Training Through Social Networking
Social networking is becoming more and more popular. Almost everyone we know can be reached on orkut, facebook, myspace and other well known social networks. The idea of social networking is to enable people to keep in touch and share information, pictures, videos and so on even when they are scattered all over the globe. Logging into a social network brings all your friends together at one place and lets you interact with them freely. An extremely effective tool to reach out to a lot of people at one time.
Now think about this from the perspective of a company which wants to train a group of new recruits. How about creating an unique social network for trainees and interacting with them through it. Not only will it solve a lot of problems pertaining to finding training rooms, equipments, trainers etc, but by virtue of being an unique network within the company, no outsider can get access to it. Training involves extensive information sharing, brainstorming by the recruits, feedback and group discussions. All these can be done with the help of a social network. If you have a new idea, put up a post for all to see and comment. If you want a discussion with your trainer or colleagues, initiate a chat session. All you need is a desk and a PC of your own.
Apart from sharing information and discussing, online web tools offer provisions for virtual meeting places/spaces as well. More on this exciting technology later.
Figuring The Nuances of Jobs
This post is a continuation of an earlier post in which i had mentioned that professional life requires you to be an altogether different creative writer by and large. I thought of sharing some of my experiences of writing in the professional sphere. I plan to put up several posts on general as well as specific requirements.
I always wrote long sentences while writing answers or essays for my courses and in examinations. I had to ditch this habit and concentrate on making my sentences short and crisp. Long sentences often tend to get confusing where you are required to put things across as clearly as possible. This applies to lengthy business proposals as well. Though it will unavoidably be lengthier than blog posts or web content, you need to keep your language simple, your sentences short and make every effort to give maximum information using less words. In other words, you will need to get straight to the point.
It is a good idea to include pictures or sketches while trying to write about a place or a product instead of trying to describe everything elaborately in writing. A picture, as it goes, is worth a thousand words.
Keeping your English correct and keeping an eye out for errors will help you in copy editing, proofreading etc. I will put up a separate post to discuss the nuances of editing for a publishing house or other concerns.
It is important that your writings have some visual appeal as well. Split your article into several short paragraphs. Using numbers or bullets to highlight points will make your article eye catching and your readers will be able to easily spot the important points.
It’s Not Just Words
A common misconception about communication skills is that it is all about using impressive words and expressions. Many of us have the notion that our job is done if we can make our language ornamental. This again is a problem with our school education where most of us are taught to improve our English by learning up a lot of words and illustrations and using them in speech and writing. What we tend to forget is that the tone of voice and body gestures play an equally important role in getting our messages across effectively. In fact the tone becomes all the more important while speaking over phone. It is very important that the tone is engaging and lively. Very often telecallers sound bored or disinterested which does nothing to impress the people they are calling.
Besides using words and expressions, it is essential to remember the importance of patience, voice, gestures and eye-contact while communicating. It should be kept in mind that the listener(s) are not there to learn English from us but to get some useful information. Communication is about providing information clearly and comprehensibly. So all that needs to go into making a message simple and understandable should be used. A string of high-flown words and expressions might not get us anywhere close to achieving our purpose.