Summary and takeaways

This week we’ve focused on key communication skills and their relationship to employability. In this article, Nick Patterson provides a summary of what was covered, including some key takeaways. So far, we’ve looked at communication in the workplace and explored what good communication looks like from both employer and employee perspectives. We also considered the relationship between communication and employability.Throughout the week, you were asked to reflect on your own communication skills by drawing on examples from your own experience and relating these to a series of learning tasks and activities.These tasks were purposefully designed not necessarily to teach you something new, but to help transition you from unconscious to conscious competence in preparation for Week 2.

Key takeaways

There are many ways that we could define communication. For example, for the purpose of Professional Practice credentials, Deakin describes communication as:

The ability to use oral, written and interpersonal communication to inform, motivate and effect change. This includes communicating to consult or engage with individuals and groups inside and outside the organisation.

Based on this definition and the material we’ve covered, we can see that communication is important to organisations for a number of reasons based on practical outcomes that improve the overall functioning of the organisation.One example of this is taking the ideas and information you and your team possess and sharing these with people who are important to your organisation, such as customers, clients or external stakeholders. It’s also important for building relationships, preventing misunderstandings and improving productivity and efficiency.Good communication skills are also important for influencing, persuading and gaining agreement from others.

Your task

Based on what you’ve covered so far in this course, what are your key takeaways?Are there any questions that you’d like to ask or ideas that you’d like to clarify before taking the quiz in the next step?Discuss your takeaways and share any questions in the comments. If you see a question you can answer, use reply to respond. Also remember to like any posts that particularly interest or resonate with you.