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Introduction and guidance

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

This free badged course, Communication and working relationships in sport and fitness, lasts 24 hours, with 8 ‘sessions’. You can work through the course at your own pace, so if you have more time one week there is no problem with pushing on to complete a further study session. The eight sessions are linked to ensure a logical flow through the course. They are:

The purposes of communication
Impact and getting your message across
Effective communication enhancing relationships
Connecting with others
Becoming more influential
When does harsh feedback become bullying?
Power and its impact on the communication process
Topical aspects of communication.

The course will boost your ability to vary your communication approach according to the situation and the needs of the people involved. You will accelerate your learning by placing yourself in other’s shoes during vivid video examples. These film clips show effective and ineffective communication in action, including spoken and non-verbal behaviour. You will examine a range of communication practices which will help you to build rapport and to deal better with a range of situations, including written communication.

There will be numerous opportunities to check your learning. This includes interactive quizzes, of which Sessions 4 and 8 will provide you with an opportunity to earn a badge to demonstrate your new skills. You can read more on how to study the course and about badges in the next sections.

After completing this course, you will be able to:

recognise the importance of effective communication in the sector in benefitting sport and fitness participants’ experiences
evaluate your own communication skills
demonstrate an awareness of being able to build and sustain working relationships
use observational skills and new knowledge to interpret work interactions and relationships.

Moving around the course

In the ‘Summary’ at the end of each session, you will find a link to the next session. If at any time you want to return to the start of the course, click on ‘Full course description’. From here you can navigate to any part of the course.

It’s also good practice, if you access a link from within a course page (including links to the quizzes), to open it in a new window or tab. That way you can easily return to where you’ve come from without having to use the back button on your browser.

What is a badged course?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

While studying Communication and working relationships in sport and fitness you have the option to work towards gaining a digital badge.

Badged courses are a key part of The Open University’s mission to promote the educational wellbeing of the community. The courses also provide another way of helping you to progress from informal to formal learning.

Completing a course will require about 24 hours of study time. However, you can study the course at any time and at a pace to suit you.

Badged courses are available on The Open University’s OpenLearn website and do not cost anything to study. They differ from Open University courses because you do not receive support from a tutor, but you do get useful feedback from the interactive quizzes.

What is a badge?

Digital badges are a new way of demonstrating online that you have gained a skill. Colleges and universities are working with employers and other organisations to develop open badges that help learners gain recognition for their skills, and support employers to identify the right candidate for a job.

Badges demonstrate your work and achievement on the course. You can share your achievement with friends, family and employers, and on social media. Badges are a great motivation, helping you to reach the end of the course. Gaining a badge often boosts confidence in the skills and abilities that underpin successful study. So, completing this course could encourage you to think about taking other courses.

How to get a badge

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Getting a badge is straightforward! Here’s what you have to do:

read each session of the course
score 50% or more in the two badge quizzes in Session 4 and Session 8.

For all the quizzes, you can have three attempts at most of the questions (for true or false type questions you usually only get one attempt). If you get the answer right first time you will get more marks than for a correct answer the second or third time. Therefore, please be aware that for the two badge quizzes it is possible to get all the questions right but not score 50% and be eligible for the badge on that attempt. If one of your answers is incorrect you will often receive helpful feedback and suggestions about how to work out the correct answer.

For the badge quizzes, if you’re not successful in getting 50% the first time, after 24 hours you can attempt the whole quiz, and come back as many times as you like.

We hope that as many people as possible will gain an Open University badge – so you should see getting a badge as an opportunity to reflect on what you have learned rather than as a test.

If you need more guidance on getting a badge and what you can do with it, take a look at the OpenLearn FAQs. When you gain your badge you will receive an email to notify you and you will be able to view and manage all your badges in My OpenLearn within 24 hours of completing the criteria to gain a badge.

Get started with Session 1.

Acknowledgements

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

This free course was written by Ben Oakley.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this free course:

Images

Course Image: © Kikovic/Getty Images

Logo: UK Coaching https://www.ukcoaching.org/

Logo: Communications and Relationships in Sport © The Open University

Audio-visual

Trailer video on course description page © The Open University (2018) and its licensors

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Don't miss out

If reading this text has inspired you to learn more, you may be interested in joining the millions of people who discover our free learning resources and qualifications by visiting The Open University – www.open.edu/ openlearn/ free-courses.

Introduction

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

All through your life you continually change how you speak and what you speak about. Each situation you find yourself in demands a slightly different method of communication from you. You can probably think of situations when your communication has faltered and scenarios which result in misunderstanding. You either adapt by seeking expert help – for instance, special training is sometimes available to prepare you for public speaking or similar tasks – or, more likely, you reflect and learn from experience. Over time you develop differing degrees of awareness of how to respond appropriately in different situations. The opening two sessions of this course will accelerate your learning from experience.

Figure _unit2.1.1 Figure 1 Communication is key.

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This is a photograph of two young boys: one is trying to speak to the other through a megaphone.

Figure 1 Communication is key.

In this first session of the course, you will be introduced to the purpose of small talk and non-verbal communication. However, you’ll begin to develop your understanding of the purpose of communication exchanges by going in at the deep end. First, you will watch an example of communication under intense pressure in motor racing.

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

explain the different purposes of communication, whether that be small talk or the main part of any dialogue
identify how communication goes beyond words and consists of how you say them with non-verbal elements such as gestures, facial expressions and eye contact
appreciate that we can’t always hide our innermost feelings.

The Open University would really appreciate you taking a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations of the course. Your input will help to improve the online learning experience. If you would like to help, and if you haven’t already done so, please fill in this optional survey.

This course is supported and strongly recommended by UK Coaching. Whether you’re just starting out or have been coaching for years you will learn new skills and demonstrate that you have been proactive in your professoinal development.

1 Life and death communication in motor racing

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

In this first activity, you will watch a lively extract concerning life and death decisions during a motor racing pit-stop.

Figure _unit2.2.1 Figure 2 Communication in the pit-stop can be crucial.

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This is a photograph of a busy pit-lane.

Figure 2 Communication in the pit-stop can be crucial.

Activity _unit2.2.1 Activity 1 Chris Hoy’s motor racing pit-stop

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes

When multiple Olympic cycling champion Sir Chris Hoy retired, he took up motor racing and went to the Le Mans 24-hour race to compete. Watch the video of Chris Hoy’s motor racing pit-stop but please be warned that there is some swearing in this clip so carefully choose where you watch it so as not to cause offence to others. In addition to Chris Hoy who is driving, there are two other main people interacting: the race engineer (coordinating radio communications) and the team principal leading the pit-crew. Using examples from this video make notes on the following questions:

How does the competition situation influence the purpose of the communication and the tone that is used?
How are relationships strengthened or threatened through this exchange?

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_2018j_vid008-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

CHRIS:

Front right, flat spot. I've flat spotted the front right tyre with bad vibration.

STUART:

OK, see if you can keep your pace up. If the vibration is too much, then we'll bring you in. Jonathan, if he locks the tyre and goes through, we'll have a puncture and we're fucked. Soft set for the car please. Soft tyres for the car immediately. Johnathan, why change all four? He's just going to kill us.

JONATHAN:

I can't do anything about that. If he's on track and he's losing that much time, he's going to kill us anyway.

STUART:

Just put one.

JONATHAN:

I can't make sets, Stuart. That's just stupid. There will be a balancing difference.

STUART:

They do it in Formula 1. They do it in this series. Just put one tyre on.

CHRIS

Can you please stop talking. I'm going to have to come in. I can barely see the windscreen.

JONATHAN:

Chris, you have to wait. I'm afraid you've buggered the tyres. I cannot just fix it like that. You have to continue driving until I've got to a point where I can stop you to fix the problem.

STUART:

What are they? We need hot soft. Johnathan, there's no soft tyres at all. You'll just have to go with one tyre.

JONATHAN:

He's flat spotted both fronts. Just do the whole set.

CHRIS:

I'm going to have to come in, this is getting fucking dangerous now.

JONATHAN:

OK, we've got to take the chance. Box now.

MAN:

They're cold, all the tyres.

STUART:

Oh, fuck me.

NARRATOR:

Using cold tyres can be like driving on ice.

CHRIS:

I'm sorry about that. It was so annoying. Flat spotted going into the Mulsanne corner.

JONATHAN:

So what's done is done. We can't change it. Just concentrate and we'll go again.

CHRIS:

Copied.

STUART:

Are you going to tell him these are cold?

JONATHAN:

We'll do it once you're done. OK, Chris, nice and easy. The tyres are cold. So just be careful with them.

STUART:

Chris, really careful, the first two laps, extreme care. I know what's happened. Because Jonathan's worried about each cycle you were waiting to put the next set of mediums in. But what happens is, if you wait, you get fucked. Fuck him. I know what I'm talking about. Always have a set of hot tyres in.

JONATHAN:

OK, Chris how are you feeling? Is everything OK?

End transcript

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Restrict yourself to 20 minutes for this activity. It would be easy to spend hours on it with a very in-depth analysis; instead restrict your time, give your initial responses to the two questions and then read the Discussion to reinforce your learning.

Discussion

This is a very high-pressure situation requiring fast decisions and communication during competition: a race track pit-stop needs to be quick. Their communication has an information function (e.g. ‘replace all four tyres’) and/or an interpersonal function in developing confidence and/or trust and rapport. Analysis of individual interactions when taken out of this intense competition context should recognise the needs of this demanding environment.
There are numerous examples of ambiguous communication or too much information or messages dominated by anger; this often makes these messages less effective. For instance, at one point Hoy has to say ‘can you please stop talking, I’m going to have to come in …’ as he fears for his safety.
The first successful piece of interpersonal communication occurs when Chris Hoy (CH) comes into the pit-stop when his confidence has been threatened:
- CH: ‘I’m sorry about that, that’s so annoying …’ [i.e. an apology to the team]
  Race engineer: ‘What’s done is done, we can’t change it, lets concentrate and we go again’ [supportive and positive]
  CH: ‘copied’ [I have received the message].
In terms of relationships being strengthened or threatened, you might have noticed some of the following examples. Throughout the exchanges tensions run quite high and the team leader’s anger could harm the relationship with his race engineer and team colleagues. One outburst appeared ego-centred and perhaps unusual, e.g. ‘F*** him [i.e. the race engineer], I know what I’m talking about’.
The penultimate exchange between team leader (TL) and race engineer (RE), however, demonstrates listening to each other in the heat of the situation and the working relationship being maintained:
- TL: ‘Are you going to tell him [Chris Hoy] that these [tyres] are cold?’
  RE: ‘Will do once you’re done’.
After the pit-stop it is noticeable how the race engineer attempts to build rapport and confidence with Chris by asking ‘OK Chris, how are you feeling, everything OK?’

Although we all communicate every day, this video and research into the topic demonstrate that communication and working relationships are a complex set of social skills and behaviours (e.g. Bowes and Jones, 2006). However, here in this course, it is broken down into parts – thereby making it easier to study – and you will revisit this video in Session 2 to make further sense of it.

Right now, at the beginning of this course, you should consider to what extent you use small talk when you catch up with someone. Is small talk pointless chit-chat or a social lubricant?

2 What is the point of small talk?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The technical name for small talk is phatic communication; for example, ‘Hi, you OK?’ or a comment about the weather. Questions or comments such as these are not meant to elicit detailed responses but they do serve a social purpose.

Activity _unit2.3.1 Activity 2 What is the purpose of phatic talk?

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes

Listen to a linguist, academic and psychotherapist discussing phatic talk. The audio starts with psychotherapist and writer Philippa Perry describing phatic talk as ‘mundane information that has been exchanged between two people … ’ What do you think is the purpose of the phatic talk in different sport and fitness settings?

Download this audio clip.Audio player: e119_2018j_aug005.mp3

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Transcript

PHILLIPA PERRY

Mundane information that has been exchanged between people hundreds of times before, nothing original in it, but said with great sort of sincerity and good heart between these two and I think that is actually the key to small talk. It’s when you are speaking from your heart but it’s the process of the speaking rather than the content of it that is important. Like I meet my friend off the train and I go, ‘hi, how are you? How was your journey?’ And basically I might as well be saying, ‘Hmm, hmm’ you know because I'm really pleased to see her.

MICHAEL ROSEN

You're putting words in there as well.

PHILLIPA PERRY

I'm just putting words in –

LAURA WRIGHT

It’s all about establishing relationships and also this business of achieving transition like with your example of seeing somebody getting off the train. So it’s transition from that moment where you two are apart to first seeing each other to actually coming close enough to talk to each other, to establishing good will. Then – what on earth are you gonna talk about? What’s been happening? The things you want to express. The things you don’t want to express.

MICHAEL ROSEN

Just go back to the words themselves. Isn't the point if you say there is phatic communication and then there is other kind of communication, you are saying that it’s not actually the content of the words that count? So when people say language is communication in this particular case if I say ‘how are you?’ it’s not the content of ‘how are you?’ that I'm communicating. I'm communicating ‘coo-ee are you a friend?’ Or whatever I am. But it’s not the words themselves. So it’s not strictly speaking language as communication it’s the total moment as communication. Is that right?

LAURA WRIGHT

I think that’s right. I mean phatic communication can be different from other sorts of language precisely in that ritualisation that you're just talking about there. I mean what words did you just give me? ‘How are you doing? How are you?’

MICHAEL ROSEN

That sort of thing –

LAURA WRIGHT

But you haven't thought that through just then and invented it on the spot. That’s something you’ve said a zillion times beforehand and it’s got to be collaborative. So if you do that ‘all right?’ or ‘how are you doing?’ or whatever and the other person doesn’t respond then that’s a problem. It has to be both of you contributing.

PHILLIPA PERRY

There's a certain rule of reprocracy isn't there? I mean if I say ‘nice weather’ or ‘how are you?’ I am wanting a response and I also want you to sort of agree with me. So, if I say ‘nice weather’, I want you to go ‘yeah it’s lovely’.

MICHAEL ROSEN

And then aren’t we doing – we’re saying we’re in the same social unit. It’s a coherence thing here or cohesion that we’re saying if you say ‘nice weather’, I go ‘yeah nice weather’. But if I go ‘I dunno’ then I've broken it haven't I?

PHILLIPA PERRY

Yes and then I take a step back and go ‘okay.’ You’ve said you can't come in any further. And if you ignore me altogether – well, I know my place don’t I?

[…]

PHILLIPA PERRY

So you tell a story and in my mind I'm trying to find connections to that story and then when I find a connection then I share my story with you again and then you find connections in what I'm saying and then we go to places that neither of us would have got to on our own.

LAURA WRIGHT

That’s my definition of a good conversation – a successful one.

PHILLIPA PERRY

I think you can get to that sort of good conversation via ritualised small talk.

End transcript

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Discussion

In the audio, they describe phatic talk as ritualised and a process that helps establish a relationship or a transition before the more detailed conversation starts. They describe it as establishing goodwill, collaboration and cohesion, provided those interacting reciprocate (join in) the dialogue. If they choose not to respond, this could be interpreted as being unfriendly or even hostile. In sport and fitness the topics that are chosen to be discussed are selected in order to make mutual agreement almost guaranteed, such as ‘what did you think of the match/game/event at the weekend?’ or ‘how are your family?’

Phatic openings are invaluable means of establishing relations before getting down to the real purpose of the encounter.

3 More than words

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Speech and phatic talk is enhanced through features such as the pace, volume, rhythm and intonation of speech (known as paralinguistic features). These, in turn, can shape meaning.

Activity _unit2.4.1 Activity 3 Phatic talk in action: Lauren’s tennis coaching

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Watch this video of Lauren greeting a young tennis player.

As you watch the video, look out for how much mutual collaboration (contributions from both parties) and reciprocation (returning or mirroring the contribution) there is in the phatic talk.

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_2018j_vid015-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

BEN

Hi Lauren, how are you?

LAUREN ROSE

I'm good thanks, how are you?

BEN

Good.

LAUREN ROSE

Good. Have a seat. Had a good week?

BEN

Yeah.

LAUREN ROSE

Yeah.

BEN

It's been very hot.

LAUREN ROSE

It has been hot, hasn't it. Good day at school?

BEN

Mm-hmm.

LAUREN ROSE

Yeah? Been watching any Wimbledon?

BEN

Yeah.

LAUREN ROSE

Brilliant. Good. OK, so I thought today we'd do a bit of work on your backhand, OK, and a little bit work on weight transfer on your backhand just to give you a little bit more power through the shot.

BEN

And depth.

LAUREN ROSE

And depth, exactly. Yep.

End transcript

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Discussion

The young tennis player instigates the interaction by smiling and asking ‘how are you?’ and this is mirrored by Lauren. Lauren gestures to the seat as a friendly invitation to sit down, hinting at her authority over him. Their conversation is up and running and Lauren asks him about how his week has been, his day at school and if he has been watching Wimbledon. The comment on the hot weather is safe ground they can easily agree on. Young people soon learn the ritual of these phatic openings even if they don’t appreciate the purpose. The dialogue established, Lauren marks that the exchange is moving to a more instructional stage with ‘brilliant … good … so’, before explaining the focus of the training session.

You probably already appreciate some aspects of what we term non-verbal communication, but the next section will give you insight into its significance in building relationships and/or sustaining others’ motivation.

4 Non-verbal communication in action

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

You may think that facial expressions – smiles, laughs, frowns – convey the way the speaker feels at that moment. You are indeed partly in control of feelings – or you can be, with practice. You may not be able to control your innermost emotions, but you are able to partly control the way you exhibit them; an important part of behaviour in working life.

Non-verbal communication includes several other features, such as gesture, proximity and eye contact. You will briefly examine each in turn in a moment.

Activity _unit2.5.1 Activity 4 Introducing non-verbal communication

Timing: Allow about 15 minutes

Watch the TED talk ‘Your body language may shape who you are’, in which Amy Cuddy explores the importance of non-verbal communication. Watch from 1 minute up until 3 minutes 27 seconds. As you watch, look out for:

Research examples that explain how long it takes for reasonably accurate first impressions to form?
How does the speaker use her hands and gestures in her talk? How much does it help or hinder her communication?

Discussion

Research suggests that it took between 1 second in one study (based on appearance) and 30 seconds in another (based on interactions with the sound turned down) for people to make rapid judgements or impressions that were fairly reliable.
She uses her hands to accentuate the rhythm of her speech and give extra emphasis to some words with more vigorous movements. There were also moments when she pointed inwardly to herself, indicating ‘me/I’ or reached outwardly to ‘you’, the audience. These inward/outward gestures enhanced her communication and are worth thinking about for your own use with groups.

In fact, evidence suggests that you can’t entirely hide your innermost emotions: our faces leak information (Yan et al., 2013). The following video clip explains how numerous micro-expressions can involuntarily flicker across your face in 1/25th of a second.

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_2018j_vid029-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

NARRATOR

To navigate our increasingly complex social world, we need to learn to collaborate and cooperate with one another. And that means we must learn how to understand the needs and desires of others.

GIRL

And we’re done.

[LAUGHTER]

MAN 1

One of the ways that we can read each other is through our facial expressions, which convey our emotions.

MAN 2

And we are all really good at reading the facial expressions of other people, almost to the point of being mind readers.

NARRATOR

We first learn to read six basic expressions - happy, angry, surprised, disgusted, scared, and sad, really sad.

