help.
4. Attempting to work together Supervisors are attempting to
share best practices with one another, this is something that is
hard to get people to do as they are afraid that they will offend
someone. Their willingness to attempt to share these and give
feedback is something that is going in the right direction! This is
positive. They just need to learn to do it in the best way possible
for each person.
B. Stakeholders
1. Supervisors They want to be seen as competent and do not
want to feel their authority is being questioned by their
subordinates. They need to acknowledge things they could
change while maintaining respect.
2. Employees Need consistency among their management team
and for them to be united as a team so that the morale on the
floor is a good feeling. They want to be successful and need their
supervisors to do the work to help them get there.
3. Upper management Upper management will not be able to take
care of their work if they are having to mitigate arguments and
try to save peoples hurt feelings. Their supervisors being able to
provide feedback to each other will help them be able to focus on
their main goal of providing them the tools to succeed and
ensuring that they are running the projects they have to the
standard of the client.
4. Company Owners The more efficiently their staff works the
more money they are able to make. Their company will perform
well when the workers are getting along and focusing on their
job. The company will maintain a positive reputation for work
environment when supervisors are getting along as well as
taking feedback to improve. This will help the company remain
profitable for the owner which is their main goal.
5. Human resource department Dealing with conflict among the
staff takes up time in HRs day. There is likely to be a high
turnover rate as well so they will need to make sure they are
speaking with those leaving as well as new employees taking
up even more time. HR wants to help a company run successfully

and they are more able to do so when they have time to focus on
the business needs and paperwork rather than disagreements
and frustrations.
6. Clients Clients hire a company to provide them with excellent
service, when their ability to do so is hindered by hurt feelings
and misunderstandings the client sees the impact of this and
may no longer want to do business with them as it will affect the
way their business is handled. They want to provide excellent
service for their members and can only do so if they are
partnered with a company that has a good management team.
7. Members - Members just want their problems to be solved in a
reasonable amount of time. If supervisors are not being
consistent and there is a negative vibe in the work place as
mentioned above their will be more turn over - when this
happens people are new and are not as confident or experienced
in resolving the member's problem. This causing calls taking a
longer time and member's not being as satisfied with the service
of a new representative as they would be if the representative
was confident in their ability and had been handling these
situations for a long time.
C. History or background
Trainings on communication styles have been tried in the past in order
to show supervisors that how they communicate impacts everyone in
the company. This has also included meetings that teach the power of
nice as well as personal accountability so that supervisors understand
that this is something they need to take ownership of the situations
rather than expecting someone else to fix it.
Another way that companies have attempted to solve this is by doing
trainings on communication styles based on personality tests. These
teach you how you communicate and tell you things that perhaps you
do not realize other personalities do not appreciate in communication.
These trainings have helped those that are willing to listen to feedback
and truly want to improve. It has hindered those that get caught up in
the feedback and dwell on the negativity rather than taking what they
have learned and leaving the rest behind them while working to
improve.
D. Policies/Politics

Communication must remain professional at all times. You must make

sure that you are aware of others feelings to ensure that you are not
making them uncomfortable and that you are keeping your
conversations and feedback HR appropriate. The reason behind the
feedback must be ethical; it should not be for your own gain but rather
the growth of your peers.
E. Resources available to us as we attempt to find solutions
We have learned different types of communication styles from our
class text book Communicating at Work as well as tips for effective
communication in the work place
We interviewed Dennis Bennett as he is a part of a management team.
His advice was that you have to make sure that you are in a private
place and the person does not feel they are being called out in front of
other peers or subordinates. He also advised to treat everyone as
equals. No one is anyones boss. Using words like boss and
supervisor creates a hostile environment. Your subordinates may have
authority over you but more importantly, they are there to help you
succeed at your job. Aim for more positive, well rounded titles such as
coach or leader.
Part 3: Criteria
A General Goal
Our goal is to come up with a lasting solution to the communication
problem.
B Specific Criteria
1 Use the principles of effective communication we have learned
throughout this class
2 Can show improvement within 4 weeks
3 Spend less than $1.00
4 Use the information that there is history of working to test if it
will benefit this situation
5 Use the information provided by our resources outside of our
textbook

6 Benefit all shareholders while only involving the supervisors

level
7 Will address the problem specifically without involving other
problems
8 Will be take into account all aspects of the problem and be
flexible enough to deal with them
9 Will allow for the professional requirements to be met
10 Will provide those involved the tools to continue effective
communication in their career
Part 4: Brainstorming possible solutions
A. Choose the best solution
1. Educational communication trainings
2. Come with a solution
3. Rewards/kudos for communication improvement
4. Team building activities
5. Daily opportunities for feedback/communication
6. Come to work with an open mind to get feedback
B. Organize criteria and solutions into a chart
Following the directions for our meeting agenda, we created a chart
with possible solutions, and the solution criteria. Listing the
solutions across the top, and the criteria along the left side we were
able to score the possible solutions against the required criteria. We
tallied the scores, and came up with the best solutions.

