Assignment:
Troubling Communication
Your objective is to gain experience in communicating effectively in a troublesome situation.
The class divides into groups of three to five people, and each group appoints one member as spokesperson to present the group’s conclusions to the whole class. Here is the scenario. One group member assumes the role of David Jimenez, the supervisor of a group of chemical engineers. Another group member assumes the role of Stuart Kippling, one of the chemical engineers. The remaining members of the group are observers. Once Jimenez and Kippling assume their roles, the observers take notes on the verbal and nonverbal communication they observe as well as instances of effective and ineffective communication between the two. For the past several months, Kippling has been designing a prototype of a new waste-control processing device. He has just discovered that his device does not conform to a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation that will go into effect in one year. This is a major setback. Although some of the design work can be salvaged, at least several weeks of work will be lost. Jimenez and Kippling are meeting in Jimenez’s office to discuss the problem, why it occurred, and how it can be avoided in the future. Jimenez’s position is that extrapolating from recent EPA regulations, requirements, and deliberations, Kippling should have been able to anticipate EPA’s most recent ruling and take it into account in his design work, or at least he should have drawn up a contingency plan in case such a ruling was put into effect. Kippling’s position is that there is no way he could have known what EPA was going to do.
1. Jimenez and Kippling assume their roles. They are meeting to discuss the problem, why it occurred, and how it can be avoided in the future. Jimenez is to meet with his boss in 15 minutes to discuss the problem, so he and Kippling have only 15 minutes to come to some kind of resolution of this matter.
2. When Jimenez and Kippling’s meeting is finished, the observers should discuss the verbal and nonverbal communication they observed as well as what was particularly effective and ineffective.
3. The entire group determines which instances of communication between Jimenez and Kippling were especially effective and why and which instances of communication were especially ineffective and why. When the group has finished those activities, the spokesperson will present the group’s conclusions to the whole class.