MAN 1

But our emotions are rarely as simple as pure happiness or pure sadness. And the latest research now shows that we have 21 different facial expressions to convey how we feel. That might include happily surprised or sadly disgusted.

NARRATOR

We now think that there are many thousands of micro expressions - moments that flicker across your face involuntarily in around 1/25th of a second when you’re trying to conceal how you really feel.

End transcript

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5 Gestures

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Gestures, as you have just seen in the TED talk example in Activity 4, are actions made with the head or the hands.

Figure _unit2.6.1 Figure 3 Heads, hands and eyes can convey a great deal.

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This is a photograph of a woman talking and gesturing with her hands.

Figure 3 Heads, hands and eyes can convey a great deal.

Activity _unit2.6.1 Activity 5 What do your head or hands say?

Timing: Allow about 15 minutes

Observe a number of face-to-face conversations between two people without being overly intrusive. Considering the shifting roles of speaker and listener, who mainly uses head gestures and who mainly uses hand gestures?

Discussion

Hand gestures are normally reserved for the speaker. The listener is normally restricted to a head gesture, such as nodding, which is important since it is able to signal to the speaker that the listener is understanding what is being said. Nodding is a sign of active listening, and it provides encouragement to the speaker and is important for the success of an interaction.

The topic of hand gestures is too large to discuss here. However, we can say that they can be either helpful for emphasis or, in contrast, overused and a distraction. Sometimes – as in the case of pointing at someone – they can even be seen as overbearing.

6 Proximity

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Proximity concerns the distance people stand (or indeed sit) from each other in given situations. Anthropologist Edward Hall introduced the concept in 1969; he recognised four basic degrees of intimate, personal, social and public space.

Activity _unit2.7.1 Activity 6 What is your personal space limit?

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Watch up until 2 minutes 45 seconds of the following video in which a comedian tests Hall’s four degrees of space with members of the public. This clip is not a scientific experiment but its purpose is to stimulate you to reflect on the following question: in a sport or fitness workplace, might proximity considerations be different in any way – if so, how?

Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Discussion

While a coach or instructor whose proximity was too distant might be perceived as uncaring, at the other end of the scale legitimate touching and manipulation of adult athletes into the appropriate position might be appropriate if there is consent (Kerr et al, 2015). For example, it would be common practice to ask ‘is it OK if I move you into position?’ or similar.

The following information on the NSPCC website offers guidelines for how physical contact between adults and children in sport can take place appropriately and safely.

7 Eye contact

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The role of eye contact (its presence or absence) in face-to-face interaction is crucial. Eye contact during a neutral conversation lasts just a couple of seconds at a time.

Eye contact behaviour varies slightly in groups. If you are addressing a meeting, or coaching a team, eye contact can be vital for imparting a sense of inclusion, and also for holding attention. The speaker often ensures that everybody receives a share of the gaze.

Experienced coaches will know that prolonged eye contact in certain group situations can fulfil other functions, such as giving specific emphasis to part of a group.

You will have an opportunity to apply your initial learning to the communication exchanges in Chris Hoy’s motor racing pit stop video at the start of Session 2, delving a bit deeper into what was said in speech and non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication is a form of feedback between those in a conversation and therefore interpreted by people and thus they respond accordingly. The following observation is from an Open University student:

I find Skype really difficult as I find the conversation cues difficult to read because there is no eye contact – in fact, I would far rather use face-to-face or phone.

8 This session’s quiz

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Check what you’ve learned this session by taking the end-of-session quiz.

Session 1 practice quiz

Open the quiz in a new window or tab then come back here when you’ve finished.

9 Summary

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The main learning points from this first session are:

Communication often serves two purposes: conveying information and/or an interpersonal function. The interpersonal function relates to developing confidence, trust, rapport or alternatively more negative signals towards others.
Phatic talk openings to dialogue are important in establishing goodwill, collaboration and cohesion between people.
Communication involves not only the words you use, but also the accompanying paralinguistic features such as pace, volume, rhythm and intonation of speech, all of which add to meaning.
Non-verbal communication features include gestures, proximity and eye contact that contribute to effective communication.
Hand gestures are often used by speakers to accentuate the rhythm of their speech and give emphasis to certain words. They can also be used to point inwardly to magnify the first person (i.e. ‘me’, ‘I’, or ‘personally’) or outwardly to those listening (i.e. ‘you’).
Head gestures are often used by listeners in a dialogue to show they are listening.
You can partly control the feelings you exhibit but hiding your innermost emotions can be hard: our faces leak information as numerous micro-expressions involuntarily flicker across our face.

In the next session, you will explore how to get your message across effectively with particular reference to how your written messages can have most impact. Communication is also about the impressions you give to others when interacting with them: how does the persona you convey have an influence on your communication?

You can now go to Session 2.

References

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Bowes, I. and Jones, R. L. (2006) ‘Working at the edge of chaos: understanding coaching as a complex, interpersonal system’, The Sport Psychologist, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 235–45.

Hall, E. T. (1966) The Hidden Dimension, first edn, New York, NY, Doubleday and Co.

Kerr, G. A., Stirling, A. E., Heron, A., MacPherson, E. A. and Banwell, J. M. (2015) ‘The importance of touch in sport: athletes’ and coaches’ reflections’, International Journal of Social Science Studies, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 56–68.

Yan, W. J., Wu, Q., Liang, J., Chen, Y. H. and Fu, X. (2013) ‘How fast are the leaked facial expressions: the duration of micro-expressions’, Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 217–30.

Acknowledgements

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

This free course was written by Ben Oakley.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

Images

Figure 1: © Andrew Rich/Getty Images

Figure 2: © Sjo / iStock /Getty Images Plus

Figure 3: © Yuri_Arcurs / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Audio-visual

Activity 1: Video: extract from: Chris Hoy 220 mph at Le Mans BBC Two last on 29 Oct 2016 © BBC 2016

Activity 2: audio: extract from: BBC Radio 4 Word of Mouth- Small Talk © BBC (2016)

Activity 4: Video: extract from: The Human Body episode 3 Emotions © BBC 2 last on Nov 2017 © BBC (2017)

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Don't miss out

Introduction

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

You will start this session by applying your learning to the motor racing video from Session 1. Then you will move on to explore two key questions. The first is what makes spoken and written messages effective? Clearly, this is connected to getting your message across in an optimal way, so you will discover how your written messages can have most impact, and you’ll use the example of email as a communication channel since it illustrates characteristics that are also used in business and social media writing.

The second question you will respond to in this session is about the impressions you give to others when interacting with them: how does the persona you convey during interactions influence your communication? This is about how others might perceive you, even though they might not know you that well. For instance, it’s likely that you already have an impression of Chris Hoy and this would influence how you communicated with him.

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

use observational skills to interpret work interactions and relationships
understand how the structure, sequencing and tone of messages, whether in writing or in speech, are a key feature of how clear and concise they are
recognise how the way in which you create impressions in your communication has an impact on how others respond to you.

Before moving on, watch the following video featuring award-winning journalist Sue Mott and Open University academic and former Olympic coach Ben Oakley.

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Transcript

BEN

In this section, we ask the question, what makes communication effective? So Sue, how would you respond to that question?

SUE

Well, I would say that you have to be, first of all, crystal clear in what you're saying, but also entertaining, also engaging. Because you are out there competing with a lot of other things for people's attention. And unless you make it really fun or just grabbing people's attention, it will wash over people.

BEN

From your experience, tell us a bit more how you sort of put that into action.

SUE

Well, there's a big difference between the spoken word and the written word. For one thing, if I'm writing an article or even an email, I've got the luxury of time to craft it and shape it a bit. But if I'm talking, as I am to you now, then it's just all going to come tumbling out. And things could go horribly wrong. And it's riskier.

BEN

Yes. I know from personal experience, you don't always manage to say things in the right way. But has it got something to do with how you present yourself to others?

SUE

Yes. I think it absolutely does. I think you have to present your best self to people to elicit the greatest response from them. And you don't always know what that will be. And it's a very difficult thing to do, because sometimes you're intimidated by someone you're talking to. Or you may be nervous going into it. I was always very terrified when I interviewed Prince Philip.

BEN

I can imagine.

SUE

Yeah. And sometimes, you're just having a bad day. So you have to present your best self, so that you are saying to them, please feel free to trust me. Please, open up to me, because I am listening and paying attention.

BEN

So to some extent, you're sort of an actor. You're presenting your persona that you think might have the best results.

SUE

Well, actually, you are. Yes. You are acting to produce your best self in order to get the best results. But it sounds misleading. But in fact, it's quite innate. We do act differently with different people in our social life.

BEN

And I guess we get better the more and more we live these experiences. So there's lots of really interesting things to explore further there. And we'll be looking at those during this section.

End transcript

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1 Applying your learning: communication in motor racing

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Before addressing the main questions in this session, you will use this opportunity to consolidate your learning and insights from Session 1 by revisiting the earlier motor racing film featuring Chris Hoy.

Activity _unit3.2.1 Activity 1 Revisit the earlier motor racing film

Timing: Allow about 30 minutes

Watch the video again. Please remember that this clip contains some swearing.

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Transcript

CHRIS:

Front right, flat spot. I've flat spotted the front right tyre with bad vibration.

STUART:

JONATHAN:

I can't do anything about that. If he's on track and he's losing that much time, he's going to kill us anyway.

STUART:

Just put one.

JONATHAN:

I can't make sets, Stuart. That's just stupid. There will be a balancing difference.

STUART:

They do it in Formula 1. They do it in this series. Just put one tyre on.

CHRIS

Can you please stop talking. I'm going to have to come in. I can barely see the windscreen.

JONATHAN:

Chris, you have to wait. I'm afraid you've buggered the tyres. I cannot just fix it like that. You have to continue driving until I've got to a point where I can stop you to fix the problem.

STUART:

What are they? We need hot soft. Johnathan, there's no soft tyres at all. You'll just have to go with one tyre.

JONATHAN:

He's flat spotted both fronts. Just do the whole set.

CHRIS:

I'm going to have to come in, this is getting fucking dangerous now.

JONATHAN:

OK, we've got to take the chance. Box now.

MAN:

They're cold, all the tyres.

STUART:

Oh, fuck me.

NARRATOR:

Using cold tyres can be like driving on ice.

CHRIS:

I'm sorry about that. It was so annoying. Flat spotted going into the Mulsanne corner.

JONATHAN:

So what's done is done. We can't change it. Just concentrate and we'll go again.

CHRIS:

Copied.

STUART:

Are you going to tell him these are cold?

JONATHAN:

We'll do it once you're done. OK, Chris, nice and easy. The tyres are cold. So just be careful with them.

STUART:

JONATHAN:

OK, Chris how are you feeling? Is everything OK?

End transcript

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This time, identify:

two examples of non-verbal communication in the film
why the race engineer uses paralinguistic features (i.e. pace, volume, rhythm and emphasis) in his radio communication to convey messages
what you think team members’ impressions are of their team principal.

Discussion

One example of non-verbal communication is during the disagreement about the number of tyres to be fitted. The race engineer uses considerable hand gestures even while using the radio. At one point he uses a one-handed stop sign as the team principal says, ‘Just put one … [you stop].’ It appears that the listener, the team principal, can’t see the gestures. This demonstrates how non-verbal communication is deeply integrated into language. When their conversation heightens to open disagreement he ends the exchange without words: he uses a dismissive overhead throw-away movement.
The other example is when the team principal speaks with the pit-crew afterwards in which his hand gestures reinforce his frustration and he also points inwardly to himself to reinforce his ‘I know what I’m talking about’ message.
The race engineer tries to remain calm, speaking clearly and slowly to his colleagues on the radio: an important characteristic needed in his role in supporting the driver. He places emphasis on certain words, in italics, for effect, e.g. ‘soft tyres to the car immediately’ and ‘OK Chris, how are you feeling, is everything OK?’ This highlights in the first example the urgency and in the second the personal care in his relationship and support of Chris.
It is likely that the team members describe their team principal as being passionate, or similar, and that this sometimes is expressed as frustration or anger when mistakes occur. You could describe him as being confident in his own judgement: he often refers to his knowledge of motor racing. It is likely that outside this pressure environment he behaves very differently.

The videos that you will watch through this course feature speech and non-verbal communication. But what about communicating in writing: how is it different to speech?

2 To speak or write?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The major difference when writing compared to speaking is that usually you have the advantage of being able to prepare and draft your text.

Figure _unit3.3.1 Figure 1 Distinct differences between speech and writing.

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This is a photograph of two people in an office environment talking to each other.

Figure 1 Distinct differences between speech and writing.

Often, speech or writing will suit a particular message more than another depending on the context. For example, a coach may give verbal feedback to an athlete and then follow this up with electronic written communication. Sometimes writing is used as a more formal way of recording an exchange, particularly in management situations.

But whatever the communication channel, how do we help make our messages effective?

3 Developing an effective message

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Effective messages are often characterised by being concise, with points made in a well-organised sequence – this clarifies their meaning. Workplace communication can use a range of media, such as telephone, Skype, WhatsApp and email. The next activity uses the example of email because it is a widely used form of business communication. However, the main focus here is on message structure rather than the media used.

Figure _unit3.4.1 Figure 2 Effective messages have similar characteristics whatever the channel used.

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This is a photograph of a person’s hands typing on a laptop.

Figure 2 Effective messages have similar characteristics whatever the channel used.

Activity _unit3.4.1 Activity 2 How would you improve this message?

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes

Read the following example of an email message from Mary, a strength and conditioning coach. She is writing about Jessica, a talented athlete working in an apprenticeship role in an organisation. The purpose of Mary’s message is to alert the apprenticeship coordinator, Shamela, to the athlete needing some space in her timetable.

Mary’s email

Hi Shamela
I’ve been working with Jessica on her free weight lifts and the problem is that she has poor range of movement, so she is not very good at getting into the catch position. She wants to do it properly, but she’s not going to make progress until she can sort out her flexibility. I don’t want to push her too hard until she has this. I’ve spoken to the physio last Monday and he has spoken to Jessica. The physio says that they can help Jessica, but Jessica hasn’t been available to put in the extra time for the sessions with her since her current work schedule does not allow this. As we’ve talked about before, Jessica getting this technique correct is important to her so she can lift enough weight to have an impact on her power when running, without increasing the risk of injury. She can do the other gym work well. So could you free up some of Jessica’s time so that she can put the effort in?
Thanks
Mary

(adapted from Kyndt and Rowell, 2012)

Overall, how do you think the message could be improved in terms of organisation, conciseness and/or clarity?
Note down the words that express matters negatively or positively – does the message convey an optimistic, constructive approach?

Discussion

Overall, the message is poor. It is not that clear because it meanders around following Mary’s thoughts – it is disorganised and does not follow a logical, concise sequence. It comes across as passing on a problem that Shamela has to address.
There is a dominance of phrases such as ‘the problem’, ‘not very good’ and ‘not going to make progress,’ which give a downbeat impression and are not concise. Positive and constructive language is more likely to help build a stronger working relationship with the people reading a message.

This activity raises the question: how do we organise messages to be clear?

4 Structuring messages

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

A useful four-stage structure for developing written or spoken messages is: Situation, Target, Proposal, Courtesy (STPC). This is described in Figure 3.

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Online activity _unit3.5.1 Figure 3 A four-stage structure for developing effective messages (adapted from Kyndt and Rowell (2012)).

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Under the heading ‘Situation’ is the following text: ‘Start positively, explain the situation and your purpose for the email - some prompts that may help are: Who is involved? What are you trying to achieve through the message?’. Under the heading ‘Target’ is the following text: ‘This identifies the desired endpoint or possibilities. Prompts that may help are: How will this endpoint make an impact? Who supports this goal?’. Under the heading ‘Proposal’ is the following text: ‘A description of what is needed to get to the endpoint. This may include: Actions, paths, roles; A plan/strategy’. Under the heading ‘Courtesy’ is the following text: ‘Includes thanking or praising the recipient, showing solidarity and, if appropriate, apologising’.

Figure 3 A four-stage structure for developing effective messages (adapted from Kyndt and Rowell (2012)).

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Activity _unit3.5.1 Activity 3 Start using STPC in Mary’s email

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Some of the text from Mary’s email has been written in a more positive fashion, so now you need to arrange the sentences into a STPC structure. Click on each extract and drag it to the space where you think it belongs. You will be given feedback as you place the words and phrases.

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Discussion

You may have noticed that paying attention to the structure of a message such as this, and taking account of supporting your relationship with the recipient, is important in developing clarity and trust. In this case the proposed action is framed as a suggestion and gives the recipient, Shamela, some choice as to how to proceed. Also notice how the message begins and ends in an upbeat, positive tone.

Communicative features such as the clarity, positive tone and courtesy of this email strongly contribute to how the recipient will perceive the sender. A lot depends on the purpose of the written communication and in some cases a more directive message may be appropriate. However, in all messages you are creating an impression of yourself and as you will see these are important in on-going dialogue.

5 On show: work as a performance

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The impressions you give to other people, whether communicating in speech or writing, strongly influence how others respond to us and can influence working relationships. A prominent author in coaching, Robyn Jones, has written an honest account of his semi-professional coaching while also managing shyness and frustration, stemming from a speech impediment. For him trying to coach seemed to be inviting ridicule and loss of ‘face’ (Jones, 2006). He therefore describes his coaching work as a type of performance.

Figure _unit3.6.1 Figure 4 What face are you wearing?

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Figure 4 What face are you wearing?

The following activity uses an extract from his explanation of coaching work as a performance and asks you to think about how you plan your communication.

Activity _unit3.6.1 Activity 4 Performance and managing impressions

Timing: Allow about 25 minutes

Read through the following short extract from Jones’s (2006) article.

Portraying coaching as a ‘performance’

This article presents an … account of myself as coach of a semi professional football … team … The purpose is to tell a different, perhaps a ‘truer,’ story about coaches and coaching ... . Principal among these is a portrayal of coaching … as a performance aimed at managing the impressions of others. … The front constructed relates to convincing athletes that the coach is confident, expert, in total command of events, sure of his or her judgment and, hence, is to be unquestioningly respected. It is a performance to be nurtured and protected at all costs. The case … is made that coaching relies less on the mechanics of how or what to coach and more on who is coaching, their perceptions of how coaches ought to act, and the relationships they have with those being coached…
… More specific[ally], …[coaching] involve[s] attempts to hide weaknesses and to portray the person we would like to be.
Goffman’s (1959, 1969) work on personal ‘front’, ‘impression management’, and ‘presentation of the self’ examines notions inherently linked with social dealings, fulfilling others’ expectations and manipulating self-image, it serves as a useful … signpost to … my story …

(Jones, 2006, p. 1017)

Then consider the following questions:

To what extent do you agree/disagree that the coaching/instruction role is a ‘performance’, and why?
How do you plan your communication to ‘manage the impressions you give to others’?

