The answer to the above question is simple. Why not? The first barrier that stands between everyone and their job would be a test of communicating your skills and achievements to your future employer. No matter how good are the qualifications of the interviewee, without the basic ability of communicating properly, the interviewer would not be impressed. After we get employed, our communication skills are further tested when we are supposed to work as a team. Sending wrong signals or messages at this point might result in a poor appraisal or even something disastrous.
One of the major incidents that happened was the loss of a $125 million Mars orbiter by NASA. It happened because one of the teams used the English units of measurement while the rest of NASA used the metric system for measurements. To put it simply, the NASA engineers mistook 12 inches for 12 cm. I guess this is a classic example of miscommunication which led to a great loss of assets.
To give another story (so as to prevent my readers from falling asleep), I would like to relate the recent McDonald’s blunder. I am sure most of us know about this incident whereby McDonald removed the Doraemon-pig soft toy from the zodiac collection. To give a brief background of the incident, McDonald released its Doraemon soft toy zodiac collection to celebrate the upcoming lunar New Year. In order to be sensitive towards Muslims, they have removed the Doraemon-pig version as a pig is considered non-Halal and therefore unclean. This incident caused quite some commotion among Singaporeans. In a simple search on the internet by me, I learnt that monkeys, snakes and rats were also not Halal, though I am still not quite sure whether a dragon is Halal or not. Through further probing by the media, it was discovered that McDonald has not consulted the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS), which is Islamic religious council of Singapore, regarding this decision. This is an area where a lack of communication resulted in an issue that McDonald now has to handle. McDonald followed up by apologizing to its customers in print (which I think was quite standard and professional on their part), and also started selling the Doraemon-pig to its customers. However, I got a slight feeling that they did this in order to create some publicity for themselves (which they really succeeded!). What do you think?
To summarize, effective communication skills are very important not just to me but also to everyone else.
P.S. I tried my best to be grammatically correct by writing my first draft in Microsoft Word, hope it helped!
P.P.S As much as I smiled and laughed while typing this blog post, I felt constipated as I was unable to express my feelings in the forms of emoticons or “haha” and “lol”. So dear friends, do me a favor and read the above post in a light-hearted way by adding in smileys, “haha” and “lol” in your own imagination. Thanks! (:
References
1. Nasa incident, http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/
2. McDonald's blunder, http://www.timeslive.co.za/news/world/article272599.ece
3. Halal and Haram food, http://www.central-mosque.com/fiqh/fhalal1.htm
Interesting Stories. I think you have managed to put your point across using the teaching stories that we learnt. It did on me, really does capture my attention. Well done!
ReplyDeleteHi Kun Lin,
ReplyDeleteAs Glenn before me, I applaud your interesting anecdotes.
However, I would just like to point out that perhaps you would like to be clearer about the points you wish to make. For both of your stories, I could somewhat infer the pitfalls associated with ineffectual communications. Nevertheless, I feel that it would be better if you stated your opinion clearly after the anecdote.
P.S I think that your grammar is fine.
P.P.S Indeed. I laugh out loud.
Dear Kunlin,
ReplyDeleteI was laughing away reading your blog post especially the comments you left at the end and I was really tempted to add in 'lol's and 'haha's into my comment too.
I salute you for your ability to draw connections from what we have learned in class and apply them to what we see in our everyday lives. I definitely agree with Clement that your anecdotes are commendable.
Your grammar is not as bad as you think it is so have some faith in yourself! However, after some scrutiny I managed to pick out two small areas in your post where you can make better use of the language. Firstly, to quote you in your first paragraph:
"no matter how good are the qualifications of the interviewee"
I thought it would be more grammatically correct to rephrase this sentence as:
"no matter how good the qualifications of the interviewee are".
To quote you in another paragraph:
"However, I got a slight feeling that they did this..."
I thought it would be more appropriate to rephrase this sentence as:
"However, I have a slight feeling that they did this..."
because 'got' is sort of a more informal language and is not exactly preferred when it comes to professional speaking.
However, I am not too sure about the above that I have commented also because I do not have a very good command of the English Language.
Kunlin, to be honest I seldom read the papers and I only read them when I am free. Having read your blog post I feel guilty and I think it is time I do something about this because having a pool of general knowledge and anecdotes to relate to really enhances your writing by a great deal. I see the way it has enriched you in this first blog post of yours.
Awesome work!
Great post! I loved your use of stories. Another point about communicating professionally is that we are also judged by it, like it or not.
ReplyDeleteFor example, a wonderful communicator who may just be an average technical person has a greater chance of making it to a job than a wonderful geek who can't string two sentences together.
It definitely helps open doors and as you observed via these stories, helps avoid major disasters as well!
I would like to thank all of you for your helpful and encouraging comments!
ReplyDeleteTo Clement: Yes I agree with you that a main topic/subject was not clear.
To Diana: Your lengthy comments want me to blog more!
To Rohan: Exactly! I have been reading a book on interviewing and it keeps stressing that everyone has skills, but not everyone is able to communicate them to their interviewers.
Finally, nobody agrees with me that the McDonald incident is a publicity stunt?!
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of fun reading your post. I love your use of examples as it kept me entertained while reading. You make me feel ashamed of myself because I seldom read newspapers and I only got to know of the McDonald’s blunder a few days ago when someone posted the article on this livejournal community that I am a member of.
Good job with the examples!
I agree with the point Glenn pointed out. Your post would have been must better if you had added a topic sentence to each story or if you had state your opinion at the end of it.
I know how you feel being unable to use emoticons. It feels so restricted, but well, as Brad said, it is not professional. So we shall persevere! (There is supposed to be a smiley face here. Use your imagination to picture it.)
Do have a bit more confidence in yourself. The grammar is fine.
I don’t agree with you on the incident being a publicity stunt by McDonald’s. In my opinion, I feel that it is something small, almost trivial, that became big; a toy that caused people to create a big fuss over. But that’s just my two-cent worth.
-nicole
Your "case studies" helped make your post an interesting read. However, I feel that you could have added a personal anecdote about why you feel that effective communication is important. This would allow readers to connect with you on a deeper level.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I like the fact that you put in web links to let us find out more about the incidents if we wanted to. Overall, I think it was a good first blog post!
Thank you, Kun Lin, for this informative, entertaining post. I think you've done a great job answering the question you've posed by supplying relevant, surprising anecdotes. You've also generated lots of useful and pertinent feedback from your classmates. Finally, no one is going to fall asleep reading your post!
ReplyDeleteOne might argue, however, that the question you've posed isn't the question of the assignment. In fact, Jie Ren focuses in on the main problem in your post per the original assignment: you haven't been able to bring the discussion of ineffectual communication down to the personal level that I was expecting. Now here, of course, I am quibbling. But when we discuss effective communication, we need to mention something as fundamental as responding appropriately to a task. Wouldn't you agree?
Don't get me wrong though, Kunlin. This is not a lashing, not a scolding. Just an observation.
Thank you for your effort!