5 New Communication Technologies to Supplement Email
Every business relies on effective communication with its customers. Communication doesn’t just convey information, it inspires trust, builds credibility, stimulates involvement and generates loyalty. But in today’s global, hi-tech, rapidly changing business environment, how do you ensure you’re communicating effectively?
The Benchmark – Face-to-Face
There’s no doubt that face-to-face communication is the most effective method for most people. Why? Because of its two-way nature. It’s about dialogue. Listeners are not passive participants. When someone talks to us, we send a continuous stream of responses back to them. Some are verbal, but many/most are not. These responses have the power to actually change the message being disseminated by the talker. What’s more, they have the power to change how other listeners’ interpret that message. (Similarly, other listeners have the power to change your interpretation.)
Communications Strategies in the Schoolyard
Communications strategies aren’t just the domain of the business and technology worlds. Every day in so many ways, whether we are aware of it or not, we use communications strategies in order to properly manage our lives.
Education is a sector in which effective communications strategies are vital to the smooth running of both administrational and practical matters, as well as ensuring the safety of staff and pupils. Sometimes these strategies are high profile like loudspeaker or tannoy systems, but other forms of communication can be less obvious like video surveillance systems. Here are a few of the more common ways educational institutions keep themselves connected.
Pagers and Alerters
For the most part, it is not practical for teachers to be able to access emails or answer phones during lesson time, so many larger educational institutions equip their staff with pagers or alerters. These serve not only to connect administration and faculty staff, but also to ensure the security of staff and pupils. With access to instant communications strategies like these it merely takes the push of a button to enable assistance to be summoned if, and when, required. In the case of a panic button, which is often installed in classrooms, the alarm is completely silent so as not to draw the attention of any potential perpetrator.
Crisis Communication Plan In Action – An Evaluation Of The Beaconsfield Mine Emergency
A crisis communication plan is essential for any organisation. How an emergency or incident such as the Beaconsfield mine disaster is handled can make or break a company.
A crisis is any situation that threatens the integrity or reputation of your company. It is usually a disruptive event, incident or situation with large consequences.
A crisis or emergency is usually sudden, acute and unexpected, just like the incident in Tasmania’s Beaconsfiled mine that left miner Larry Knight dead and Brant Webb and Todd Russell trapped in a cage a kilometre underground for 14 days.