Discussion

Many observers of working relations would agree that coaching work is a form of performance in which, to a certain extent, you ‘click’ into a coaching or working role character. This is because the more extrovert aspects of your personality have to be emphasised, and the ability to smile and laugh, often with complete strangers and often when you don’t feel like doing so, is important. Conveying attributes such as enthusiasm, authority, openness and insight often requires the adoption of a front, particularly if the work situation has been repeated many times before (e.g. a gym induction). However, someone working with people needs the necessary insight to be able to work out what is expected and to interact in the appropriate way. With this in mind self-confidence, prior preparation and role-related knowledge all contribute.
A learner on a previous OU course observed: ‘I think it is also about using your personality to convince participants you are genuinely trying to help and support them. It throws up the question, is it better to be led by a competent person you don’t believe in, or by a less competent person you do believe in [i.e. who puts on a better performance]? If I’m honest I’d favour someone I believed in.’
Managing impressions can take many forms; here are five examples that we came up with. The way you dress is often a starting point for how others perceive you. Then there is the impression of how well organised and prepared you are and how you react to unexpected events – planning ahead and the ability to draw on experience in order to deal with new situations perhaps becomes easier as you get older. We felt that honesty is an aspect of managing impressions because participants easily sense if someone doesn’t know what they are talking about. We also felt that body language can betray your best intentions; your non-verbal language often gives a stronger impression than words.

6 This session’s quiz

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Check what you’ve learned this session by taking the end-of-session quiz.

Session 2 practice quiz

Open the quiz in a new window or tab then come back here when you’ve finished.

7 Summary

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The main learning points from this session are:

Being positive in communication exchanges is more likely to lead to effective outcomes.
Structuring a message appropriately using Situation, Target, Proposal and Courtesy is more likely to lead to clear and concise messages.
Whatever the channel (speech or written communication), it is essential to consider the impact of the impressions you convey on others you communicate with. You have started to consider how you might plan for communication ‘performance’ in different situations.
Being aware of how and why you create impressions and the impact they might have is part of understanding yourself and your effective communication.

In the next session, you will identify how workplace trust and rapport is developed in one-to-one communication. By observing those working in a hospital you will start to understand in more detail what is meant by person-centred communication.

You can now go to Session 3.

References

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Goffman, E. (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Garden City, NY, Doubleday.

Goffman, E. (1969) Strategic Interaction, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press.

Jones, R. L. (2006) ‘Dilemmas, maintaining “face”, and paranoia: an average coaching life’, Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 1012–1021.

Kyndt, T. and Rowell, S. (2012) Achieving Excellence in High Performance Sport: The Experiences and Skills behind the Medals, London, Bloomsbury.

Acknowledgements

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

This free course was written by Ben Oakley.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

Images

Figure 1: © Weekend Images Inc./ iStock / Getty Images Plus

Figure 2: © eclipseimages/Getty Images

Figure 3: adapted from Kyndt, T. and Rowell, S. (2012) Achieving Excellence in High Performance Sport: The Experiences and Skills behind the Medals, London, Bloomsbury

Figure 4: © PeopleImages / iStockphoto/Getty Images Plus

Audio-visual

Introduction: © The Open University. Thanks to Waltham Forest Council for allowing us to film at their Feel Good Centre.

Activity 1: Video: extract from: Chris Hoy 220 mph at Le Mans BBC Two last on 29 Oct 2016 © BBC 2016

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Don't miss out

Introduction

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The aim of this session is to illustrate communication’s role in building working relationships based on respect and trust. You will explore a number of ideas that help you understand the one-to-one communication process which is important in developing your workplace trust and rapport.

One of the first activities is to see what you can learn from those working in a hospital. Medical staff need to work with numerous different people to support therapeutic relationships. They sometimes speak about needing to be patient-centred, just as we in sport and fitness also talk of person-, customer- or athlete-centred working. This session focuses on understanding what is meant by person-centred communication. You will discover that part of being person-centred is how well you listen to others and enhance working relationships.

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

demonstrate an awareness of your abilities to build and sustain working relationships
describe the three main elements of a person-centred approach in which communication is authentic, non-judgemental and empathetic
explain how you can use the various skills of active listening to help build sound working relationships.

1 Applying your learning: learning from medical staff

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

In 2016, the BBC were permitted to film in St Mary’s hospital in London to capture the day-to-day interactions of medical practitioners. The way they interact with each other and the public is illuminating for people working in sport and fitness.

Figure _unit4.2.1 Figure 1 Communication in hospitals needs to be excellent.

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This is a photograph of a group of hospital staff talking to each other.

Figure 1 Communication in hospitals needs to be excellent.

Activity _unit4.2.1 Activity 1 Learning from medical staff

Timing: Allow about 30 minutes

There are two clips in this video-related activity, which focus on sustaining relationships in a busy hospital. The first clip is the morning teleconference update, focusing on bed space in the hospital; the second is a preparatory meeting of a surgeon and their patient who is having a surgery to treat cancer.

There is a question for each clip:

Clip 1 (teleconference): To what extent is Lesley’s (Hospital Site Director) informal teleconferencing tone appropriate to sustaining working relationships?

Clip 2 (surgeon and patient): How successfully does Dr George Reese convey that he is patient-centred?

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Video _unit4.2.1 Clip 1

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Transcript: Clip 1

[MUSIC PLAYING]

LESLEY POWLS

Right, good morning, everybody. Shall we begin? I've seen the gang at Charing Cross. Good morning, Charing Cross.

NURSE (ON SPEAKERPHONE)

Morning, good morning.

LESLEY POWLS

Do you want to just talk us through your screen this morning?

NARRATOR

Lesley Powls is the site director at St. Mary's, the biggest of the five hospitals in London's Imperial College Health Care NHS Trust. Every morning she leads a conference call with the other hospitals to plan the day. The focus is always the same. How many empty beds have they got?

NURSE (ON SPEAKERPHONE)

There's currently no cubicles anywhere in A&E to see any new patients.

LESLEY POWLS

OK, so not a great start to a Monday morning for you guys then. The first call of the day is to kind of take the temperature of what's gone on overnight and what our beds look like going forward for the next couple of hours. Let's go to St. Mary's. So as you can see, we're in a very similar position to Charing Cross this morning. Very full and busy ED screen. Let's just have a look at the beds. It's probably easier for me to say what we've got, which is absolutely nothing at the moment. So really, priorities for us this morning are to sort out the rest of the unplaced patients in the emergency department before we do anything else. We'll pick up surgical electives in about 10 minutes. All right. And I think will go out on red this morning then. OK. Thank you very much, everybody. We'll speak again at lunchtime.

End transcript: Clip 1

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Video _unit4.2.1 Clip 1

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Video _unit4.2.2 Clip 2

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Transcript: Clip 2

NARRATOR

George Reese's cancer patient Alladdio's operation is already two hours behind schedule.

SURGEON

I've decided not to get frustrated. There's nothing I can do to fix this problem. So I will trust that the people who are doing it are doing their very best. Morning.

PATIENT

How are you?

SURGEON

How are you? Hello, we didn't get to meet last time.

PATIENT

No, no we didn't.

SURGEON

I just wanted to set the scene of today a bit. At the moment, they haven't given us permission to start the operation because there isn't a bed in the hospital. But they're working on it. And when I know, you will know.

PATIENT

Lovely.

SURGEON:

Is there anything you wanted to ask me?

PATIENT

No.

FRIEND

I'm just would like to speak about some parking outside. It cost me. Now it's 10 pounds, 80 p [INAUDIBLE]. Because if we're going to be here all day, that's going to cost me an arm and a leg.

SURGEON

I kind of meant is there anything you wanted to ask me about the operation or about the surgery today?

PATIENT

No.

SURGEON

OK.

End transcript: Clip 2

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Video _unit4.2.2 Clip 2

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Discussion

She uses an informal manner (e.g. ‘the gang at Charing Cross’; ‘you guys’). However, informal does not mean ineffective in sustaining relationships; the meeting is conducted briskly and the essential information is communicated. For example, notice how she closes the meeting by using the words ‘our focus’ to describe the immediate tasks ahead. The reminder of the time of the next meeting demonstrates clear task-related communication.

Dr Reese demonstrates his patient-centred approach by sitting at the same eye level as his patient; he smiles and updates his patient as to why there is a delay. He re-assures by saying ‘as soon as I know, you’ll know’ in relation to bed availability. He asks if his patient has any questions and remains unruffled when the issue of car parking costs is raised by the patient’s friend; he politely re-focuses the conversation.

By using this medical example you will be able to begin to make sense of how you and others maintain and perhaps build you own working relationships.

2 Assessing your skills

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Spoken communication is a particularly important part of working in sport and fitness. Some of this will be formal (e.g. an appraisal or session debrief), while some will be quite informal (e.g. chatting with participants).

In Session 2, Activity 4 you explored the impressions we can give to other people, and your performance is a part of this. In the next activity you will think about various aspects of your communication practices.

Activity _unit4.3.1 Activity 2 Self-evaluation of your communication skills

Timing: Allow about 15–30 minutes

The purpose of this self-evaluation activity is to raise awareness of your own style of communication and to encourage you to seek feedback from others. Complete the following self-evaluation questionnaire 1 (personal use).

If possible, pass this second questionnaire 2 to two people you trust to give open and honest feedback of how they perceive your communication. Ed Cope, who works for the Football Association, explains why:

a limitation of self-reflection is that it is restricted to our level of knowledge. Ultimately, we only know what we know and so if we are not conscious of something then we cannot reflect on it. So, this is where receiving feedback from others is so vital.

(Cope, 2018)

It is really worthwhile seeking what others think; you are strongly encouraged to use this opportunity to review your own skills.

Discussion

Both your responses, and those of any colleagues who filled in the questionnaire, will help set the scene for the remainder of this course as you become more aware of the various factors that go into effective communication. By receiving feedback from others and/or reflecting on how your communication is viewed, it may help you to enhance your self-awareness and to consider aspects that could be improved.

3 The person-centred approach

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The term a ‘person/learner/athlete-centred approach’ often features in discussions about interpersonal communication because of its positive effect on motivation. The approach takes the other perspective into account through a collaborative process. It rejects the idea that people should try to gain authority over others and instead proposes a shared power model. The idea is that an individual is likely to be more motivated and empowered if they are involved in making their own decisions. Therefore it is viewed as helping encourage more engaged and motivated collaboration in communication.

Figure _unit4.4.1 Figure 2 Heads work better together when there is respect and trust.

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This is a photograph of five people with their heads together.

Figure 2 Heads work better together when there is respect and trust.

The term was developed by psychologist Carl Rogers. The person-centred approach maintains that three aspects need to be present to create a climate conducive to openness – congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy (Nelson et al., 2014).

You will now consider these three aspects.

4 Exploring what person-centred means

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

In this section and the next you will unpick what is meant by person-centred and apply it to contemporary sport and fitness.

Look at Figure 3 and explore your understanding of what is meant by congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy by clicking on each heading . You will see there is an additional explanatory video under the empathy heading. Take time to carefully read through these descriptions and watch the video: these points are the central part of this session.

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Online activity _unit4.5.1 Figure 3 The three aspects of a person-centred approach.

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On the first tab, headed ‘Unconditional positive regard (non-judgemental)’ is the following text: Unconditional positive regard means being non-judgemental. An individual will not feel comfortable revealing information about themselves to you if they feel that you will judge them. It is particularly important to remember this if you wish to obtain accurate and honest information. On the next tab, headed ‘Congruence (authenticity)’ is the following text: ‘Congruence in this context refers to being authentic, genuine and honest. This suggests that in sport a practitioner can be enthusiastic, bored, angry, sensitive and sympathetic (Rogers, 1969). Those facilitating others’ development can use the full range of emotions that inevitably accompany practice. This is not to suggest that coaches should take this literally and act upon every emotion. Instead, they can live their feelings and where appropriate choose to share these feelings if they believed they might benefit learning (Nelson et. al., 2014).’ In the third tab, headed ‘Empathy’ is the following text: ‘Empathy can be defined as putting yourself in the other person’s shoes and an ability to show this understanding to the other person. Empathy helps to make the other person feel listened to and helps to begin establishing a trusting connection. Watch the animation illustrating more detail about empathy. In particular, it views empathy as partly showing an ability to be ‘with’ others.’ A video then appears.

Figure 3 The three aspects of a person-centred approach.

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A transcript for the video in the ‘Empathy’ tab is available: Transcript for empathy video.

These three aspects are useful to look out for the next time you are observing communication exchanges. In particular the way in which your authentic self might be revealed by showing some of your genuine feelings where you believe it might benefit communication and/or learning (e.g. living emotions such as enthusiasm, anger or sympathy). There is an outline of an example of responding to a sport and fitness scenario in a person-centred way in the next section.

5 How would you react?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

In this activity, you will consider how you might react to the situation using one aspect of the person-centred approach.

Activity _unit4.6.1 Activity 4 Being non-judgemental

Timing: Allow about 5 minutes

Jack, a physical activity worker is chatting with Norma, a shy and overweight newcomer who has just joined his group. Norma reveals that she eats six packets of crisps a day. Jack is quite shocked by this.

Consider how you would react to such information in your own sport or fitness environment if a newcomer made such a revelation. What might be an appropriate response?

Discussion

A non-judgemental response may be ‘OK, so when during the day do you eat crisps?’, while a judgemental response may be ‘Six packets!’, said with a shocked facial expression. To respond to Norma in a non-judgemental manner is likely to build trust and encourage her to feel confident about revealing more information to Jack.

Perhaps as well as being non-judgemental, an element of empathy is useful in trying to understand and reflect back what you have heard in order to make the other person feel understood. These and other skills will be explored when you consider active listening in the next section.

6 Active listening: more than paying attention

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The skill of active listening is a key part of helping create genuine two-way communication: it is far more than just paying attention.

Figure _unit4.7.1 Figure 4 Careful focus helps decode messages and non-verbal clues.

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This is a photograph of a person cupping their ear, and letters surrounding their ear.

Figure 4 Careful focus helps decode messages and non-verbal clues.

This series of three back-to-back sections will explain the detail of active listening. In the first activity, some leading practitioners describe what it is. The second and third sections show an example of poor and then excellent listening in action.

Activity _unit4.7.1 Activity 5 The Professor, Samaritan and sport negotiator

Timing: Allow about 15 minutes

Go to The Why Factor: listening and listen from 03:11 (‘there is research that indicates …’) to 06:15. In this clip, an American Professor of psychology, a volunteer for the Samaritans (a UK charity that provides support for people in distress) and another American academic (a sport business negotiator) describe active listening. How does what they say apply to sport and fitness environments?

Discussion

The Samaritans volunteer gave the clearest summary when she talks about asking open ‘what/why?’ style questions, summarising what the other person has said and reflecting this back to them. This is combined with empathy and recognising that sometimes, silence can be useful. These might all be used to facilitating conversations in sport since they provide true interpersonal interaction rather than a leader or coach being on broadcast mode, i.e. conveying their information.

The sport negotiator viewed empathy as a particularly important aspect of active listening in his work during negotiations or conflict resolution. This is partly about trying to understand and learn as much as possible about the other person’s perspective and demonstrating that that view is being heard and understood correctly. In sport, being able to demonstrate to others that their view has been understood can be particularly important when dealing with conflict. There are many other useful insights in this programme which we recommend you listen to in full or use as a resource with others.

7 What makes someone a poor listener?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

This activity shows an example of some embarrassingly poor listening, the characteristics of which may be familiar. Later, you will see the same scenario re-imagined with far better listening skills evident.

Activity _unit4.8.1 Activity 6 The bad listener

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Watch this example of a bad listener who is meant to be acting in a supportive career-mentoring role.

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_2018j_vid021-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

WOMAN

So as we previously discussed, I'm at a crossroads now in my career, and I can go in one of two directions. I could stick to what I'm doing now, the project management, or I could do something different, which is to start managing people more and perhaps get to the point where I have my own team, which I think sounds like something I might be interested in actually.

MAN

It's tough though, isn't it, being at a crossroads? I mean, I remember myself when I was at a career crossroads- it's probably 20 years ago now- it really took me ages to work out what I was going to do. And I thought about things like, you know, am I going to go down the people management route or just the project management route. And in the end, I made a really clear decision actually that I was going to go down the project management route.

WOMAN

Right, did you?

MAN

I did. Yeah, yeah.

WOMAN

OK. Yeah, it is a bit confusing thinking- because I know what I'm doing now, and I'm familiar with it, and I'm good at that. Is it worth running the risk of taking on something really challenging, which in the long run could end up being good?

MAN

It sounds to me as if you're a little bit lost and confused here? Or that's what I'm getting from you.

WOMAN

Right- really?

MAN

Or is this something which is a pattern in your life?

WOMAN

I hadn't thought of that before.

MAN

Well, I'm definitely getting a sensation of you being a bit blocked here, you know, and a bit lost. That's how it's coming across to me.

WOMAN

Oh, oh, gosh. OK.

MAN

So I think you need to get a bit clearer in your thinking actually.

WOMAN

Right, I need to get clearer. I thought I was getting quite clear. I was

MAN

You're talking about going people management- the people management route?

WOMAN

Yes, and perhaps that's not such a good idea for me.

MAN

Personally, I don't think that's a great idea. I mean, people are very difficult to manage.

WOMAN

I guess so. And I don't really have the qualifications either.

MAN

Well, that's right, you know? So it sounds like you might be deluding yourself actually a little bit.

WOMAN

Yeah. It's a bit of a dilemma, to be honest. I do find myself a bit worried about making the wrong choice.

MAN

Yeah, So lost, worried, confused- you know, this isn't sounding like you're in a good headspace, is it really?

WOMAN

Right. Perhaps not.

MAN

So I've got a few ideas anyway as to how you could sort this through.

WOMAN

OK. What do you think I should do?

MAN

Well, I think it's about getting really focused thinking to begin with. And if you take my advice, you would really abandon the people management route. I'm not sure it's suited for you.

WOMAN

OK.

MAN

That's what I think.

WOMAN

Right.

End transcript

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Pay attention to what it is that characterises him as being so poor at this skill. Here are some prompt words that may help you identify aspects of his listening behaviour: self, interpretation, opinion.

Think about your own experiences of not being listened to properly: what goes through your mind?

Discussion

The male participant refers to his own agenda and gives the impression the conversation is partly about his own ego. He also offers interpretation of what the other person is saying and promptly offers his own opinion in a way that has little regard for person-centred mentoring and the feelings of the other person.

The type of thoughts that you might have experienced could include:

frustration
a dent to your confidence
a decrease in any respect you hold for the other person
perhaps a need to re-state any ideas you were expressing.

An alternative approach, as in this video, is to maintain a polite silence.

It would be very interesting to ask the male in this video and his colleagues to complete the self-evaluation questionnaire from Activity 2. The difficulty of people with egocentric characteristics is that they are poor at reading how others perceive them.

8 A better experience of listening?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

A better experience of the same scenario plays out in the next video. This is an opportunity to see how the situation has a completely different complexion largely caused by the listener reflecting back what they have heard and allowing the other person to determine where the conversation goes.

Watch the film now.

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_2018j_vid022-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

WOMAN

So as we discussed previously, I'm at a career crossroads now, and I really need to think about what direction to go in. I can stay where I am now and just progress in that area of project management. Or I can start to do something quite different, actually, which is to lead the people of a team and eventually have my own team, which is something that I find myself being more interested in lately.

MAN

So it sounds like you've done quite a bit of thinking on this. And you've got a bit of clarity about the options. And it sounds at this stage as if you're beginning to favour the people management option.

