Case Studies: "Communication Gaps Galore"

Case Study: The Logistic Company

Most of the courier and cargo companies, when they send their total
consignments (load in their language) to a particular station, they do it with
advance intimation by way of sending E-mail (pre-alert message in their
language). ABC Logistics was no exception to this procedure. Whenever they
sent their load by evening flight to Mumbai, they sent pre-alert to Mumbai giving
details of the load like flight number, total number of bags, total weight of the
bags etc. Night-duty Airport Executive at Mumbai Airport use to retrieve the load
and use to confirm the receipt of the load to the Bangalore office.

The arrangement worked fine for months and even years. Airport Executive
continued to get the pre-alert message and after retrieval of the load, he
continued to confirm the receipt of the load.

On one fine night, Satish who was on night-duty at Mumbai airport observed that
neither any pre-alert has been received from Bangalore . Nor Bangalore office
had sent any load to them. He tried calling Bangalore office. But it was well past
midnight and there was no response from Bangalore office. Security guard on
duty told to the Airport Executive that nobody is available in the Bangalore office
and staff on duty had left already. Satish knew that generally Ravi works in the
night time. He tried calling on Ravi ’s mobile number but it was switched off.

Satish had no other option except calling Asst Manager Operations of

Bangalore , Charles. Charles tried contacting Ravi but he observed same what
Satish had observed, that Ravi ’s mobile was off.

This was unique situation. He was concerned about what had happened. Charles
tried calling other operations staffs to find out whether anybody knew home of
Ravi . But none of them knew where Ravi ’s house was. Charles was
disappointed. Though he had disturbed couple of staffs in the dead of the night,
there was no much headway. Charles was on the horns of dilemma. Should I
defer the matter for early morning or settle right away? After deliberating for
couple of minutes, he chose latter.

As a last resort, Charles called Hari, HR Executive. Charles explained situation to

him and told him to go to office and find out address of Ravi from the personal
documents of Ravi . By the time it was 01:30 hours and Hari was aghast to find
out that he was told to go to office at dead of the night.

Willy-nilly, Hari went to his office, pulled out personal documents of Ravi and
noted his address. Later he confirmed the address to Charles.
Charles had no option but to commute 15 KM in order to go to house of Ravi . He
reached Ravi ’s home at 02:15 hours.

For Ravi , it was a strange experience to find out that his manager was knocking
his door at well past midnight. When questioned why he did not send the pre-
alert, he just told that “very simple, today there was excess booking by other
logistic companies and there was no space, so cargo officials of all the airlines
refused to accept our load”. “And since no load was connected, I did not send
pre-alert as well. However, I have done booking for morning flight and load will
be connected through morning flight.”

Charles was damn infuriated by his answer. But his fate had stored a little more
frustration for him as while returning home from Ravi ’s home, night duty patrol
cops caught for him driving his two-wheeler without driving license.
***

Read the above case study carefully and find out the communication issues
involved in it.

Time Management Questionnaire

Score yourself on the following questions; 2 for "always", 1 for "sometimes", 0 for
"never" and tally your score at the bottom of the column.

_____I do things in order of priority.

_____I accomplish what needs to be done during the day.

_____I always get assignments done on time.

_____I feel I use my time effectively.

_____I tackle difficult or unpleasant tasks without procrastinating.

_____I force myself to make time for planning.

_____I am spending enough time planning.

_____I prepare a daily or weekly "to do" list.

_____I prioritize my list in order of importance, not urgency.

_____I am able to meet deadlines without rushing at the last minute.

_____I keep up-to-date on my reading and homework assignments.

_____I prevent interruptions from distracting me from high priority tasks.

_____I avoid spending too much time on trivial matters.

_____I am spending enough time on academic matters.

_____I plan time to relax and be with friends in my weekly schedule.

_____I have a weekly schedule on which I record fixed commitments such as classes and
work hours.

_____I try to do the most important tasks during my most energetic periods of the day.

_____I make constructive use of my commuting time.

_____I periodically re-assess my activities in relation to my goals.

_____I have discontinued any wasteful or unprofitable activities or routines.

_____I screen and group my telephone calls to allow for control over telephone
interruptions.

_____I judge myself by accomplishment of tasks rather than by amount of activity or

"busy-ness".

_____My actions are determined primarily by me, not by circumstances or by other

people's priorities.

