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• Communication impacts all management activities and phases.
• Success as a leader-manager often depends on effective communication skills.
• Communication begins when two or more people become aware of each other
• Effective communication requires that the sender validate what receivers see and hear.
• The most critical leadership skill is communication
• Organizational communication is a high-level management function.

The Communication Process

• A sender communicates a message via written, nonverbal, or verbal means to a receiver.
• Internal and external climates influence this communication.
• Internal climate includes values, feelings, temperament, and stress levels of both sender and receiver.
• External climate includes weather, temperature, timing, status, power, authority and organizational climate.

Variables Affecting Organizational Communication

• Differences in gender, power, and status significantly affect organizational and unit-level communication.
• Variables affecting communication:
  • Levels that need to communicate
  • Gender
  • Power and status

Organizational Communication Strategies

• Communication must be clear, simple, and precise.
• Senders should seek feedback to ensure communication is received.
• Multiple communication methods should be used.
• Unnecessary information should not be disclosed.

Channels of Communication

• Upward: From subordinate to superior.
• Downward: From superior to subordinate.
• Horizontal: From peer to peer.
• Diagonal: Between individuals at differing hierarchy levels and job classifications.
• Grapevine: Informal, haphazard, and random, usually involving small groups.

Communication Modes

• Communication modes include:
  • Written
  • Face-to-face
  • Telephone
  • Nonverbal
• The clarity of a message is significantly affected by the mode of communication used.
• In general, direct communication increases the probability of clear communication
• More people involved in filtering the communication increases the chance of distortion.

Elements of Nonverbal Communication

• Nonverbal communication elements consist of:
  • Space
  • Environment
  • Appearance
  • Posture
  • Facial expression and timing
  • Vocal expression
  • Eye contact
• Eye contact invites interaction and emotional connection, if it is not too prolonged.
• Breaking eye contact suggests the interaction may cease, and that the listener is uninterested and not engaged.
• Nonverbal communication is considered more reliable than verbal because it conveys the emotional part of any message.
• When verbal and nonverbal messages don't match the receiver will believe the nonverbal message.
• Effective leaders are congruent in verbal and nonverbal communication so followers are clear about the messages they receive.

Types of Communication

• Passive
• Aggressive
• Indirectly aggressive (passive-aggressive)
• Assertive - ideal
• Assertive behavior is neither assertive nor passive.
• Being assertive will increase your odds of getting what you want
• Being assertive is not to be aggressive.
• Assertiveness is not unfeminine.
• Assertive communication is not rude or insensitive.

SBAR

• SBAR is a handoff communication tool
  • Situation: Introduce yourself and the patient and state the patient's condition.
  • Background: Describe the patient's diagnosis, admission date, medical history, and treatment to date.
  • Assessment: Summarize the patient’s condition and suggest issues.
  • Recommendation: Identify new treatments or changes and provide opinions or recommendations for further action.

GRRRR as a Listening Tool

- Greeting: Offer greetings and establish positive environment.
- Respectful listening: Listen without interrupting and pause to allow others to think.
- Review: Summarize message to verify it was heard accurately.
- Recommend or request information: Seek additional information as necessary.
- Reward: Recognize that a collaborative exchange has occurred by offering thanks.

• Most people hear or retain only a small amount of the information given to them.

The Electronic Health Record (EHR)

• A longitudinal electronic record of patient health information produced by encounters in one or more care settings
• Includes patient demographics, progress notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data, and radiology reports.
• Rapidly flourishing communication technologies have great potential to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of organizational communication, but pose increasing challenges to patient confidentiality.
• Ransomware: A form of malicious software that locks and encrypts computer or device data, and then demands a ransom to restore access.
• Ransomware attacks threaten patient care and data privacy.
• 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) called for protection and privacy of medical information.
• HIPAA applies to information about a patient, whether oral or recorded that is created or received by a health care provider, health plan, public health authority, employer, life insurer, school/university, or health clearing house.

Team Building

• Team Building is an exercise in communication that can Build trust and cooperation.
• Stages of Group Process:
  • Forming
  • Storming
  • Norming
  • Performing