WOMAN

I think I am. I do favour that in that I find it exciting, the thought of a new challenge. I do know, though, that I don't have the requisite qualifications. And also, I am a bit worried that my manager might think that, I don't know, I've got delusions of grandeur or something by thinking I can have my own team already.

MAN

So if I'm going to to check my understanding of that, it sounds, on the one hand, that you have that excitement, and that you're relishing a bit of a challenge. But I think I also heard maybe an assumption that you might be making that says something like maybe you are not sufficiently qualified at this stage.

WOMAN

That's right. Yes. Yes, I think you're right. Am I being too ambitious? Will my manager think that I am- I don't know- deluding myself that I'm capable of this? I do think that I am good with people, though, and I have managed projects with people on them. And I have enjoyed it, and I have had good feedback.

MAN

So you're questioning yourself a bit about this, by the sound of it. And you're also concerned a little about what your manager, in particular, might be thinking about you.

WOMAN

Yes.

MAN

But I keep hearing your enthusiasm. And I can hear it in your voice, actually.

WOMAN

Really?

MAN

I can hear your enthusiasm for people and managing people.

WOMAN

Yes. In my heart, I know that that is what I want to do.

MAN

In your heart?

WOMAN

Yes. I do want to do that. And I've been thinking about it for some time, and I've kept putting it off. But it's interesting you say that I look enthusiastic, because I do genuinely feel very keen to do that.

MAN

Yeah. Your voice had more energy, and your face had more animation when you're talking about it. It came through.

WOMAN

Yes. I just need to figure out what the next steps are, really, and to feel more confident that it's not a silly thing to pursue.

MAN

OK. So bottom line here, in terms of what we seem to be talking about, is be confident you're making the right decision for yourself, and then thinking through what the plan is to go there.

WOMAN

Absolutely. That is what I need to do, and not to worry so much about what other people think about that decision.

MAN

So as part of our conversation, I guess it's about thinking about how you could be confident and not worry about what other people think.

WOMAN

I think that's exactly it.

End transcript

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Workplace interactions like this, in which there is a genuine attempt to listen to and support colleagues, are the basis for authentic relationships in the workplace.

A summary of the key aspects of active listening appears in Figure 5 below. Click on each heading to reveal the summaries.

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Online activity _unit4.9.1 Figure 5 A summary of the three main elements of active listening

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On the first tab, titled ‘Attentive body language’ is the following text: ‘Postures and gestures showing involvement and engagement. Appropriate body movement. Appropriate facial expressions. Appropriate eye contact. Non-distracting environment’. On the second tab, titled ‘Following skills’ is the following text: ‘(Giving the speaker space to tell their story in their own way.) Interested ‘door openers’. Minimal verbal encouragement. Infrequent, timely and considered questions. Alternative silences.’ In the third tab, titled ‘Reflecting skills’, is the following text: ‘(Restating the feeling and/or content with understand and acceptance.) Paraphrase (check periodically that you’ve understood). Reflect back feelings and content. Summarise the major issues’.

Figure 5 A summary of the three main elements of active listening

Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Notice how minimal verbal encouragement is referred to in this summary and it is the role of this conversational encouragements that you will explore in the next session.

9 This session’s quiz

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Check what you’ve learned this session by taking the end-of-session quiz.

Session 3 practice quiz

Open the quiz in a new window or tab then come back here when you’ve finished.

10 Summary

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The main learning points from this session are:

Building effective working relationships is more likely if the principles of a person-centred approach are used in which communication is authentic, non-judgemental and empathetic.
Authenticity is viewed as the way in which you might show some of your feelings and, where appropriate, choose to share these feelings if you believe it might benefit communication and/or learning.
Empathy is seen as a significant skill in effective communication, and one that needs practice.
The skill of active listening can be summarised as:
- attentive body language (non-verbal communication) that uses appropriate posture, gestures, eye-contact and facial expressions to show engagement
- following skills that allow the speaker to talk in their own way with verbal encouragement and infrequent questions and silences, as appropriate
- reflective skills in any dialogue that restate feelings or message content and summarise main issues.

In the next session, you will continue to explore how your communication contributes to connecting with people you work with. This ranges from subtle verbal and non-verbal signals that encourage dialogue, to giving away a little personal information about yourself to help build rapport an trust. This is all a delicate balancing act and you will also identify what can get in the way of relationships: you will explore something called your ‘unconscious bias’.

You can now go to Session 4.

References

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Cope, E. (2018) ‘Learning design and development manager, Football Association (England)’, Personal Communication, 12 January 2018.

Nelson, L., Cushion, C. J., Potrac, P. and Groom, R. (2014) ‘Carl Rogers, learning and educational practice: critical considerations and applications in sports coaching’, Sport, Education and Society, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 513–31.

Robertson, K. (2005) ‘Active listening: more than just paying attention’, Australian Family Physician, vol. 23, no. 12, pp. 1053–1055

Acknowledgements

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

This free course was written by Ben Oakley.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

Images

Figure 1: © PeopleImages/Getty Images

Figure 2: © Cecilie_Arcurs / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Figure 3: animation and transcript: courtesy RSA 'Brené Brown on Empathy' The RSA https://youtu.be/1Evwgu369Jw, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk/

Figure 4: © SIphotography/Getty Images

Video

Clips 1 and 2: extract from Life and Death in a Week, Hospital Series 1 Episode 1 BBC / Label1 / The Open University Co-Production © BBC (2016)

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Don't miss out

Introduction

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Connecting with people you work with, whether they be colleagues or participants, means being able to build a bond that stimulates their interest and engagement.

Much of what you have already covered so far helps build a work connection and in this session you will build on this by exploring three further aspects that support working relationships. The first you will look at is the use of subtle verbal and non-verbal signals that encourage dialogue to continue. The second is how your initial impressions of people are often influenced by something called ‘unconscious bias’; you will explore the implications of this. Finally, in building relationships, it can help to reveal or disclose personal information about yourself – this can be a delicate balancing act for different personalities and situations.

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

understand the important role you play in keeping a conversation going and encouraging others to want to contribute
appreciate how we often hold pre-conception of others based on first impressions and these can be a barrier to effective communication and collaboration
recognise that, in appropriate situations, giving away some personal information about yourself can help build stronger working relationships.

Watch this video, in which Sue Mott and Ben Oakley introduce the session further.

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_1_video_session4_intro_640x360.mp4

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Transcript

BEN

Building a connection with those you work with is partly about building an understanding with them and finding common ground. So Sue, beyond the obvious stuff about looking people in the eye and smiling a lot, what have you find works?

SUE

Well, I found a few subtleties actually. So it's much more unconscious than just saying I must do this and I must do that. And I think it's more about giving someone encouragement to talk to you, really focusing on the conversation, and just paying them that attention.

BEN

I think you mean something a bit more than saying, can you please go on a bit?

SUE

Yeah. I think a most crucial thing, though, is to listen. You would be amazed by the number of people who simply don't listen to what somebody is saying to them. And it's also about asking the right type of questions.

I mean, open-ended questions, so that you're not eliciting a yes/no answer, where the conversation shuts down. You might say something like, and how did that feel, the old journalistic staple. Or tell me a bit more than that. And I think that gives somebody else the opportunity then to know they've got the space and your respect to tell their own story.

BEN

And to what extent do you reveal a bit about yourself, you disclose a bit more information about your own life?

SUE

Well, I actually think that is a very, very good idea. Because there's no point in asking people these impertinent questions, if you're going to be a trappist monk about yourself. To have a chat with people at work, it's a great thing. I know that I work with a film producer and I always tell her about my daughter's latest escapades. And she always tells me about her horses' exploits. And we're not joined at the hip. But to chat to and get to know and care about the people you work with is just such a great motivation.

BEN

Also, I think when you first meet people, there's a danger, isn't there, that you can have predetermined ideas and perhaps biases and labels of what they might be like. So perhaps it's important that we enter into new relationships and we take away first impressions and we have an open mind of who that person might be.

SUE

Oh, yeah. Definitely.

End transcript

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1 Applying your learning: learning from doctors

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

You start by dropping into St Mary’s Hospital in London, where four exhausted doctors discuss whose operation should proceed.

Activity _unit5.2.1 Activity 1 Doctors meet about their operations

Timing: Allow about 15 minutes

A bit of background is needed for this short clip. Consultant Simon Ashworth (seated in his office) controls the Intensive Care (IC) bed spaces, which are needed by other doctors for their patients recovering from operations. He has one bed remaining and two doctors, George Hannah and Richard Gibbs (he remains largely silent), who need the IC bed confirmed for their operation to proceed.

Watch the clip: how does Ashworth’s communication approach maintain his professional relationship?

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_2018j_vid020c-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

LESLEY POWLS

Hello.

GEORGE

Hi.

FEMALE STAFF

Hello.

LESLEY POWLS:

Hello. Hi Simon. It's alright,I thought I'd pop up and see what we can do to help.

SIMON:

I have very few options. And what worries me is we've got no slack for the unexpected that is the norm here.

LESLEY POWLS

Well, I don't want to do Simon, is put you guys under loads of pressure.

SIMON:

I think we're asking for trouble if we try and do...

GEORGE

Yeah, but we are-- we are trying to work out.

SIMON:

George, if you can operate... if you could do it tomorrow, I think the chances are better.

GEORGE

Yeah, but I think …

LESLEY POWLS

I mean, we certainly will - what you can - whatever you've send down from ITU, we will create beds to allow that to happen.

GEORGE

But Simon now is try to keep an empty bed so just as a slack for something to happen.

LESLEY POWLS

How long do you think you're going to be with your [INAUDIBLE]?

GEORGE

I will be very late.

LESLEY POWLS

What's very late?

GEORGE

I will - I will take six hours operating. If we go ahead now, we'll finish by midnight.

SIMON

I think the safest thing to do is to defer it. But I understand the logistics of that are a disaster.

GEORGE

It's not just the logistics. There is a clinical issue here because there's a second cancellation with a dedicated time chemoradiotherapy. And w are not going him to keep a slack in a system that doesn't have the slack.

SIMON

All I'm saying is I've got no ability to manage any other problems.

GEORGE

If he didn't have a bed, I would have no problems. I can understand it. But if we are not doing him to keep a slack, and while we can use our recovery as an alternative, this is a difficulty I have.

SIMON:

But we're very close to the limit.

GEORGE

We are close to the limit.

SIMON

We're very close to the limit. And I think operating absolutely on the limit is unwise.

GEORGE

The question really if we wait another week or another time, this will not be - I'm not sure how this will get better. Cancelling a cancer patient three times is a serious instance. So this is something you need to work on it.

LESLEY POWLS

It's your call Simon. What would you want us to do?

SIMON

You know, we don't have the slack at the moment I don't think to do this safely. We are stuck at that point.

RICHARD

OK. That's fine, sir. Just - just so - so from my point of view, if the option won't get here, we'll do it anyway.

SIMON

We need to get on with whatever we do.

RICHARD

We are where we are.

SIMON

And we'll - and we'll work on the basis that they will be able to give me a bed.

SIREN

End transcript

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Discussion

The consultant Ashworth remains calm and tries to explain his underlying values of patient safety that are driving his decision making. Three times he tries to explain the risks of proceeding with George’s six-hour operation as potentially compromising any slack in the ICU bed availability for unforeseen emergencies, e.g. a car crash. He also attempts to show empathy and understanding for George’s situation of cancelling an operation for the second time by saying ‘you know, I understand the logistics of that are difficult …’. Addressing people with their first names and maintaining eye contact to help show that he is closely attending to their messages and trying to connect with them in difficult circumstances. Also notice that at one point, all four people allow a silence of about 3 seconds while they think. Often, such silences can be filled unnecessarily by people feeling uncomfortable and talking. Silence can provide useful space in conversations to reflect on the most appropriate action.

Two of the main lessons from this are first, how those involved maintain a calm consistency in their communication making effective dialogue easier. Second, Ashworth shows good listening skills, including use of empathy and courtesy.

2 Minimal encouragers in conversations

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Imagine if, when the four doctors were talking, that Ashworth did not acknowledge or respond to what they were saying? Alternatively, imagine you talking and those opposite you show completely blank faces and motionless bodies.

There is a very important role played by words and sounds such as ‘mm’, ‘yeah’ or ‘OK’ as encouragement in active listening. It signals for the other person to continue. By giving signals of comprehension and agreement non-verbally and/or verbally, you are using what are known as minimal encouragers.

Figure _unit5.3.1 Figure 1 Who looks like they have encouragement to talk next?

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This is a photograph of a group of women wearing sport clothing.

Figure 1 Who looks like they have encouragement to talk next?

Providing your colleagues or strangers with small verbal and physical signals to feel more comfortable helps to smooth the flow of the conversation. The trouble is we often forget to do it.

3 What else matters in brief encounters?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

In your busy working life, you come across many people. However, for new relationships and key people you are working with how else can you create connections to them beyond using minimal encouragers? In this next activity a national coach and academic (Jones, 2009) tells a brief yet powerful story of what he learned from a short encounter with a newcomer to his group.

Activity _unit5.4.1 Activity 2 A coach’s story: the smiling gallery

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes

Read the following first-hand account from Jones (2009) of an early morning walk down a sports centre corridor dressed in an official tracksuit with his two assistants Jon and Rich, during which he encounters a newcomer to the group he would meet later that day. Jones is head coach of the national age-group squad of young footballers and he admits to feeling ‘respected, important, good … here, my thoughts and words matter’.

What is the main message you take from this story? Look out for at least three words used in the story that help to describe its main message.

The talk turns to the boys … It’s a light-hearted chat, sprinkled with sarcasm at a few of the players’ seeming lack of ability demonstrated in the first tentative session last night. I mumble an agreement …
A boy comes towards us. His face is familiar, although his name eludes me. He immediately averts his gaze … He’s one of the youngest in the squad …
The ‘word’ on him is that his technique and passing are good, but that he’s not aggressive or assertive when under pressure.
I’m suddenly aware that the boy is close. He moves a little to his left allowing this group of betters to pass without having to break stride …
As we pass, the boy unexpectedly looks up … I glance at him. He holds my eyes, long enough to make a connection; a look which beseeches recognition, interaction, any kind of acknowledgement. He smiles nervously, hopefully, needfully.
My mind is elsewhere; I look at him but don’t see him. Consequently, I don’t even nod my head; not even an instinctive, superficial gesture. His smile vanishes. The moment slips by.
My stride becomes less purposeful as I begin to confront the poverty of my action … I should have said something to him, at least have acknowledged him; shouldn’t I? I scan my mental coaching manual for the answer and … seemingly rigid girders of ‘good practice’ guidelines [and models] … faithfully regurgitated.
I think of the image I purposefully cultivate at these gatherings; knowing, confident, …, enjoying the status and power that the role provides. Is that how I’m supposed to be?
… back to the boy … I watch him … His talent needs care. … it needs my care. I call out his name, ‘Hey, Pritch!’ As he turns, I gesture … I meet him half-way. As we do so, I greet him and smile. His eyes beam. We chat informally about his background, his school and his club. His initial shyness begins to thaw. His hesitant, staccato replies, ‘yes thanks’, ‘not really’, ‘hope so’, slowly give way to more confident sharing; … it turns out we have some acquaintances in common, from which he obviously draws great reassurance. I learn a little more about his brother … and his sister.
…. I give him some additional constructive feedback … His gratitude is obvious; not for the advice but for the encounter, the encouragement, the recognition, the smile. I glance at my watch … We part, he smiles again …

(Jones, 2009)

Discussion

It is likely that you have experienced similar self-doubt in social situations such as this. Perhaps you’ve witnessed a situation when little attention was given to a person: recognition in itself can often be valuable in building rapport, connection and belonging in a strange new environment. Jones (2009) calls this seeing or noticing others. The main words used that were highlighted by previous readers are: care, recognition, acknowledgement, encouragement, smile, chat and reassurance. You were not expected to list all these!

After this encounter, Jones recalls that later he tells the assembled group of boys ‘that they can trust me, that I can see them and that, if they have the confidence to try to show me their best, they too can perhaps join the smiling gallery [the team photos on the walls of the building]’.

The importance of a small behaviour of stopping, smiling and chatting to a relative newcomer and, if possible, remembering their name conveys that you care and are encouraging of their place among the work team. Small behaviours can demonstrate that you have made a genuine effort to connect with another person.

Perhaps you already find yourself noticing others, nodding, smiling and using encouraging words. If so, then there is a good chance that your communication skills are well developed.

4 How does unconscious bias affect relationships?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

You have seen how relationships can be built. Apart from shyness what are the barriers that often prevent us from building workplace relationships with others? You might think it is just about active listening and behaviour. However, what you think about another person also has subtle effects. This is particularly so in the initial impressions that form when you first meet new sport and fitness colleagues, athletes, participants or parents. For example, in the smiling gallery story, the early ‘word’ on Pritch before anyone had spoken to him was that he was shy and not aggressive or assertive enough.

The false expectation we often initially have of people, using the limited information we have at the time, is known as unconscious bias and if we are honest with ourselves, we all hold some degree of bias about others. These biases often affect the way we connect with others during our initial interactions with them.

Activity _unit5.5.1 Activity 3 Exploring first impressions and unconscious bias

Timing: Allow about 15 minutes

Business psychologists Binna Kandoler and Nic Sale explain this as an entirely natural process in this insightful short video.

After watching this, identify what type of unconscious bias you may hold in sport and fitness activity or the workplace. You will not be asked to reveal these to others.
What is the salutary closing advice given when meeting or interviewing people to help override any bias you may hold?

Discussion

It is very useful for you to know and recognise your own biases. For example, in sport an initial impression that body piercings characterise a certain personality trait might exist, e.g. extroverted, creative or aggressive tendencies. Kandoler and Sale explained how the first four minutes of a job interview are often used to reinforce a first impression of a person, with the remaining time spent looking for evidence to confirm the first impressions were correct, known as confirmation bias. We also reject information that does not confirm our biases – first impressions can be difficult to overcome. Any bias is particularly influential when recruiting staff or identifying sporting talent.
The video suggests that deliberately and consciously recognising your bias and putting it to one side can then open up the potential to objectively identify evidence for what a person is really like beyond your initial expectations.

The main thing with bias is to be able to recognise it. In Session 8, you will see that confirmation bias can be particularly evident in our use of social media.

A further point to raise here is that we tend to be drawn to and develop rapport with people similar to ourselves and so have a natural preference for these people. This can affect the relationships we form with people, so knowledge of this is helpful to try and overcome biases in early interactions.

5 How much of yourself should you reveal?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Sharing personal information can often help to enhance communication and relationships. For example, in The Smiling Gallery story (Activity 2) coach Jones deliberately finds out more about Pritch’s brother and sisters. Sharing aspects of ourselves encourages authenticity and honesty in communication (Rogers, 1980).

Other people have explained common-sense ideas of relationships developing over time through a process of self-disclosure (Bylund et al., 2012). This process is commonly described using an onion metaphor, to suggest the levels, or layers, of self-disclosure (see Figure 2). Often, only the outer surface layer is seen by others, as that is the identity we are comfortable presenting.

Figure _unit5.6.1 Figure 2 Levels of self-disclosure (Bylund et al., 2012).