_____I have a clear idea of what I want to accomplish during the coming semester.

_____I am satisfied with the way I use my time.

_____Score

45 - 50 points: You're on your way to becoming CEO of a major corporation!

38 - 44 points: You probably own a Franklin Planner and have organized your sock
drawer.
30 - 37 points: You are managing your time fairly well, but sometimes feel
overwhelmed.

25 - 36 points: Your college career is likely to be stressful and less than satisfying unless
you take steps to begin to manage your time more effectively.

less than 25 points: Your life is one long roller coaster ride, out of control.

Group and Classroom Games

Fun Socialization and Learning Activities
for Kids and Teens
© Susan Carney
Aug 15, 2007

Use these games to help kids feel comfortable

in a new environment, and to have fun while
learning new skills.

A new school year often brings anxiety and

apprehension along with excitement. Kids need
a way to relax and get comfortable in new
surroundings. If you liked the activities in
Group and Classroom Icebreakers, here are
some more to keep the fun and learning going
strong.
Simon Says. An oldie, but a goodie. Older kids
can handle a faster pace and more variation in
movements. Kids love the aspect of
competition; it can be a great physical
workout, and its lots of fun.
Find Someone Who. Prepare a list of
categories, each of which you would expect to
apply to at least some of the students in your
group. (for example: took a vacation out of
state this summer, has a dog, loves math, etc.)
Each student gets a copy of the list. Students
circulate the room, trying to “find someone
who” fits each category. Students can initial
each item to verify. The object of the game is
to get each category initialed: the object of the
activity is to generate conversation and help
students discover things about each other.
Make your categories broad enough to include
everyone, yet make some specific enough to
provide some challenge. Younger children
might like doing this game in a “bingo” format.
You can even take this activity one step further
and have kids do a writing assignment based
on something they learned about another
student.
Step Forward, Step Back. Students line up
along the back of the room while the group
leader stands in the front. The leader calls out
a series of descriptors: if the statement is true,
students take a step forward. If it’s not true,
students take a step back. This is a low-threat
way to get to know something about
classmates without much direct interaction,
and would be especially appropriate for a first
activity with a group made up of students who
don’t know each other at all. Make your
descriptors general or content based, if you
like. Also find a way to ensure that students
“steps” are of relatively equal size to ensure
fairness. When a student reaches the front of
the room, they can become the leader for the
next round.
Memory Box. More a game of memory and
concentration than a social activity, this game
will test kids’ ability to remember a group of
common items. Depending upon the age and
skill level of the group, choose ten random
everyday objects and put them in a bag. (Some
starters: pencil, comb, apple, photograph, etc.)
At one time, place all the objects on a table in
plain view of the students. Set a time limit (5
minutes or so) for students to study the
objects. Encourage them to develop strategies
to remember the objects, but don’t allow any
note taking or collaboration. When time is up,
return the items to the bag and ask each
student to return to their seat and see how
many items they can recall and list.

Read more: http://youth-

activities.suite101.com/article.cfm/group_and_classroom_games#ixzz0VItG9wOP
 Case Study – The Wet Floor

Sushma works in Infosoft Solutions Pvt Ltd. She works there as Project Leader.
Occasionally her job demands coming early for her duties or stay till late evening
hours.

Once she was handling 2 projects simultaneously and on one such day she had
convened a meeting with her team members regarding project delivery. She had
called her team members at 0800 hours.

Sushma is a disciplinarian and generally she follows duty timings strictly.

Discipline starts with me, was her firm principle. She had made a habit of coming
5 minutes early at least. However, on that day she could not make meeting time
of 0800 hours and she was worried of her reputation could be at stake.

Time was 0805 and she reached main gate of her company. Hurriedly she
swiped her card and rushed towards board room. That time few housemen were
doing cleaning. One of the housemen had spread soap solution on the floor.
Unaware of what is on the floor, she continued to rush to the board room. In
hurry, Sushma slipped her foot. The floor was made of marbles and soap
solution was sprinkled over it. The floor had become quite slippery. Sushma,
could not control her balance on the slippery floor and fell down. Slippery floor
dragged her couple of feet further.

The impact was so strong that she wailed loudly. Her team members rushed to
help her. Somehow she could get up with the help of her team members.
Considering her wailing because of pain, she was taken to the hospital. In the
hospital it was discovered that her hip bone was broken. Later she was immobile
for about two months because of hip injury.

