The
best B.Com College in Greater Noida, Ishan Institute of Management &
Technology follows a teaching methodology that aims to develop skills for
higher education and professional lives of students in their future. To this
extent the academicians of the B.Com College have observed that students need
to be taught the difference between generic and business communication.
Communication in the generic sense is based on feedback. Business communication
defines the scope and ambit of that feedback and thus streamlines the expected
outcomes and reaction functions. Hence the adage of “think before you speak” is
all the more relevant to business communication than to generic communication.
While it may be too heavy to use the term of “professionalism” and expect
undergraduate students to absorb subtle nuances of business communication when
mature adults and working professionals find the going tough, we have defined a
template to offer some time tested advice that is applicable to business
communication across different dimensions of time, space and scale.
The 5S of Business Communication
The
5s of business communication refer to substance, science, story, style and
speed. These 5s are the pillars of business communication and need to be
focused on. The substance of
business communication is the core. It is the heart of communication. Depending
upon the second party in the conversation and the possibility of grape vine,
there has to be a measured action towards choosing the summary of the subject
matter. Science in business
communication refers to following a measurement system to assess and analyze
the effectiveness of communication. Modern day social media platforms come with
tools that enable measurement of metric like the number of likes, shares,
comments and the level of user engagement. The science of measurement is vital
to the scalability of communication. There is a simple thumb rule. Repeat or
scale up the substance that scores high on positive affinity from the target
audience and eliminate the stereotypes that produce negative feedback. In daily
lives the science of measuring effectiveness of communication may be difficult
but not impossible. Next there has to be a great story around a business
communication attempt. There has to be a punch of passion in the way one
communicates in business. Story
telling in fact is a skill that great marketers use to great effect to sell
dreams and encroach upon the minds of their target audience. Great ad films,
jingles, films, sops and plays have a story that we remember and relate to.
Unless the audience feels that they are a part of the communication it is
difficult to motivate them to produce the desired outcome in business. Style in business communication is an
outcome of many factors like confidence, audience analysis, sense of timing,
presentation and coordination with the audience or the other party. This is
particularly the case in corporate presentations, meetings, seminars and
conferences. In fact at the local level even a client meeting in a very
seemingly casual Indian backdrop also mandates the fulfilment of this
condition. This is an element of art and maturity. Art in business
communication is not to be mistaken with art in the generic sense though. Art
in business communication carries a value component that is integral to
business. Speed in business communication is managed according to short term
and long term business actions. Many business actions of the short term are
urgent and most of the business actions with a long term orientation are
important. There is a big difference between urgent and important business
actions. We have in the recent past covered the difference between urgent and
important business actions through a separate post on Goodmorning Ishan. To cut
a long story short it is important to understand which conversation will have
multiple rounds and those that will end within definite number of rounds.
3Vs of Business Communication:
Vocal, Verbal and Non-Verbal
The
3Vs of business communication are vocal, verbal and non-verbal elements of
business communication. Communication in business has three different forms.
The voice quality of a communicator includes features like pitch of the vice,
clarity, tone, power and most importantly voice modulation. Think of great
business leaders and even actors. They have a great ability to bend their voice
according to time and space. This quality is truly an asset. These virtues are
counted under vocal elements of business communication. Verbal communication
refers to not just spoken form of communication but the choice of language in
spoken and written forms of communication. Of course there are differences
between the implications of spoken and written forms of communication but in
the modern day landscape that is driven by technology, one has to be prudent in
the choice of language. Non-verbal communication refers to the leveraging of
coded forms of communication. Coded forms of communication refer to implicit
substance that may not necessarily be communicated in words that are spoken or
written. For example the dress code for a social or professional setting,
hairstyle, shaven or unshaven look, furniture arrangement and decoration of a
place and others reflect implicit messages that are visible to people who
observe keenly. Visual merchandising is the biggest evidence of non-verbal
communication in business.
At
Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, we use unique techniques like
business movie screenings of art films and middle cinema, role plays, theatre
and memory association games to improve business communication skills of
students. Our efforts in innovating the teaching methodology include special
screenings of the works of Shyam Benegal, Satyajit Ray, Daniel Boyle, role
plays on “How Stella Saved the Farm” by C.Vijaygovindrajan and Chris Tremble
and “An Enemy of the People” by Henrik Ibsen.