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This is a diagram with three circles. In the innermost circle is the following text: ‘Core: private; disclosed with caution to select individuals, e.g. deep emotions, core values and beliefs.’ In the next circle out is the following text: ‘Inner: infrequently shared but not hidden, e.g. political views, social attitudes’. In the next circle out is the following text: ‘Outer: shared when introduced to others in social situations, e.g. likes and dislikes in clothes and music.’ On the outside of the circle is the following text: ‘Surface: seen by others e.g. height, weight, from which others may make inferences.’

Figure 2 Levels of self-disclosure (Bylund et al., 2012).

Activity _unit5.6.1 Activity 4 Appropriate sharing to facilitate connection

Timing: Allow about 15 minutes

Think of a time when you (or a colleague) shared personal information in one-to-one conversation, or revealed information in a group or a workshop.

What was the impact of this sharing?
Do you consider it appropriate to talk about your own personal experiences with trusted work colleagues?

Discussion

Sharing personal experiences at work very much depends on the situation, your personality and your view of how appropriate you feel this is. In everyday social contexts, we seek out similarities to establish a common ground and build relationships that may open up communication further. Simple disclosures can help in this, such as mutual sporting interests or family experiences.

One person who completed this activity recalled that they had gradually learned about the benefit of disclosing a bit more of themselves at work and that this had become easier with age and experience; when they were in their twenties they said they were too concerned with managing impressions and not confident enough to reveal personal information.

Coaching, teaching, fitness training and management/leadership organisations each have their own professional standards, which attempt to clarify what is appropriate in terms of disclosure and professional relationships although these statements are often written in very general language. See Box 1 for an example.

Box _unit5.6.1 Box 1 Two key principles of the Code of Practice for Sports Coaching

Relationships: Coaches must develop a relationship with their participants (and others) based on openness, honesty, mutual trust and respect.
Responsibilities (personal standards): Coaches must demonstrate proper personal behaviour and conduct at all times.

(UK Coaching, 2017)

6 Your progress using the course map

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The purpose of this section is to visually indicate your progress through the course so far. Figure 3 shows an outer green shaded box in which ‘writing … speech … non-verbal communication’ are located. You have already started to explore aspects of all these three communication channels. Other aspects of your study start at the centre of the spiral and take you around it, revisiting three segments: ‘building relationships’, ‘influencing others’ and ‘awareness of …’. You have now completed the building relationships segment along with parts of the other two, indicating that you are about halfway through the course with some more interesting insights to come.

Maximise

Figure _unit5.7.1 Figure 3 Themes and topics on the course map

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This is a circle split into three sections. Within each section are a number of subsections containing text. In the first section, called ‘Awareness of …’, are the following terms: dealing with conflict; power imbalances; workplace culture; social media; emotional intelligence; unconscious bias. In the next section, called ‘Influencing skills’ are the following terms: giving feedback; clarity; persuasiveness; conveying emotion; using suitable language; giving feedback. In the third section, called ‘Building relationships’, are the following terms: personal disclosure; active listening; empathy; person-centred; self-awareness; small talk; managing impressions.

Figure 3 Themes and topics on the course map

7 This session’s quiz

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Now it’s time to complete the Session 4 badge quiz. It’s similar to previous quizzes, but this time instead of answering five questions there will be 15.

Session 4 compulsory badge quiz

Remember, this quiz counts towards your badge. If you’re not successful the first time, you can attempt the quiz again in 24 hours.

Open the quiz in a new window or tab then come back here when you’ve finished.

8 Summary

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The main learning points from this session are:

Attending to others in a dialogue uses a range of minimal encouragers and behaviours to keep the other person(s) engaged and to help support the flow of conversation.
Recognition and care for others conveyed by taking time to notice and engage with them can help develop connection and belonging to work teams.
Unconscious bias often may affect our interactions and relationships with others as we often seek to confirm our first impression of someone. Recognising your unconscious bias is an important first step.
Confirmation bias can often cloud our judgement; it is the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.
Self-disclosure is a useful feature of developing relationships but it can be difficult to decide how much to reveal to others; once again much depends on the situation.

In the next session, you will cover a really valuable skill which we’d all like to have: how to influence others. In other words, what is the secret to get other people in your workplace to convince others to accept and, if necessary, take action based on your perspective. You will see some compelling examples of how this might be achieved.

You can now go to Session 5.

References

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Bylund C. L., Peterson, E. B. and Cameron, K. E. (2012) ‘A practitioner’s guide to interpersonal communication theory: an overview and exploration of selected theories’, Patient Education and Counselling, vol. 87, pp. 261–7.

Jones, R. L. (2009) ‘Coaching as caring (the smiling gallery): accessing hidden knowledge’, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 377–90.

Rogers, C. (1980) A Way of Being, Boston, MA, Houghton Mifflin.

UK Coaching (2017) Code of Conduct for Sports Coaches; Rights, Relationships and Responsibilities [online], Leeds, UK Coaching. Available at http://www.ukcoaching.org/sites/default/files/13.%20Code%20of%20Practice_0.pdf (Accessed 17 November 2017.

Acknowledgements

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

This free course was written by Ben Oakley.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

Text

Activity 2: Jones, R. L. (2009) ‘Coaching as caring (the smiling gallery): accessing hidden knowledge’, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 377–90. Part of Taylor and Francis publishing group. http://taylorandfrancis.com/

Box 1: extract from: UK Coaching (2017) Code of Conduct for Sports Coaches; Rights, Relationships and Responsibilities [online], Leeds, UK Coaching. http://www.ukcoaching.org/ sites/ default/ files/ 13.%20Code%20of%20Practice_0.pdf

Images

Figure 1: © kali9 / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Figure 2: adapted from Bylund C. L., Peterson, E. B. and Cameron, K. E. (2012) ‘A practitioner’s guide to interpersonal communication theory: an overview and exploration of selected theories’, Patient Education and Counselling, vol. 87, pp. 261–7.

Audio-visual

Introduction: © The Open University. Thanks to Waltham Forest Council for allowing us to film at their Feel Good Centre.

1 Extract from Life and death in a week, Hospital series 1, episode 1. A BBC / Label1 / Open University Co-Production © BBC (2016)

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Don't miss out

Introduction

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The ability to positively influence someone’s behaviour or ideas is a highly regarded attribute, both in the sport and fitness workplace and in many areas of life. If you influence others you are getting them to buy into part of your vision. It is a skill to convince others to accept and, if necessary, take action based on your perspective.

In this session, influencing others is explained by considering how you can create credible spoken or written messages and use language that is more likely to have an impact. Potentially there is a lot you can learn and apply to your own communication from some of these insights.

Figure _unit6.1.1 Figure 1 How can your communication influence others to take action?

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This is a photograph of a female coach speaking to four boys.

Figure 1 How can your communication influence others to take action?

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

identify which parts of the advice about persuading and influencing others you already use and which parts might try to adopt more in the future
recognise, with examples, how credibility can be enhanced by appropriate language use
observe how personal experiences, emotion, enthusiasm and conviction can contribute to convincing others of a viewpoint.

1 Land the message

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

You will start this session by hearing how those working in the sport and fitness sector often describe influencing others as an integral part of their job.

Figure _unit6.2.1 Figure 2 Landing something as expected can never be assumed

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This is a photograph of a hot air balloon which has crash landed.

Figure 2 Landing something as expected can never be assumed

Activity _unit6.2.1 Activity 1 A performance analyst’s focus on landing the message

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

In this video, Chris White, Head of Performance Analysis at the English Institute of Sport, describes ‘landing the message’. His job involves observations to enhance sport performance primarily delivered through statistical analysis and visual feedback (video analysis). Which strategies does he describe in order to land the message?

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_2018j_vwr059-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

CHRIS WHITE

You've got to have people who are self-starters, self-motivated, can develop relationships, can become the right hand of the coach. The best analysts are genuinely the right-hand of the coach. They build the trust, build the relationship, integrate into their systems, be the gatekeeper of whatever they're trying to do, and the interpreter of them. And that's the relationship piece and being with the skills to do that. The one phrase that we'd say, that you can be the best to capture and manage your data possible, the best analysis possible, but you don't have the skill set to learn the message with the coach, develop the relationship, present that data in the most compelling bite size or big picture way, whatever it needs to be. Learn the message is a key thing that we look for in that process.

End transcript

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Discussion

Chris identifies the starting point as building close working relationships. Once integrated with a coaching team, he suggests influencing as being about presenting messages in the most appropriate way. Sometimes, small bite-sized messages are used, while at other times a holistic overall view of potential changes is presented. Cope (2018) observes: ‘my experiences, particularly joining a new organisation, have taught me to take the time to understand other people’s perspectives before making a decision or thinking I know a situation when I maybe don’t’.

One of the key questions is how to make messages more compelling or persuasive.

2 What makes messages more persuasive?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

In Session 2, Activity 3 you worked through an example of an email that used the Situation, Target, Proposal, Courtesy (STPC) structure to help make a message more effective.

Your chances of influencing others will increase if you can include credible evidence and data in an argument. For instance, consider whether the additional evidence in italics increases the persuasive weight of the argument in the email example below (from the same activity).

The physio can certainly assist with developing flexibility and help keep her injury free while running faster. Recent evidence from our lab testing suggests that a 10 per cent increase in flexibility might lead to her 20 metre sprint speed increasing by a similar amount. Therefore, we need to have some dialogue about how she could fit this into her work pattern.

Good supporting evidence, provided it is presented in a concise way, helps influence others.

3 Making your messages more memorable

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Think about those who have tried to influence you. What did they do to make their case stick in the mind and what can you learn from this?

Activity _unit6.4.1 Activity 2 How memorable is this sport practitioner’s case?

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Watch this clip of Lance Walker who works at Michael Johnson Performance in Texas, USA. As he makes the case for exercise recovery to improve human performance, consider and make notes about the effectiveness of both his content (i.e. what he says) and delivery (i.e. how he says it).

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_2018j_vid023-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

LANCE WALKER

No matter how good your training is out here on the pitch, it's only as good as your ability to recover from it. Recovery is no longer just this passive thing that you do in between training sessions. That there's actually recovery training. That's a new- somewhat of a new term, at least here in the United States. So we can actually measure recovery- how fast you have recovered from that stimulus. And that stimulus is needed, right? So now instead of 72 hours to recover from a really heavy strength training session, which we've seen historically, wow, are there some things we can do or not do with stretching? Is there some things we can do with compression therapy or cryogenics? Is there some things we can do with the central nervous system in terms of mood and changes? I mean, think of all the crazy things that- can we potentially steepen that return angle? Now what does that allow me to do? Train more intense and be able to train in more density without the possibility of some of these injury risks or these overtraining things. And it's exciting, because I think that could potentially be the new frontier.

End transcript

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Discussion

Message content: he explains different types of recovery but it is noticeable how he mainly uses the first person, drawing on not only his experience but yours too and what this could mean for you. He attempts to make it personal. For some, his words may offer a vivid vision of what may be possible, using emotive phrases such as: ‘Wow’, ‘think of all the crazy things’, ‘it’s exciting’ and ‘the new frontier’. In summary, he draws on his personal experience and he uses authentic emotion.

Message delivery: It’s his delivery which really brings his message to life – you can see his excitement through his tone, animated eyes, gestures and non-verbal communication. He even uses his hands to help draw a picture of a steep recovery curve. In summary, he speaks with enthusiasm and conviction.

This example suggests that influence may partly be achieved through an authentic approach and providing a clear vision using stirring language and enthusiasm. Some might say he also draws on emotion.

However, in addition to using appealing words, in some situations conciseness is also powerful.

4 How can you make a concise case?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

An argument or case for change often can gain clarity and therefore strength by being crystallised into a few key points. Speech writers, for example, make frequent use of the rule of three: a group of three concepts to express an idea, emphasise it and make it memorable (Jefferson, 1990). The device has been used in the Olympic movement – e.g. Faster, Higher, Stronger – and can be also used for remembering tactics or strategy. For example, tennis coach Brad Gilbert successfully used this rule of three to help his athletes approach major tournaments:

Aim for steady, consistent play – this is enough to win 90 per cent of the time.
Attack your opponent’s weaknesses – instead of you succeeding, make them fail.
At the start of a tournament, count backwards from the twenty-one sets it takes to win – make this your goal: one set at a time.

(Agassi, 2010)

The simplicity is both appealing and memorable while also offering clear direction and purpose.

5 Supporting agreement and action

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Influential talk makes uses of many features covered in previous sessions of this course. In particular, listening, empathy and body language skills, if effectively used, can increase the participants’ personal credibility and perception of trustworthiness, as Table 1 shows.

Table _unit6.6.1 Table 1 Influential talk
Skills from previous sessions	More general influencing skills	Key ingredients of the message
Active listening	Credibility	Structure (STPC)
Summarising	Rapport	Positive language
Empathy	Trust	Logic and evidence
Body language	Authenticity	Emotive words/vision
		Conciseness

While logic, data and structure of a message may gain you agreement to a proposition, arguably it is positive language, emotive words and delivery that is more likely to persuade your listener to take action (Kyndt and Rowell, 2012).

Logic + data + structure = agreement
Logic + data + structure + positive language + emotion = agreement and action

In reality, of course, things are never that simple. This formula works as a basic principle, but remember that approaches need modifying according to context and people’s needs.

6 Hedging and boosting words

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

In some situations, you need to make your argument very strongly in order to communicate your point effectively. In others, however, a forceful tone may prove counter-productive and a more tentative approach could produce better results. With this in mind, you will now look at what we term hedging and boosting words and phrases.

Figure _unit6.7.1 Figure 3 Will your audience respond best to a higher or lower tone of persuasion?

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This is a photograph of a volume switch.

Figure 3 Will your audience respond best to a higher or lower tone of persuasion?

Hedging is used to show courtesy and respect for others’ views, an important part of any dialogue whether in writing or spoken (Leech, 1983).

In contrast, boosting is used to show confidence in your claims and results (Hyland, 2000). It is a way of being far more definite and strong in your views.

These language choices help build a relationship with the reader or listener, particularly the use of hedging words which often help reduce perceptions of arrogance and over-confidence.

For example, look at this sentence: ‘What they expect is a big factor’.

The person seems very confident of what they claim, as shown by the use of ‘is’. The use of ‘big’ also boosts the claim. However, in some situations hedging words such as ‘could be’ or ‘may be’ might replace the confidence of ‘is’. It is a softer suggestion and recognises other people’s perspective may adjust or modify your own ideas.

You will recall a further way of shaping the impact of dialogue is the use of emphasis which Chris Hoy’s race engineer did by stressing words, e.g. ‘soft tyres to the car immediately’ and ‘OK Chris, how are you feeling, is everything OK?’

7 Test your ability to spot appropriate language

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The purpose of this section is to apply your learning in identifying hedging and boosting language.

Activity _unit6.8.1 Activity 3 Test your ability to spot hedging or boosting in action

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Read the sentences below, specifically looking for use of hedging (softer or tentative) and boosting (strong) words.

Identify the words that boost or hedge claims by selecting the highlight tool and clicking the relevant words once.

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Discussion

Some words such as, ‘actively’ and ‘enormous’ make the claims stronger. ‘Must’ indicates an urgency to do something. On the other hand, ‘some’, ‘maybe’ and ‘perhaps’ are commonly used to make claims cautiously as these tone down the assertion.

The skill here is the judgement of recognising situations where boosting or hedging are more effective; this will come with experience and also by reflecting on your tone of communication.

Boosting words tend to be used a lot in social media, a subject you will consider in Session 8.

8 This session’s quiz

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Check what you’ve learned this session by taking the end-of-session quiz.

Session 5 practice quiz

Open the quiz in a new window or tab then come back here when you’ve finished.

9 Summary

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The main learning points from this session are:

Messages can be made more persuasive by credible supporting evidence and data.
A more persuasive message delivery draws on personal experiences, enthusiasm and conviction.
Credibility is enhanced by appropriate language use: hedging and boosting language is particularly valuable and, if the situation demands, stirring words that convey emotion.
Messages can become more persuasive if they are concise. The rule of three is a useful principle; i.e. crystallising information into three key points to emphasise it and make it memorable.
The listing of structure and positive language (from Session 2) combined with logic, data, and emotion (from this session) was used to help summarise the ingredients of an influential message.

The main focus of the next session is to apply what you’ve learned so far to video examples, some of which include a feedback element in working teams. It is an opportunity to consider your own approach to giving feedback and to explore the possible boundary between harsh feedback and bullying.

You can now go to Session 6.

References

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Agassi, A. (2010) Open: An Autobiography, HarperCollins.

Cope, E. (2018) ‘Learning design and development manager, Football Association (England)’, Personal Communication, 12 January.

Hyland, K. (2000) Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic Writing, Harlow, Longman.

Jefferson, G. (1990) ‘List-construction as a task and a resource’, in George Psathas (ed.) Interaction Competence, Washington, D.C., University Press of America, pp. 63–92.

Kyndt, T. and Rowell, S. (2012) Achieving Excellence in High Performance Sport: The Experiences and Skills behind the Medals, London, Bloomsbury.

Leech, G. (1983) Principles of Politeness, London and New York, Longman.

Acknowledgements

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

This free course was written by Ben Oakley.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

Images

Figure 1: © SolStock / iStock / Getty Images

Figure 2: © GarysFRP / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Figure 3: © anigoweb / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Video

Activity 1: Video 'Chris White on Performance Analysis Skills' Used with permission from English Institute of Sport http://www.eis2win.co.uk/ resources/ chris-white-performance-analysis-skills/

Activity 2: Extract from: Chasing Perfection: From Birth to the Starling Line, Episode 2 - Lance Walker Produced by The Moment Productions for The Open University © The Open University

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Don't miss out

Introduction

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The main focus of both this session and the next is to apply what you have learned so far to video examples, many of which include a feedback element in working teams. It is an opportunity to put what you have learned into practice by observing and interpreting communication in action, and considering your own approach to giving feedback.

You will explore feedback communication principles and consider the possible boundary between harsh feedback and bullying. This issue is partly about how the work environment, sometimes called ‘work culture’, shapes and constrains feedback communication practices.

This session will help you to better appreciate how you and others might give feedback to others in an effective way. This is all linked to becoming more influential and credible in how you interact with others.

Figure _unit7.1.1 Figure 1 There are alternative ways to give feedback rather than in public and at high volume.

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This is a cartoon of two characters shouting at one another using loud speakers.

Figure 1 There are alternative ways to give feedback rather than in public and at high volume.

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

interpret examples of how the culture of a sport or a team/organisation and accepted ways of working often shape and constrain the communication practices used in that environment
describe some aspects of communication used in feedback are more likely to be accepted and taken on board
discuss the influences that contribute to a possible boundary between harsh feedback and bullying.

1 Feedback in a motor racing team

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

In Session 1, you saw Chris Hoy competing in a motor racing team. The activity below has a focus on the communication in a training and learning situation. In this next video, Chris Hoy and colleagues are preparing for the Le Mans 24-hour race, in which drivers change over many times during the race.

Activity _unit7.2.1 Activity 1 Feedback in a motor racing team

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes

Here, the team principal (TP), gives feedback to a member of his pit-crew about how to assist Chris Hoy in driver changeovers. Chris Hoy (who is wearing a helmet) also gives his input. Watch the video and respond to the following questions – however, be warned that there is some potentially offensive language and behaviour in the clip so you should be careful where you watch the clip in case it is heard by others.