Later in investigation, it was revealed that the houseman who was cleaning the
floor had not put the display board “Caution: Floor is Wet”.

***
Read the above case study carefully and find out the communication issues
involved in it.
Starting the Year Off Right
Scene 1: Schedules and Clear Expectations

Miss Heier is starting her second year as a third grade teacher. Last year had been
exhausting, mostly because she had spent a great deal of her time trying to keep students
on task and not talking and goofing around. She felt like she spent more time trying to
manage behavior than on actually teaching academic content and finished the year
extremely frustrated.

Over the summer she took a behavior management class where she learned that the most
frequent complaint from new teachers is that they were not prepared to manage behavior
and that effective behavior management is one way to improve classroom academic
performance. The class stressed that she should be proactive and spend the first few days
of the school year establishing behavioral expectations and a consistent schedule so that
her students know what is expected of them at all times.

Miss Heier thought this preventative approach made a lot of sense and had created a
written schedule of the day for each student’s desk. She also made a large copy to put on
the bulletin board in the front of the room. She even color coordinated the schedule to
indicate times to be silent and times that the students may talk quietly about the academic
subject with their neighbor. She also came up with four simple, positively stated class
expectations that she felt covered all the behaviors that would create a classroom
environment conducive to optimal learning. The night before school started, Miss Heier
felt that she was well prepared and was excited to start and calm, productive year.

Reflections:

1. Why is it important to be proactive when trying to manage student behavior?

2. Describe what you think the first week of school would have been like for Miss
Heier’s class if she had not taken these proactive steps.
 A Case Study in Ineffective Classroom Management
Today, my colleague had to cover for an another colleague who had an
emergency and asked me to teach the class alone. "No big deal, I thought. I've
been teaching them for a week". How wrong I was! Once the kids saw that the
their sir wasn't coming in and out of the room, they took every opportunity to
disrupt things and test me. Lots of requests to go to lockers, guidance, bathroom,
etc. Finally, one of them wore me down and I let him go to his locker. As soon as
he left the room, I KNEW that I made a mistake! I planned to call the office if he
didn't come back but he finally sauntered back in after 10 minutes.
The kids also whined endlessly about taking a quiz that they knew was
happening. After just a couple of students were done, they talked loudly and
disrupted the students who were still taking the test. They completely ignored my
pleas to quiet down. Then, all of the kids stood RIGHT in the door waiting for the
bell to ring! Believe me; they would not do this with my colleague teaching
around.
I felt like I gave the room over to the kids. My colleague was really nice about it
and said I will toughen up with experience. But, I'm not sure what to do when kids
argue with me and/or ignore me.
Anyway, I am frustrated with how I handled these situations and hope that I do
better next time.

How would you react to students ignoring you or arguing with you?
What are the strategies you would use to get their attention glued to you?
What would be the disciplinary act that you would have adopted for this
situation in your classroom?
How would you control your anger and what anger management
techniques would you have adopted to cope up with this situations?
Attention Seeking

"I teach a class and one of my students has a behavior issue. He is very bright, but a
perfectionist. At times he will throw a tantrum (pretend crying, yelling), over
insignificant issues like not having a pen. Instead of thinking rationally and going to get
himself a pen he will make a scene.
He distracts others at his table, so I often have to move him. His mum is concerned that
this is seen as a punishment. I explained to her that it wasn't fair for the other children if
they couldn't get their work done. Even after moving him though, little work is done. I
would appreciate it if you could help me with this.
He is an attention seeker and will constantly call out and say silly things so that the other
children will laugh. I have been ignoring some of this behaviour . When it doesn't affect
the other children and I have been incorporating some of your Stop, Think, Do
programme.

if your suggestions, particularly when he throws a tantrum?

Failed Strategies

I am currently having difficulties in behaviour management with about 5 students and the
strategies I am using are ineffective. Some of these students are constantly out of their
seat, back-chatting and talking in class time. Currently I have a positive reward system
including free time if the whole class is working. The negative consequences are as
follows:
1. Warning.
2. See me at lunch where we discuss the inappropriate behaviour and how it can be
fixed.
Currently this behaviour management strategy is not working. Students are finding it
funny to get into trouble and are not respecting me as a teacher.

Suggest some other strategies that you may use?"