C. Develop the best possible solution

Solutions 5 and 6 received the highest scores. We used this
information as a reference for our final selection. We discussed as a
group what each of us felt would be the best solution to this
problem,
D. Negative Consequences
1. Employees might not show up to meetings. We can reduce this by
making the meeting mandatory and providing motivation to attend
such as treats and prizes.

2. Supervisors may be distracted with other work or personal

business. We can avoid this by setting expectations before the
meeting and asking that phones are not out during meeting.
3. Workload may get in the way of daily feedback to each other. The
daily feedback needs to be a priority. Scheduling a time every day
to speak to employees would make it easier to have the time.
4. There may be some psychological noise. People could come in with
a bad attitude. If this is the case, they need to be confronted
professionally to ensure there isnt anything being done by
coworkers to create a hostile work environment.
Part 5: Implementation
After implementing daily feedback as well as everyone coming to work with
an open mind, there has been a much more pleasant working environment
all around. Subordinates have been taking time out of their day to give face
to face verbal feedback to their employees. This has made the employees
feel they know where they stand at work. They are more informed about
what they are doing well, as well as what they can improve on.
After having a meeting with all employees to inform them on expectations
for the company, they have been coming to work with an open mind about
their job. They know that there is constantly a chance for improvement and
constructive criticism is a chance to keep moving forward.

Conclusion
So what is the best way to communicate with your peers without causing
anyone to/being offended from the feedback in order to more efficiently
accomplish a task at hand? We have discovered that the underlying
problems to this major problem are ill-communication skills, trust issues, and
pride. To fix these problems we had to come up with a lasting solution to this

communication problem. By brainstorming ideas that came about through

our research in our textbooks, Communicating At Work, we had all agreed to
a few solutions. We decided to implement daily opportunities for
feedback/communication as well as coming to work with an open mind to get
feedback in the workplace. The results were overall positive as we witnessed
a much more pleasant working environment, employees felt they knew
where they stood at work, all the employees showed that they were better
informed about what they were doing as well as what they could improve on,
and when presented with expectations they came through by coming to work
with open minds about critique and assistance from co-workers. So to
conclude our essay, we have found the best way for our company to
communicate by using daily feedback as a positive influence and
encouraging our employees to keep an open mind when communicating
between each other.

Works Cited
Adler, Elmhorst, Lucas (2013) Comm 1010: Communicating at Work

Appendix 1: Team Contract

As a team, we commit to put group goals above personal goals, so we will
each make the time to participate fully in each step of this projects. We will
honor our commitments to each other and accomplish the parts of the group
assignment that we have agreed to do. We will tell each other if we disagree
so that everyone feels they had an equal share in the idea. With respect to
each group members time, we commit to arrive on time to group meetings.

Under extenuating circumstances, if one is unable to attend a meeting, they

shall let the leader know at least one day in advance as well as email their
assignment to all members. Everyone is expected to come to meetings with
the information necessary to complete the assignment for each meeting.
Every member will stay up to date on any chapter readings that are required
for each lesson. Each team member will participate to their best ability.

Relational Roles
Participation encourager Mackenzie Evans
Harmonizer Luseana Funaki
Praise giver Nathan Christensen
Tension Reliever/Evaluator of emotional climate Cami Christensen
Empathetic Listener Mary Helms

Task Roles
Direction giver Cami Christensen
Meeting Scheduler/Creative thinker/reality tester Mackenzie Evans
Summarizer Nathan Christensen
Information seeker Luseane Funaki
Energizer Mary Helms

Appendix 2: Comparison Chart

Solution 1

Solution 2

Solution 3

Solution 4

Solution 5

Solution 6

Criterion 1

Criterion 2

Criterion 3

Criterion 4

Criterion 5

Criterion 6

Criterion 7

Criterion 8

Criterion 9

Criterion 10

Appendix 3: Participation Points

Cami Christensen

11 points

Mackenzie Evans

11 points

Nathan Christensen
Lucy Funaki
Mary Helms

10 points
9 points
9 points

Perfect attendance
Turned in all grids
Perfect attendance
Turned in final report
Perfect attendance
Missed one meeting
Missed one meeting