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_2018j_vid009-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

NARRATOR:

With Chris now able to drive pain free, Stuart's next job is to speed up the driver change drill for Le Mans.

STUART:

OK, we need to practise it now. It's like basically the aurica is 19 seconds. That just took a minute and 10. Three driver changes in the time you take to do one. So basically, we might as well pack the fucking car up and go home.

NARRATOR:

Stuart decides to show the team how it should be done.

MAN:

Go.

STUART:

You do your belt, son. That's my first time in about a year.

MAN:

Yeah, but you didn't fasten the belt up.

STUART:

I don't give a fuck. They do that.

MAN:

Man, come on.

STUART:

They have to. Because that's what all the pros do. So don't argue, just do as you're told, and you'll learn.

CHRIS:

If you like say it to people, they're going to get stressed.

STUART:

I don't want to hear excuses. I want to see them push. It's easier to go, I can't do it. If you can't do it son, I'll just push you harder until you do it and it worked.

CHRIS:

Stuart cares so much about it. That's why he gets frustrated.

STUART:

Right, with me. That fucking strap is actually quite fine.

CHRIS:

He's not just angry for the sake of it. He's a lovely bloke. But the frustration brings out the anger in him.

End transcript

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Comment on the potential impact of this communication exchange on the unnamed pit-crew member and other team members, including Chris Hoy.
How could the TP improve his communication based on what you have learned so far?

Discussion

Here are some of the impacts that you may have noticed. For the pit-crew member, criticism in public is potentially humiliating and he is less likely to speak up again after he is told, ‘don’t argue, just do as you are told and you’ll learn’. He chooses to remain silent thereafter, although it is clear from his non-verbal communication that he is annoyed.
For Chris Hoy and other team members, the impact is that they are unlikely to challenge the TP in public for fear of similar treatment. However, although Hoy does try to explain how an approach that avoids shouting might yield better results this is also dismissed: ‘I don’t want to hear excuses, I want to see people pushed’. At the end of the video, Hoy provides subtle non-verbal support to the castigated pit-crew member through gesture and touch.
One of the main things the team principal (TP) could consider is the benefit of remaining calmer and controlling his emotions under pressure. At the moment, this clouds his interactions with others and has an impact on how it makes others feel. His self-awareness of his harsh communication behaviour and pushing others probably arises from his past experiences and immersion in the motor sport environment; that said, others may not agree with his view of ‘learning’. He would benefit from viewing this incident played back to him, along with having a dialogue with a mentor he respects. An ongoing discussion and reflection with a mentor about the possible role of building rapport and trust in coaching and the overall team environment would be valuable.

In the next section, you will explore more about the influence of the workplace environment, sometimes called culture, which shapes and constrains behaviour and communication practices.

2 How does workplace culture affect feedback?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

In sport and fitness workplaces, feedback is a key component in improving skills and overall working practices. You will now think about how workplace culture might influence the feedback communication style used.

Figure _unit7.3.1 Figure 2 Does your work culture influence creativity, collaboration or conflict?

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This is a photograph of people working collaboratively.

Figure 2 Does your work culture influence creativity, collaboration or conflict?

Activity _unit7.3.1 Activity 2 Workplace culture towards feedback

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Listen to this audio, in which Kate Arneil and Michael Rosen discuss workplace culture towards feedback and praise.

Download this audio clip.Audio player: e119_2018j_aug007.mp3

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Transcript

KATE ARNEIL

People have a sort of quid pro quo thing with work that you are hired to do a job and so you know you do the logistics of the job. But you forget the power of guessing people’s hearts is there and that’s for compliments and positive feedback as we recall it in probably more business jargon can be incredibly useful, really powerful actually because very often I work with companies and they will say ‘oh we only ever hear when we do things wrong and we don’t get anything positive.’ A well placed piece of positive feedback can be incredibly powerful and get people working harder for you, just to get people much happier in the work place.

MICHAEL ROSEN

But I'm a manager. I might think that what I've really got to do is do more stick and carrot here you know. I've got a lot of lazy people working for me and I'd better come in and I'm gonna say ‘hang on a minute – it’s one minute past nine and you're not here. You know I've got five other people outside waiting to have your job. What do you think you are doing?’ I can really feel my voice rising now. I'm getting angry with them. And then the next day will they turn up at nine o’clock instead of one minute past nine?

KATE ARNEIL

Well they might do but will do so grudgingly. I think you are absolutely right. It’s long been followed this carrot and stick approach. It’s the way to do it. It’s the way to do management, really tough. But actually more and more research is showing that the other way around can be far, far more productive. And supporting people and treating them with a bit of kindness, getting their hearts and understanding them when things are difficult so that when you do have maybe less than positive things to say to them they land in a much better context. If all people are used to hearing how awful they are when they’ve done something wrong they stop hearing it.

KATE ARNEIL

We do an exercise here where we ask people to list the things that motivate them the most at work and you would be surprised that the results show – the results show time and time again the thing that motivates people more than anything else is recognition. It’s recognition just being told that their work was of value. People want to know that they're doing stuff which is valued. They don’t want to spend their day doing stuff that isn't of value to people so pointing that out and just making that part of management it’s free. To not do it you are missing such an amazing trick. It’s much, much more than giving someone a pay rise. Funnily enough people say actually the recognition – that’s what really drives me at work.

MICHAEL ROSEN

Is that because we are kind of naïve? Are we all children or even younger than children? That we are babes and that what we want is to be stroked by mummy?

KATE ARNEIL

Well it’s interesting that you use the word ‘stroke’ because there is a fantastic chap called Eric Berne who wrote about something called transactional analysis. And he said we measure our interactions with people everyday and we need these things called ‘strokes’ which I mean as a child, as a baby of course a physical stroke is part of hugging. And as you get older they become moments of recognition between you and another person. So it might simply be a smile with your neighbour in the morning and that’s a pattern that you have and you get a stroke from that and it makes you feel good. It feeds your well being and as a manager, part of your job is to develop other people. In fact that is the biggest part of your job really. And you have to put yourself in their shoes and you know go to the level that they're at not the level that you're at or the level you want them to be or the level that you think they should be achieving. People tend to live in a world ‘well they should just do it. They should just know.’ And of course people don’t. They don’t know in that same way in this world of ‘"Shoulds". So what you have to do is to develop other people.

End transcript

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To what extent do the practices described occur in your sport or fitness organisation?

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Discussion

Unless you work in, for example, a sales role in which humiliation for poor sales and ranking lists (sticks) are sometimes balanced with incentives for high sales, such as weekends away at a plush hotel (carrots), you are unlikely to see this traditional approach being widely used. You are more likely to see some management practices that attempt to recognise and value your work contribution, but of course, it is largely down to the approach of those who manage your work. If you work for yourself, you might practise enhancing the recognition you give to those you interact with. An organisation’s practices, its rituals, the social norms and accepted ways of working are often collectively known as ‘culture’. This is the context in which all interaction occurs and it influences communication.

To extend your learning about motivation and culture from the above audio the next section addresses a very topical issue in sports squads and tackles it head on with a challenging question.

3 When does tough coaching become bullying?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

In the build up to the 2020 Olympic Games a number of sports have been forced to address claims of bullying following formal complaints from elite athletes about coaches’ communication behaviours.

Activity _unit7.4.1 Activity 3 When does tough coaching become bullying?

Timing: Allow about 15 minutes

In this audio, Professor Chris Cushion and top footballer, Rachel Williams, respond to the interviewer’s questions about such accusations of bullying.

Download this audio clip.Audio player: e119_2018j_aug011.mp3

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Transcript

CHRIS CUSHION:

Interesting example around football. I mean I do – we do a little bit of work in football. And you know if you think about sport as the same as any other domain, in any other profession or in any other occupation, and even, you know, what you might not - what you wouldn't call bullying necessarily but harsh language - so using expletives, the way that you talk to people, it would be totally unacceptable in any other workplace. But in sport such as football it’s perfectly fine to f and Jeff at the players for example and people accept that as normal whereas actually that’s not normal, you know, you'd get sacked. I'd get sacked if I spoke to people in some of the ways that we see football coaches and other coaches speaking to players. So it becomes normalised so if you're in a sport from a young age you kind of get used to that behaviour and it’s just normal you know. Everyone speaks to everyone in that fashion but when you're outside of that industry or outside of that sport in other domains you think how do people accept that? That’s just unacceptable behaviour.

RACHEL WILLIAMS:

Yeah I agree there because there has been a time where although I say I have never experienced it looking back then from what you’ve just said I have been under managers that the minute with Mark he’s so much more for developing the player. Not only being as a manager but developing if you like even at my age, wants things like still get more out of you and you can still learn. But then the old manager at Birmingham when I was there, Marcus, he’s the kind to kick a bottle in your face, throw tactic sheets at your head, shout at you sprout you but we didn’t know any better so we looked up to that and that got the best out of us and that made us the team we became. And we was the underdogs that then all of a sudden teams were turning up at our place thinking ‘whew – these are gonna be trouble.’ But we didn’t look at him as him being – some of the girls did and they didn’t like it,

INTERVIEWER:

Were you prepared to accept it because it worked essentially?

RACHEL WILLIAMS:

I work by a rough tough more tough-like management like that. Like everyone – they are individuals. Some people if the manager knows them well enough like Marcus at Birmingham; he will know what players he can do it with but not to the extent at what Marcus did. But if Marcus – I was the one he kicked the bottle in the face. That was just purely accident. He just kicked the bottle across the room and it’s hit me in the face but I had to stand up and kind of look at the wall so it isn't my fault. It’s no good me now kicking off 'cos for the team but we actually respond better to that. Another girl got the tactic papers threw at her head and told ‘you’re rubbish. What are you doing? You should be going and playing at …’ I don't want to repeat what he said but it worked and yeah.

INTERVIEWER:

So because it worked you feel like it was okay?

RACHEL WILLIAMS:

I feel it’s okay but I know there was people in that team that was like ‘it’s disgusting. That is not happening.’ But people overlooked it because of the results we was getting.

INTERVIEWER:

Are there things that you wouldn't be prepared to accept?

RACHEL WILLIAMS:

Not me personally.

INTERVIEWER:

You know things that are said at half time or the way that training happens you know are there things that you look back at and think well actually maybe we shouldn’t have accepted that?

RACHEL WILLIAMS:

Yeah but under Marcus yes because looking back now I think well yeah okay that’s probably a bit too far but at the time it worked. It got us results. We did well. We won things. You know, no one questions is if we were losing and he’s doing it then people are gonna start you know making an issue of it. So it can go either way.

INTERVIEWER:

While we’re on this subject I do want to bring in something that’s from – we dug out from the archives last week. This is about oh I should think the early 2000s. I won't play you the whole thing because it’s about four minutes long. You can listen to it on the Weekend Sport Preview if you're that way inclined. But it’s a bit of Billy Mims who was the Leicester Riders head coach at a time when they lost eighteen matches in a row. Radio Leicester went up to a game in Sheffield, their nineteenth, and they were twenty points down at half time so heading for a nineteenth straight defeat. Here’s a little bit of what he had to say at half time:

ARCHIVE CLIP

It’s embarrassing watching our failure defensively. It’s embarrassing watching players make excuses. I‘m not making excuses. We suck right now. We are the worst team in this country right now. And I chose every one of you here. I'm not making excuses. I'm not hiding from it. We are bad defensively. I’m a bad defensive coach so I'm asking you for some help.

INTERVIEWER:

Professor Chris Cushion – what do you make of that?

CHRIS CUSHION:

Well I understand the message and I totally get what the coach is trying to say it’s just the method of delivery is entirely unacceptable in the modern age. You don’t speak to human beings in that way. It’s bullying behaviour so humiliation, belittling, shouting at people – it’s totally unnecessary. I don’t know why it’s acceptable in sport that you feel you have to shout at people to get your message across.

INTERVIEWER:

Well it’s interesting because Rachel is saying you know for her that sort of treatment kind of worked –

CHRIS CUSHION:

Absolutely. I suspect that Rachel’s played football for a long time and has become kind of accustomed to that. I mean you know –

RACHEL WILLIAMS:

Yeah there was more of it when we was younger coming up so I'm used to that. But the younger ones coming through now with this next generation of players coming through they're not used to it and they're not ready for it so some of them are bored to tears whereas as players we then go and pick them back up.

End transcript

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What do you think is the boundary between tough coaching and bullying drawing on your experience and this audio?

Discussion

In the audio, Williams pointed out that some, but not all members of her team, found occasional communication practices unacceptable. Although this was tolerated whilst the team was successful, it would be less likely to be supported when results falter or a team is put under pressure or members of the team feel like outsiders. Cushion’s important observation of coaching being largely about power will be explored later, in Session 7.

Here, the motor racing team scenario is used to help put the discussion in context. The culture in the motor racing team is largely influenced by the team principal’s straight talking style. The boundary between his tough words and bullying would be determined by the situations in which he says things, how often harsh words are used and the opportunities for team members to raise concerns and speak openly. It would also depend on how those people the words were directed at perceived them, which as you heard in the interview clip is different for each individual.

The features of a person-centred approach to communication (Session 3) may be useful in interpreting such situations. In addition, appreciating some key evidence-based principles behind feedback may help guide your practice and that of others.

4 Exploring three feedback principles

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

There is a considerable amount of management and coaching research and resources dedicated to explaining effective feedback in sport and in the workplace. Effective communication is a key part of feedback. You will now consider part of an article in which ways to give effective feedback are described. It comes from the field of education, but most of its ideas apply to the workplace and sport.

Activity _unit7.5.1 Activity 4 Ways to give better feedback

Timing: Allow about 30 minutes

Read the three sections ‘Correct quietly’, ‘Combine open and closed questions’, ‘End with clear action points’ in this Guardian article ‘Seven ways to give better feedback to your students’.

How do these three principles compare or contrast to your own experiences of how feedback is delivered in sport or fitness?

Discussion

Correcting quietly, with private individual correction, is perhaps standard practice in many workplaces, yet in parts of sport there are plenty of examples of feedback being given in public and sometimes at high volume. The quieter approach was highlighted using the highly appropriate term ‘the whisper correction’. The use of open questions was explained as being valuable as they allow the voice and perspective of participants to be heard and this is seen to influence their engagement. The earlier section on hedging and boosting language is also highly applicable to optimising feedback communication.

The advice to ‘end with clear action points’ is reflected in a 2017 insight into a national rugby team’s feedback practice. The national coach Eddie Jones said: ‘We don’t have old-fashioned team meetings where the coach gets up and makes a speech for 10 minutes … We never have a meeting that lasts longer than 15 minutes and we never have a meeting that has more than three points’ (Austin, 2017).

5 How can personalised feedback be developed?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

In the workplace, it is often easy to forget that you work with a collection of individuals with different personalities and life experiences and that these people are likely to have subtly different needs or preferences for receiving communication. Some may want a direct approach (e.g. ‘just move your weight over this way a bit further’), while others may prefer a different style such as: ‘you need to explain the reasons why you think x will help, so I can understand it better’. Others may fall somewhere in between.

Figure _unit7.6.1 Figure 3 Plastic ducks are all identical but should all people be treated in the same way?

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This is a photograph of a line of yellow plastic ducks, with one out of the line.

Figure 3 Plastic ducks are all identical but should all people be treated in the same way?

Activity _unit7.6.1 Activity 5 The power of speed coaching

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Watch this short video of a British coach developer working in the USA with elite sport coaches talking about a speed coaching exercise he finds highly effective in his work. How might speed coaching, or a similar exercise aimed at revealing individual communication preferences, be applied to your own situation?

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_2018j_vwr091-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR:

The LA Galaxy Stadium - the setting for the Elite Coach Development Programme and our work with the first cohort of coaches and head coaches. Have you ever wondered why what works for one person doesn't cut it with another, why your style of processing people as a manager or a coach can leave some people cold?

Well, understanding this is key to leading managing or coaching and these guys have all three roles with their athletes, competing at the very highest level possible. A really good exercise we've done in various guises is speed coaching.

[CONVERSING]

It's set up a bit like speed dating with two lines of people facing each other, everyone wearing a badge, which shows their own behaviour style. And in turn, they describe to their partner, if you were my coach, this is how you'd need to treat me to get the very, very best out of me. And this is the sort of behaviour as a coach you should avoid, because it's going to be counterproductive.

Then, their partner does the same. They discuss their differences, and after three minutes, they move down the line to the next person - a different person. It's a simple exercise, but again and again, it has a profound impact on people when they realise that what would work for them is not how someone else needs to be treated.

Now it's a classic light bulb moment for coaches, and for managers, and for leaders. People want to be treated as individuals and not processed as if they were all the same.

End transcript

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Discussion

If sport and fitness organisations have a genuine interest in developing people, the video suggests they need to recognise that people want to be treated as individuals and not processed as if they were all the same. Identifying each person’s preferences may take time and effort, but this may well pay off in the longer term if it results in more effective implementation of feedback and open dialogue. It is likely that relationships between people in a sport team or organisation will improve if there is some recognition of each person’s individual communication preferences.

The question posed in this section may have got you thinking about developing people in the workplace. With this in mind, one American basketball coach took personalisation to the extreme. Watch this account of his unusual pre-game routine with his players: Meet the college basketball coach with dozens of handshakes and unlimited swag.

This is not a pragmatic workplace approach, but it does illustrate how you should strive towards what Turnnidge and Cote (2016) describe as coaches and leaders displaying genuine care and concern for people.

6 This session’s quiz

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Check what you’ve learned this session by taking the end-of-session quiz.

Session 6 practice quiz

Open the quiz in a new window or tab then come back here when you’ve finished.

7 Summary

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Some of the main learning points from this session are:

Some of the main principles of communication used in feedback include: using quiet correction where possible, to use a combination of open and closed questions that allows others to contribute, and to end with clear action points.
The culture of a sport or a team/organisation is its practices, rituals, the social norms and accepted ways of working; these often shape and constrain the communication practices used in that environment.
Cases in which tough coaching or harsh language are used were often related to use of power, in which there is a danger that this tough or harsh approach becomes the cultural norm.
Ideally, those working with groups should try to identify and respond to each person’s individual communication preferences, and display care and concern for people.

In the next session, you will continue to interpret some very engaging real life video scenarios and this will make you more aware of how power and control is used in communication exchanges which is likely to make you reflect on your own practices.

You can now go to Session 7.

References

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Austin, S. (2017) ‘Eddie Jones: the art of coaching (part 2)’, Training ground guru website, 6 September [online]. Available at https://www.trainingground.guru/ articles/ eddie-jones-the-art-of-coaching-(part-2) (Accessed 30 November 2017).

Turnnidge, J. and Côté, J. (2016) ‘Applying transformational leadership theory to coaching research in youth sport: a systematic literature review’, International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, pp. 1–16.

Acknowledgements

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

This free course was written by Ben Oakley.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

Images

Audio-visual

Activity 3 Extract from When does tough coaching become bullying BBC Radio Leicester Inside Sport 14 November 2017 http://www.bbc.co.uk/ programmes/ p05l1wrs © BBC 2017.

Activity 5 The power of speed coaching, courtesy The People Academy http://www.people.academy.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Don't miss out

Introduction

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

There are some very engaging real life video scenarios in this session that you will be asked to interpret. One video is about coaching elite child athletes and another examines a dispute between two neighbours, in which the dialogue plays out in two ways. Asking you to analyse and interpret such examples gives you a further opportunity to apply your learning, and it will enhance your awareness of communication skills.

There are often differences in power (i.e. experience or authority) between those involved in any communication, but this session makes you more aware of this. The potentially negative influence of power and control in an unbalanced dialogue is illustrated.

It is perhaps fitting that one of the final video situations you address, a dispute, is one that requires extremely well-developed communication skills. By the end of this session, you will be far more aware of how to respond to power imbalances and use of the full range of interpersonal skills in potential disputes.

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

identify when a power imbalance may be negatively influencing communication and what you can do to help avoid this
observe others communicating in situations in which there is a dispute and reflect how you might respond towards an appropriate outcome.

1 Coaching child athletes

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

In the following video, you will interpret communication in a particular environment: ice skating. This illustrates the challenges of working with child athletes, with a view towards possible selection to a national squad.

Figure _unit8.2.1 Figure 1 Child athletes, coaches and communication in ice dance

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This is a close up of ice skates on an ice rink.

Figure 1 Child athletes, coaches and communication in ice dance

Activity _unit8.2.1 Activity 1 Child athletes, coaches and the high performance manager

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes

This video features excerpts from a BBC documentary that follows young child athletes Lily, 11, and Genevieve, 12, as they pursued their dreams of becoming competitive figure skaters, and provides some of the background context alongside short coaching interactions. The first excerpt features Lily and the second features Genevieve. In the third excerpt, Robin Cousins, GB Ice Skating High Performance Manager, observes and talks to Genevieve.

While watching the three clips make notes on examples of effective communication in relation to the following:

how feedback is delivered including use of any non-verbal communication
evidence of communication that supports the coach-athlete relationship.

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_2018j_vid002-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

MOTHER

She makes all the decisions. She kind of dictates how much she wants to train. Everything's driven by her, and I don't know where it comes from, just something within her. It's not genetic. It is just Lily.

KATHRYN HUDSON

Let's try it one more time. Yeah. I really like the fact that when you did the Mohawk, there was a really strong push, there, before you went into it. OK? As you step forward--

NARRATOR

The reason Lily and her mum decided to come to the ice rink in Blackburn is so she can be trained by former Olympic competitor Kathryn Hudson.

LILY

Mhm!

KATHRYN HUDSON

She's super talented. You ask her to jump, she wants to do it twice. Tell her that it's time to get off, she wants to stay on longer. Ah, she's brilliant.

NARRATOR

Kathryn has been training Lily now for two years.

KATHRYN HUDSON

Many of the girls she's competing with have literally grown up on skates. You know, they've kind of started as toddlers and gone through or even started at five and six. So she's got a lot of years of just trying to catch up.

The more you train everything for speed, the more confidence you're going to have, come the competition, to do it, because it's more normal, isn't it? Yeah?

She's only been skating two years, so at the minute we're very much focusing on really getting her to have a little bit of competition practice.

OK? So, as you finish that spin, OK, finish it, and grow. And then come round. That's it.

LILY

[LAUGH]

KATHRYN HUDSON

There are very few that actually do make it to the very top. But one of the main things you need is motivation and drive. And she's got in bucketloads.

NARRATOR

12-year-old Genevieve Somerville, already number 1 in the under-15s Advanced Novice category.

MADELEINE

And the turn needs to be with speed. So do it again.

NARRATOR

Driven by her mother, Genevieve's been training since she was three.

MADELEINE

So I want to see tight knees, heels coming off the floor first. This is the painful bit.

NARRATOR

Giving Genevieve another advantage is that she's trained three times a week in this gym by a national gymnast champion from Bulgaria, her mum, Madeleine.

MADELEINE

Genevieve, shoulders back. If you're going to be sitting, sit up. Higher, higher, higher!

GENEVIEVE

I've been coming to gym since I was three, because I remember being in one of them baby carriers, on the bench. And I come three times a week.

MADELEINE

It is difficult, being a coach and a mum at the same time. Because I know when we go to the rink, she wants me to praise a lot more. I tend to focus a lot more on her mistakes and wanting to be improving. And I know she wants a lot more of the, me to be a mum, a lot more to say "Well done" and "You did well", which I try to. But we've got an understanding that, when there's something that needs correcting, I've got to tell her, as well.

Genevieve, faster! Knee, and in tighter. It's too slow.

GENEVIEVE

We fall out sometimes, if I don't do what I'm told.

MADELEINE

Nope, you didn't go up.

The fact that she gets more time to practise her off-ice jumps gives her an added advantage. I'd just like her to fully rotate it and not fall. [LAUGH]

DAVID HARTLEY

Hold. OK, now, do the axel again. So think about that quality on the skating.

NARRATOR

On the ice, Genevieve's mum is just as determined to maximise her daughter's chances.

DAVID HARTLEY

OK?

NARRATOR

She spends 600 pounds a month to have her trained at 30 pounds an hour, by former British champion and elite coach David Hartley.

DAVID HARTLEY

So, the British championships are in 13 weeks. So what I'd like to do to start off with is, let's look at how we skate across the ice. Let's look at the speed. Let's look at the power. Hold, hold, hold, and step and present. OK that was, awful!

OK, from the landing position, here, let's look at your mum, for example. So, from this position, we step. Give her a little smile.

NARRATOR

Former Olympic and world champion Robin Cousins is one of the British squad selectors for Beijing in 2022. He's identified a rising star.

ROBIN COUSINS

She's a nice snap. I like that a lot. Even, timing, even, timing, even, timing. Down. What are your hands doing?

Do you know that you land, and you do that? Feel that tension. Is your hand supposed to be like that, when you land jumps?

Put my hand where it's supposed to be. See how tight that is. That's what yours looked like. Fix it?

No claws. No claws. Go.

You're now looking at the talent pathway to start at around 8, 9, 10. So it's not a question of, oh, she's sweet, or oh, he's cute. They could, they really, no. Are they any good? Do they have what it takes?

Great little body. Perfect skater body. She can rotate. She has a good feeling for the skating.

Basic skills need a lot of work, but that can be fixed. Again, it's a question of, how badly do you want it, versus how badly do they actually want it, and how hard are they willing to work, to do it?

OK. So I'm watching you, and I can see that you have the ability, and I can see you do it. But I'm seeing tentative, not really sure if I should just do it all or do nothing.

So, when you compete, you need to stop being little mousey girl, and sweet and lovely, and start going, I've got it! Does that make sense? Yes. No, no, no, no, no. No nodding. No smiling.

You have to be the one that people go, sometimes we, you can't help who you watch. And it's not because they're the best, it's because they have the passion. And they're using that passion to perform. That's their gift.

You have to figure out how to make that work for you. Do you believe you can do it? Yes. I shall be watching, at the championships.

So you better make sure it's a performance you want to talk about. Because we'll be talking about you. All right? Good girl.

End transcript

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Discussion

In excerpt 1, Lily’s coach Catherine Hudson uses positive language to frame her feedback; for example. ‘I really liked how you … ’. She also tried to explain why they were doing a practice at speed, which perhaps affects how the message is received. It was noticeable how she made use of positive visual modelling to show a movement: ‘Finish it and grow [arms aloft demonstration] … that’s it’. In the limited glimpses we see of them together, there is some evidence of a trusting and respectful relationship between them.

In excerpt 2, Genevieve’s mother has a direct approach to communication, which both mother and daughter admit to being complicated by the dual coach/mother relationship. Her mother shows some sympathy at the difficulties this can cause. You might have noticed the possible influence of cultural differences in the strict training approach between expectations of British parenting and her mother’s heritage in Bulgarian gymnastics.

In excerpt 3, we see Robin Cousins with Genevieve. He uses visual demonstration of her hand position that is then corrected. At one point when he is talking to her, his crossed arms and straight posture explicitly convey his authority as head of the Olympic programme. In his feedback to her, he encourages her to be less tentative and perform to the crowd. It is unclear how this message is received by Genevieve. He shows his high expectations for her by standing above her and saying with pointing gestures, ‘… you better make sure it’s a performance you want to talk about since we’ll be talking about you’. He ends this with a high five and then looks away. To us as an onlooker, this appears to be signalling that there is additional pressure for Genevieve at her forthcoming championship and that the conversation is finished.

This is a high performance environment in which isolated conversations, when removed from the coaching context, can seem harsh and out of place. However, in this situation the fact that 10 and 11 year olds are involved makes the balance between instruction, challenge and supportive communication even more delicate. After all, children often find it difficult to offer their opinions to adults, due to the age gap and resultant power imbalance.

2 How might power imbalances hinder communication?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Acquiescence occurs when a person indicates that they agree with something even though they do not. Think about the ice skating example you have just seen or the pit-crew member in the motor racing driver changeover video in Session 6. In both cases, if those being instructed do not want to be seen as difficult they remain largely silent.

Figure _unit8.3.1 Figure 2 How often is power and authority balanced in working relationships?

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This is an image of a set of scales.

Figure 2 How often is power and authority balanced in working relationships?

Acquiescence can often happen in the sport workplace, especially in instructional or coaching situations; these are often power relationships that can be either productive or oppressive. For example, research has demonstrated that professional coaches using video feedback in elite youth football dominate the conversation. The turn-taking that is a feature of balanced dialogue is made unequal as the coach controls the conversational direction (i.e. topics addressed) (Groom et al., 2012).

Activity _unit8.3.1 Activity 2 Your experience of power imbalance

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes

Think back to a recent conversation (ideally in a sport and fitness setting) where you felt that you had less power than the other person did, or even no power at all. Write notes about the following:

Who was this conversation with and why did you feel that you had less or no power?
How did you react during this conversation? For example, did you challenge them, acquiesce or become annoyed?
Using your experience of having limited power, how might this shape your behaviours when you find yourself in a position of power?

Discussion

Communication is in many situations about making and maintaining connections with others. Professional relationships need to be established and maintained so that tasks or learning can be achieved. By being aware of the concepts of acquiescence and oppressive power, you can find ways of decreasing the perceived power differences and encouraging others to express themselves openly, including better understanding their needs. For example, the following may help with children: crouching down at a similar eye level, asking questions, finding ways for those that are silent to contribute in a non-threatening way and refraining from giving too much instruction and feedback.

Being aware of acquiescence and oppressive power imbalances is very useful when you observe and interpret workplace episodes and, arguably, this lies at the heart of the motor racing and ice skating examples you have viewed.

3 Potential disputes: using your interpersonal skills

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

In work teams or in individual relationships you often encounter key moments where communication and relationships come under scrutiny. Disputes and conflict can happen to everyone. You might be expecting it or it might take you by surprise, but how you respond really matters. Will your actions escalate the situation or diffuse it (Dfuse, 2017)?

Thinking of the sport workplace, referees, teachers, coaches and management teams often face conflict. Pause for a moment: identify what advice you would give to others about how to deal with conflict. This is obviously an enormous topic but would any of these points be part of your advice?

Pausing/delaying a response to reflect on what outcome you want is often wise. If possible, avoid responding immediately when emotions are often heightened.
Focus on the behaviour, not the person, e.g. ‘You came across as very aggressive … ’
Avoid saying ‘calm down’ since this can often inflame a situation.
Conveying empathy is important, e.g. ‘I can see how …’, ‘I recognise why …’.

If you want to find out more about conflict resolution then this fascinating BBC radio programme on conflict resolution (28 minutes in length) might be a useful resource for you.

4 Watch two approaches to a dispute

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The following video example of a neighbour dispute draws out a number of ideas covered earlier in the course. The first part of the video (Clip 1) is an aggressive approach resulting in a full-blown argument between neighbours. Clip 2 shows a different approach results in far more of a dialogue between the neighbours.

Activity _unit8.5.1 Activity 3 Neighbour dispute and dialogue

Timing: Allow about 25 minutes

Watch the two clips. In Clip 1, swearing has been deleted but the overall aggressive tone of this dispute means you should watch it in private so as not to cause offence to others. Then watch the different approach in Clip 2.
Focusing on Clip 2, identify examples of:
- phatic talk
- hedging language
- non-judgemental response (person-centredness)
- empathy (person-centredness)
- authenticity (person-centredness)
- active listening
- any other interesting observations of communication practices.

Download this video clip.Video player: Clip 1

Video _unit8.5.1 Clip 1

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Transcript: Clip 1

[SCRAPING METAL]

[FOOTSTEPS]

[KNOCKING]

[DOOR OPENING]

NEIGHBOUR:

Right, sort the tree out. Sort the [BLEEP] tree.

RESIDENT:

What are you on about?

NEIGHBOUR:

You are [BLEEP] me off. The tree's [BLEEP] me off. Two years now, sort the [BLEEP] tree.

RESIDENT:

You need to get out of my face, mate.

NEIGHBOUR:

Oh, do I? Yeah? Well, if you don't sort the tree out, I'm going to be...

RESIDENT:

You come to my house, talking to me like...

NEIGHBOUR:

Don't [BLEEP] shout at me, mate. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

RESIDENT:

I don't shout at you. You're shouting at me.

NEIGHBOUR:

Really?

RESIDENT:

You park your car outside my house every day.

NEIGHBOUR:

[BLEEP] to my car. Sort the tree out. If you don't, that tree comes down next weekend.

RESIDENT:

Don't you threaten me.

NEIGHBOUR:

Really?

RESIDENT:

Yeah, you know what? [BLEEP] off.

NEIGHBOUR:

[BLEEP] tree.

[DOOR CLOSING]

End transcript: Clip 1

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Video _unit8.5.1 Clip 1

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Download this video clip.Video player: Clip 2

Video _unit8.5.2 Clip 2

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Transcript: Clip 2

[METAL SCRAPING]

[FOOTSTEPS]

[KNOCKING]

[DOOR OPENING]

NEIGHBOUR:

Hello, mate. How's it going?

RESIDENT:

Oh, yeah. Yeah, all right.

NEIGHBOUR:

Yeah?

RESIDENT:

How are you?

NEIGHBOUR:

Yeah, I'm all right, thanks. I just wondered whether, at some point, we could have a chat about the tree that's causing us a problem.

RESIDENT:

Yeah, I know it's a problem. I'm just so flat out at the minute.

NEIGHBOUR:

Oh, are you? What's happened?

RESIDENT:

Well, the wife's not very well. Have you heard she had a stroke?

NEIGHBOUR:

Oh, no.

RESIDENT:

And I'm backwards and forwards all day long in the hospital with the kids.

NEIGHBOUR:

I hadn't heard. That must be awful. I'm sorry to hear that.

RESIDENT:

Nightmare. Absolute nightmare, mate.

NEIGHBOUR:

And the children?

RESIDENT:

Well, it's to be expected. A bit upset about their mum, but we're OK. We'll get through it.

NEIGHBOUR:

So she went to the hospital, and the children - were they here?

RESIDENT:

NEIGHBOUR:

They must be suffering.

RESIDENT:

They are. We'll survive. So I'm really worried about not the kids at the minute.

NEIGHBOUR:

Yeah, I know, I get that. I'm not going through what you're going through, but I know what children can be like. That must be really hard.

RESIDENT:

Yeah, it's horrible.

NEIGHBOUR:

OK. All right, well, how are you feeling?

RESIDENT:

I'm just tired all the time, and I know you need the tree down. I'm sorry, but I'm just so flat out at the minute. But we'll get it done. I will get it done.

NEIGHBOUR:

Yeah, do you want to get it done?

RESIDENT:

I do want to get it done, yeah.

NEIGHBOUR:

Yeah?

RESIDENT:

Yeah.

NEIGHBOUR:

OK. Well, I don't want to add to your pressure, but if you want to do it and...

RESIDENT:

I can't do it now.

NEIGHBOUR:

No, OK.

RESIDENT:

Maybe next week. Is that any good for you?

NEIGHBOUR:

Next week? Next week is good for me. When?

RESIDENT:

Sunday?

NEIGHBOUR:

If it works for you, it works for me.

RESIDENT:

OK, all right.

NEIGHBOUR:

Because I know you're obviously under pressure at the moment. But if Sunday works for you, that's good for me.

RESIDENT:

Early would be better.

NEIGHBOUR:

Yeah? 9:00?

RESIDENT:

9:00, OK.

NEIGHBOUR:

Yeah? OK.

RESIDENT:

All right, 9 o'clock.

NEIGHBOUR:

OK, all right. Well, all the best, and I'll see you on Sunday.

RESIDENT:

Thanks. All right, see you Sunday.

NEIGHBOUR:

Bye-bye.

End transcript: Clip 2

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Video _unit8.5.2 Clip 2

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Discussion

This table is used to show some of the examples from Clip 2 that can be applied to each of the communication practices. In the table, Neighbour A is the visitor and Neighbour B is the home owner. Read about other interesting observations below this.

Table _unit8.5.1 Table 1 Examples from Clip 2
Communication practice	Example from Clip 2
Phatic talk	A: ‘Hello mate, how’s it going?’
Hedging language	A: ‘I just wondered, whether at some point we could have a chat …’
Non-judgemental	A responds in a non-judgemental way on hearing B has been ‘flat out’
Empathy	A shows an empathy in expressing concern about what B and his children must be going through, his tone of voice also conveys this and it is also reinforced by asking ‘how are you feeling?’
Authenticity	The manner in which B reveals his family’s struggles with his wife’s condition gives the impression that he is authentically showing part of his true self.
Active listening	A displays this throughout but in particular when he reflects back to B ‘I don’t want to add to your pressure but …’ and then about the tree removal timing ‘if it works for you it’s good for me’.

Other interesting observations of communication practices are:

The way in which A says ‘… the tree that is causing US a problem’, which makes it a joint problem.
Neighbour A shows a degree of self-awareness and the impressions he might give others by remaining courteous, knocking on the door gently and keeping positive as the STPC model suggests.
Assuming that this situation used actors, the only criticism might be that there seemed to be little use of minimal encouragers or hand gestures largely because their hands remained firmly stuck in their pockets through Clip 2.

While you have the Clip 1 footage from this confrontation in your mind, it is timely for you to briefly think about the challenges of using the telephone as the communication tool. Would it be a help or a hindrance in this dialogue?

5 The telephone: a help or hindrance?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Why could the use of the telephone as a communication tool make defusing conflict more challenging, compared with face-to-face interaction?

The use of the telephone makes immediate communication possible, which is often a real bonus. However, it also makes reading the non-verbal communication almost impossible (apart from intonation) and minimal encouragers become less evident. In the neighbour dialogue (Clip 2), sighs, shoulder shrugs, eye contact and facial expressions all provide added information for each neighbour to communicate and to signal that it was the other person’s opportunity to respond. This is why pausing, conversation turn-taking and summarising are perhaps even more important than usual when the telephone is used.

In addition, since the telephone is so immediate, hedging language along the lines of ‘Is it a convenient time to talk right now?’ is often an appropriate way to begin a conversation.

6 This session’s quiz

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Check what you’ve learned this session by taking the end-of-session quiz.

Session 7 practice quiz

Open the quiz in a new window or tab then come back here when you’ve finished.

7 Summary

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The main learning points from this session are:

One aspect of effective feedback highlighted how one ice skating coach tried to explain why they were doing a practice; this may impact on how feedback messages are received.
Those leading or instructing others should be alert to negative communication practices and acquiescence enhanced by any power imbalances. Ways of decreasing this include: finding ways for those that are silent to express themselves in a non-threatening way, better understanding other’s needs, attending to power-related non-verbal communication and communicating at a similar eye level.
In confrontational situations, the practices of active listening, empathy or allowing turn taking in the conversation all help partly decrease the potential conflict.
The communication practices of pausing, conversation turn-taking and summarising are perhaps even more important when the telephone is used.

In the next session, you will look at topical aspects of working relationships including emotional regulation and social media communication. You will identify some of the distinctive features of interacting with others using this medium before progressing on to complete the final quiz that will enable you to claim your digital badge.

You can now go to Session 8.

References

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Dfuse (2017) ‘Diffusing conflict anywhere’ [Online]. Available at http://dfuse.org.uk (Accessed 19 November 2017).

Groom, R., Cushion, C. and Nelson, L. (2012) ‘Analysing coach–athlete “talk in interaction” within the delivery of video-based performance feedback in elite youth soccer’, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 439–58.

Acknowledgements

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

This free course was written by Ben Oakley.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

Images

Audio-visual

Activity 1 Extract from The Making of an Ice Princess, broadcase BBC 2 (last shown 25 May 2016) licenses by DCD Rights http://dcdrights.com/

Activity 3 Clips 1 and 2: Tree Argument (1) and (2) Defusing Conflict programme http://dfuse.org.uk/defusing-conflict/ Courtesy of Dfuse

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Don't miss out

Introduction

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

This final session looks at three topical aspects of communication and working relationships. The first topical aspect refers to a term that is increasingly slipping into the language of those that work with people in sectors as diverse as business, to education, including sport: something called ‘emotional intelligence’, which you will consider in a moment.

The second aspect is something you may not be familiar with; it’s known as emotional regulation, which has an important role to play in communication. In fact, some argue that without this key ingredient it is difficult to influence others, be credible or even be successful.

It’s an absolute certainty you will already know a fair bit about the third topic: social media. You will look at distinctive features linked to interacting with others using this medium. Since social media is widely used for work-related communication, it is important that dialogue using this channel is effective. You will consider what a sport medicine community advises as its social media communication top tips.

Once you have completed these three topics, you will then think about how you might apply your learning from this course before progressing to the final quiz and your digital badge.

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

use your new knowledge to interpret work interactions and relationships
evaluate your view of ‘emotional intelligence’ and ‘emotional regulation’ and how they contribute to communication practice
recognise some of the main features of and advice about social media as a communication channel.

1 Is emotional intelligence a useful idea?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The first topical aspect you consider is the term ‘emotional intelligence’, which is often used interchangeably with so called ‘soft’ or people skills. It was popularised by journalist Daniel Goleman (1995) in his book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. But to what extent is it useful when analysing communication?

Figure _unit9.2.1 Figure 1 Emotional intelligence: bright idea or fancy dress?

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This is a photograph of three children, with light bulbs above their heads.

Figure 1 Emotional intelligence: bright idea or fancy dress?

Activity _unit9.2.1 Activity 1 A one-minute explanation of emotional intelligence

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Watch the following video, which briefly explains Goleman’s book. There are five aspects that he claims make up emotional intelligence, two of which you have come across already in this course (self-awareness and empathy).

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_2018j_vwr090-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

[PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR:

Daniel Goleman argues that IQ isn't everything. Our current view of intelligence is too narrow, ignoring important abilities that determine how well we do in life. The superior metric that Goleman prefers to use to measure life success is EQ, known as emotional intelligence.

It's made up of these five things. Number one, self awareness. This is knowing one's emotions as they happen. If you can do this, you'll make better decisions.

Number two, managing emotions. This is the ability to handle feelings. People that can manage their emotions are good at bouncing back from the setbacks in life. Number three, self-motivation.

Number four, empathy. This is recognising emotions in others. This is the people skill that makes people better at teaching, sales and management. And last of all, handling relationships. These abilities lead to popularity, leadership and interpersonal effectiveness.

End transcript

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Note down the list of five aspects.
Consider to what extent emotional intelligence (EQ) is used in your sport environment and any thoughts on it being a useful idea for understanding communication and working relationships.

Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Discussion

You have already covered self-awareness and empathy (Session 3) and have explored building relationships (Session 3 and 4). The other two aspects were managing emotions and self-motivation.
You can see that EQ pools together a number of components into one. One way of seeing its use in sport is to search for online references to it. There are many and varied results from internet search engines: a frequent mention of EQ in popular coaching material is its interchangeable use with interpersonal skills. Also, the original author, Goleman, provocatively uses the term ‘intelligence’: it certainly grabs people’s attention but the question is how much evidence is there for his bold claims of it mattering more than IQ?

Emotional intelligence is a term you need to know about in sport and fitness because it is often referred to in training and online material. However, caution is needed. The main scientific critique of EQ can be summarised as follows:

Groups of widely studied personality, motivational, emotional regulation, self-control and assertiveness attributes should be called what they are, rather than being mixed together in a haphazard assortment (Mayer, 2009).
Exaggerated claims have been made. For example, claims often focus around EQ leading to job or leadership success (e.g. Sternberg, 1999)
There is disagreement how EQ should be measured (e.g. Antonakis, 2009) or indeed if it can be measured (e.g. Fiori & Antonakis, 2012).

To conclude, if you do come across the term ‘emotional intelligence’ you need to be wary of exactly how people are using the term.

In the next section you will hear how one influential coach talks about his coaching practice including reference to his emotions.

2 A coach’s story: emotional regulation

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Emotional regulation is the second topical aspect you explore. You have already seen that conviction and stirring words have a place in influencing others. But how does one coach view the role of emotional regulation in his communication?

Activity _unit9.3.1 Activity 2 Danny Kerry’s journey as head coach of GB hockey

Timing: Allow about 15 minutes

The purpose of this activity is to hear how Danny Kerry, Great Britain Olympic hockey coach, explains his coaching and management journey, including a key aspect of his working relationships.

Watch the video and, while watching, identify and note:

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_investec_1.mp4

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Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

DANNY CAREY

My name is Danny Carey, and I'm the England and Great Britain women's hockey coach. I've been involved since 2005. I never really considered being a manager or a coach when I was playing. And actually, I was asked towards the end of my career, would I consider going and getting involved with coaching at a national league side, and the rest is history with it.

I'm not sure I've ever felt 100% comfortable being in the skin of a head coach. And I think that's a good place to be. You're constantly reflecting back, projecting forth, and having to deal with the here and now. And it's something that consumes a lot of my waking moments.

Some of these athletes I have worked with since 2005. They have literally - along with myself - grown up over those 11 years. And needs and wants as human beings change. And you have to evolve and change and accept that as well.

One of the biggest lessons I've learned is if you can't manage yourself, how can you expect to have an effective working relationship with other athletes, with other staff? And so that ability to self-regulate is key. However, it's absolutely fundamental that you have a passion for what you do. I think keeping my calm in really high stake scenarios has been my greatest challenge as a coach. So I think you're never the finished article as an athlete or as a coach. And it's something I continue to work hard on.

When inviting an athlete into the GB senior programme, there are a huge array of things to consider. Probably, the most important thing is actually, are they at the right place in their life to take on the challenge? Picking them too early may actually work against them.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

To be a truly great hockey player, you really have to have an absolute passion and commitment and a self-belief. The journey is incredibly difficult. There are huge amounts of ups and downs. And you've got to keep coming back. I've certainly learned huge amounts about the power that you can leverage on with female groups. If you can get the culture right, if you can get the leadership right within the group, then female groups take on a power of their own. They can become incredibly nurturing of one another. They can become a real collective force.

This current group of 31 players has an enormous amount of hockey talent. And I genuinely believe we can achieve truly great things.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

End transcript

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Why does he identify managing and regulating himself as being a key skill in managing relationships with others?

Discussion

Kerry talks about the importance of self-management and self-regulation – he does not fully explain these terms. They are about controlling your emotions and feelings, particularly in stressful situations, so that you can communicate using calm consistency. This helps earn trust, respect and a greater likelihood that you might instil confidence in others. Notice how Kerry talks of emotional regulation rather than using emotional intelligence. You will recall how in the motor racing and neighbour dispute videos, there were colourful examples of people not controlling their emotions and feelings often resulting in abrupt and ineffective communication.

In the video you have just watched, Danny Kerry chose to use hedging or boosting language that demonstrated something forcibly (e.g. ‘a huge amount’) or with humility and less certainty (e.g. ‘I’m not sure I‘ve …’).

This subtle use of language is not always so evident in social media, the topical communication issue you turn to next.

3 Social media communication in sport workplaces

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Many organisations use social media among larger workplace groups, and also to speed up knowledge generation. Media such as blogs, wikis, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, all used alongside internal social-networking sites are often utilised. It’s undoubtedly a communication channel that allows many different people to contribute to discussions in an easily accessible manner, and this is part of its appeal. Since this is widespread in many workplaces, it is important to think about how to send suitable messages via this channel.

Figure _unit9.4.1 Figure 2 Does social media blur professional, social and personal boundaries?

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This is an image showing people sitting around a table holding note pads and mobile phones.

Figure 2 Does social media blur professional, social and personal boundaries?

Three distinctive features of communicating on social media are:

In face-to-face interaction you speak to different people in different ways. You don't speak to your father-in-law the way you speak to your colleagues. However, on social media, you write your message without necessarily knowing who will be reading it. All these readers will see the same message and make different assumptions about the sender.
This connects to communication partly being about managing impressions or a performance provided for a particular audience. The difficulty with social media is a potential blurring of your different professional, social and personal group boundaries.
Another distinctive feature of social media communication is the possibility of your account becoming an ‘echo chamber’, with a tendency towards confirmation bias (also outlined in Session 2): social media can reinforce the beliefs of users because users generally tend to seek out news and views that tally with their own opinions. Research suggests that social media can create an echo chamber in which a network of like-minded people share controversial views and selective information. This means that any biases held are simply repeated back to users unchallenged and thereby confirmed as fact. For example, a group of sport practitioners may convince themselves that they are open-minded about people with body piercings, but if their social media circle is drawn from people with limited experience of such body decorations, any stereotypes may often be reinforced without challenge.
Watch this short animation. The main message it conveys is: it’s best to assume that everything you put on social media is public and searchable or has the potential to be.

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_2018j_vwr103-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

NARRATOR

"What's New About New Media Communication," or "Think Before You Tweet." It's hard to imagine now, but the only way to gossip about your friends used to be by letter or carrier pigeon.

So there's no denying technology has brought about major changes in the way we communicate. We've come from sending letters, to speaking across time and space, to having unlimited communication at our fingertips. But with this brave new world of constant communication comes many pitfalls.

Here, we see Frank tweeting about his new boss. What could possibly go wrong? Well, with face-to-face conversation, a huge amount of what we communicate comes via our expressions and tone of voice. But online, it's all too easy for things like sarcasm to be misinterpreted.

And then there's social media's remarkable reach, sharing and spreading like some alien super-virus. So it's easy for Frank's innocent little jibe to travel far beyond his circle, for it to be altered, commented on, or even, heaven help him, turned into a meme.

And unlike the nonsense Frank shouts into his friend's hear at 2:00 AM, what we say online stays there in an easily-searchable format. So 20 years later, when he's become a loved and revered author, Frank's innocent little comment can come back to haunt him and really undermine his angle.

So Frank, what have we learned? That we can no longer treat our casual conversations as private in today's online world. It's best to assume that everything we say on social media is public or has the potential to be. Or, to put it more simply, Frank, think before you tweet.

End transcript

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4 Tips from the sports medicine community

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The British Journal of Sports and Exercise Medicine is one of the leading communication platforms for professionals working in this part of the sports sector. Their guidance on communication via social media is a useful reference point for those working in sport environments (see Figure 3). Read through their ten top social media tips and identify those that have particular relevance in your sport or fitness environment.

Figure _unit9.5.1 Figure 3 Ten top social media tips for sport and exercise medicine practitioners.

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The ten top social media tips for sport and exercise medicine practitioners are as follows. 1. Always respect confidentiality. 2. Embrace social media use - it is an effective tool for knowledge dissemination, promoting best practice and networking with peers. 3. Think before you post - would you be happy re-reading your post in 1 week, month or years later? 4. Steer clear from trolls and puerile online arguments. Let the trolls stay in their caves. 5. Be cognisant of making a grave faux pas such as disparaging opinions on referees, tactics, releasing team and/or personal information, especially in the professional sports world. 6. When sharing images of players and colleagues, ensure you seek their informed consent prior to circulating them in the public domain. 7. Stay up to date and aware of new and emerging platforms that your player may be using (e.g. snapchat). 8. Liaise with the experts to identify methods to utilise social media for wider public and to minimise risks of misinterpretation/misrepresentation. 9. Know your relevant profession’s code of ethics/conduct, and/or advocate for inclusion of social media guidance. 10. If you are working within a squad, consider acting as a referee point to help influence and generate good social media etiquette and practice.

Figure 3 Ten top social media tips for sport and exercise medicine practitioners.

5 Final course reflection

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

You are about to view the summary of this final session and take the final quiz. Hopefully, in finding out more about effective and ineffective communication practices this course has surprised you in places and enhanced your understanding of your workplace and working relations in your role.

On occasion, your analysis and interpretation of the materials will have taken you in unexpected directions: into hospitals, a motor racing team and scenarios in which there is confrontation and conflict. One of the most powerful ways of using what you have learned is to use your increased knowledge to reflect on your own communication practices. However, this final film outlines how reflection is at its best when it focuses beyond any deficits that you or others identify.

Activity _unit9.6.1 Activity 3 Getting the most from reflection

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Watch the following short ‘Role of reflection’ film and identify what Professor Tony Ghaye conveys about learning from experience, beyond just using a deficit approach to reflection (focusing on things that don’t go well).

Download this video clip.Video player: e119_2018j_vid095-640x360.mp4

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Transcript

MUSIC PLAYING

SIMON REA

We're going to have a discussion really about different ways that we learn. For example, we've seen how we can use other people to help us learn. And obviously, we can learn from information sources like books and journals on the web. But in particular, are there any other ways people learn how to be an effective coach or an effective instructor?

TONY GHAYE

Yeah, there are many ways. And I guess one of the critical ways is to try and get good at learning from your experience. And although that sounds quite easy, it's actually quite tricky because, underneath that statement, there are questions like, well, what kind of experience would you want to learn from. So there are good experiences and bad experiences. So when we talk about learning through experience, we have to be quite selective. We have to think what bits of our experience, given that one definition of experience is something you've gone through in the past, what bits you want to select, what bits you want to choose, and for what reason. It's called a deficit-based approach to reflection that you actually focus on. If that were that good, why do we have the performance issues we do? Why is it so difficult to sustain success and so on? So we have to balance that out with what's called a strength-based reflective approach. And that is we have to be able to do three things. First of all, in the hearts of minds of those people that work with athletes and performers, we have to try and convince them that reflecting on success is every bit as important as reflecting on failure. But most people would say that's a bit frivolous. We don't need to do that. We don't need to reflect on what went well. We need to reflect on what didn't go well.

End transcript

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Discussion

Ghaye suggests that you need to select what parts of good and bad experience you want to reflect on and learn from. The deficit approach to reflection is often highlighted as the way to learn, but if it were that simple he asks, ‘why do we still have performance issues?’ He suggests that a strength-based approach is also needed to provide a balance since sustaining effectiveness is equally as difficult to achieve as correcting failures. Focusing on what makes communication and working relationships successful is valuable, just as much as any negative experiences.

In addition, by completing this course you may have developed more confidence in studying online: this style of video-rich learning means that you can easily make connections and apply links between ideas and practice. A similar approach is used on a similar badged course on OpenLearn, Exploring sport coaching and psychology, and the BSc (Hons) Sport, Fitness and Coaching.

A final likely course outcome is the increased self-awareness of your own communication. This will increase the chance of your participants or colleagues becoming more engaged in what you say and perhaps even increase their and your satisfaction.

6 This session’s quiz

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Congratulations on almost reaching the end of the course.

Now it’s time to complete the Session 8 badge quiz. It is similar to the badge quiz that you took at the end of Session 4, with 15 questions in total.

Session 8 compulsory badge quiz

Remember, this quiz counts towards your badge. If you’re not successful the first time, you can attempt the quiz again in 24 hours.

Open the quiz in a new window or tab then come back here when you’ve finished.

7 Summary

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

The main learning points from this session are:

Wariness was expressed in the term ‘emotional intelligence’ which has become a haphazard assortment of ideas. Some researchers suggest analysis and understanding of its components separately may be more valuable.
The importance of emotional regulation was emphasised as contributing to calm, consistent and effective communication.
Three features of social media communication were identified as a difficulty in crafting messages for multiple audiences, the ‘echo chamber’ phenomenon and its public and potentially searchable nature.
A balanced approach to reflection that considers strengths and weakness should be employed to help you learn from experience and apply some of your knowledge from the course.

You can now return to the course page.

Where next?

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

If you’ve enjoyed this course you can find more free resources and courses on OpenLearn. You might be specifically interested in another badged course, Exploring sport coaching and psychology, also written by Ben Oakley. There is also a page of sport and fitness courses on OpenLearn.

New to University study? You may be interested in our courses on health and wellbeing. You might be particularly interested in our BSc (hons) Sport, fitness and coaching.

Making the decision to study can be a big step and The Open University has over 40 years of experience supporting its students through their chosen learning paths. You can find out more about studying with us by visiting our online prospectus.

You can now return to the course page.

Tell us what you think

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Now you have completed the course, we would again appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us a bit about your experience of studying it and what you plan to do next. We will use this information to provide better online experiences for our learners and to share our findings with others. If you would like to help, please fill in this optional survey.

You can now return to the course page.

References

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

Antonakis, J. (2009) ‘“Emotional intelligence”: what does it measure and does it matter for leadership?’ in G. B. Graen (ed.) LMX Leadership–Game-Changing Designs: Research-Based Tools, vol. 7, pp. 163–92, Greenwich, CT, Information Age Publishing.

Fiori, M. and Antonakis, J. (2012) ‘Selective attention to emotional stimuli: what IQ and openness do, and emotional intelligence does not’, Intelligence, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 245–54.

Goleman, D. P. (1995) Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter more than IQ for Character, Health and Lifelong Achievement, New York, Bantam Books.

Mayer, J. D. (2009) ‘What Emotional Intelligence is and is not’, Psychology Today, 21 September [Online]. Available at https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-personality-analyst/200909/what-emotional-intelligence-is-and-is-not. (Accessed 17 November 2017).

Sternberg, R. J. (1999) ‘Review of Daniel Goleman’s Working with Emotional Intelligence’, Personnel Psychology, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 780–3.

Acknowledgements

The Open University — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:48:21 GMT

This free course was written by Ben Oakley.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

Images

Figure 3: 10 Top Social Media Tips for Sports and Exercise Medicine Practitioners (illustration) © British Journal of Sports Medicine 2017, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2014-094395 http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-nc/ 4.0/

Audio-visual

Activity 1: courtesy 'Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman: Animated Book Summary', OnePercentBetter. Used with permission from Brandon Nankivell https://youtu.be/ n6MRsGwyMuQ

Activity 2: extract from Danny Kerry on his journey as Head Coach of GB Women’s Hockey https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=uDWLGjad06I courtesy and used under licence: Investec: https://www.investec.com

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

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