Digital fluency | Eshwar S M, Sharath P

Digital Fluency – Module 3

Effective communication Skills
What is Communication?
Being able to communicate effectively is one of the most important life skills to learn. Communication is defined as
transferring information to produce greater understanding. It can be done vocally (through verbal exchanges), through
written media (books, websites, and magazines), visually (using graphs, charts, and maps) or non-verbally (body
language, gestures, pitch of voice, and tone). All of these means of communication are essential Soft Skills that are vital
for a successful Career.

The Importance of Communication Skills

Having strong communication skills aids in all aspects of life – from professional life to personal life and everything that
falls in between. From a business standpoint, all transactions result from communication. Good communication skills are
essential to allow others and yourself to understand information more accurately and quickly. In contrast, poor
communication skills lead to frequent misunderstanding and frustration. In a 2016 LinkedIn survey conducted in the
United States, communication topped the list of the most sought-after soft skills among employers.

How to Improve Your Communication Skills

Here are some pointers to look out for when looking to improve your ability to effectively communicate with others:
1. Listening: To become a good communicator, it is important to be a good listener. It is important to practice active
listening – pay close attention to what others are saying and clarify ambiguities by rephrasing their questions for greater
understanding.
2.Conciseness: Convey your message in as few words as possible. Do not use filler words and get straight to the point.
Rambling will cause the listener to tune out or be unsure of what you are talking about. Avoid speaking excessively and do
not use words that may confuse the audience.
3.Body language: It is important to practice good body language, use eye contact, utilize hand gestures, and watch the
tone of the voice when communicating with others. A relaxed body stance with a friendly tone will aid in making you look
approachable by others.
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Eye contact is important in communication – look the person in the eye to indicate that you are focused on the
conversation. But make sure to not stare at the person as it can make him or her uncomfortable.
4.Confidence: Be confident in what you say and in your communication interactions with others. Being confident can be
as easy as maintaining eye contact, maintaining a relaxed body stance, and talking with concision. Try not to make
statements sound like questions and avoid trying to sound aggressive or demeaning
5.Open-mindedness: In situations where you disagree with what someone else has to say, whether it be with an employer,
a co-worker, or a friend, it is important to sympathize with their point of view rather than simply try to get your message
across. Respect the opinion of others and never resort to demeaning those who do not agree with you.
6.Respect: Respecting what others have to say and acknowledging them is an important aspect of communication. Being
respectful can be as simple as paying attention to what they have to say, using the person’s name, and not being distracted.
By respecting others, the other person will feel appreciated, which will lead to a more honest and productive conversation.
7.Using the correct medium: There are several different forms of communication to use – it is important to choose the
right one. For example, communicating in person about serious matters (layoffs, salary changes, etc.) is more appropriate
than sending an email regarding the matter.
Good Communication Skills for a Great Career
Succeeding in your career requires good communication skills. You need to know what you want and how you are going
to attain it. Being an excellent communicator can help propel your career.
Good communication skills can aid in helping you land an interview and pass the selection process. Being able to
articulate well provides a significant advantage! To do your job effectively, you have to discuss problems, request
information, interact with others, and have good human relations skills – these are all part of having good communication
skills. They help in being understood well and in helping understand the needs of those around you.
Bad Communication in the Workplace
Communication drives workplace success. Although the detriments of poorly communicating with others may not be
apparent in the short term, it has a crippling effect on the workplace in the long-term. Here are some signs of bad
communication:
•Lack of specific communication
•Using the incorrect mediums to convey important messages
•Passive-aggressive communication
•Lack of follow-through and consideration
•Blaming and intimidating others
•Failing to listen

Creative Problem Solving and Critical Thinking

Problem-solving and decision-making techniques can help you to come to a swift resolution for any issue that might arise,
and are key skills that employers look for when hiring. The most effective problem-solving often happens when you work
as a team. Employers will often look for good problem-solving skills in a candidate because it shows you have a variety of
different attributes. These include logic, resilience, determination, imagination, and, of course, creativity.

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What is creative problem solving?

Creative problem solving is a way of solving problems or identifying opportunities when conventional thinking has failed.
It encourages you to find fresh perspectives and come up with innovative solutions, so that you can formulate a plan to
overcome obstacles and reach your goals

Why Use Creative Problem Solving?

Dealing with obstacles and challenges is a regular part of working life, and overcoming them isn't always easy. To
improve your products, services, communications, and interpersonal skills, it is necessary to imbibe and encourage
creative thinking and find innovative solutions that work.
Steps in Creative Problem Solving
1.Define the problem: This is the first step in problem-solving. Figuring out and spending enough time to understand the
issue at hand will help you to undertake the steps you need to take to solve the problem.
2.Generate solutions: Generate new solutions to the problem at hand using any relevant previous experiences, as well as
communicating with other team members. Working with others in a seamless and constructive way is essential in
problem-solving.
3.Evaluate the solutions: Evaluating all the solutions and finding the best among them is the next step. Thinking
creatively here can help to find the optimum solution to a problem.
4.Implement the solution: The next step involves putting the best solution into action. Working as a team will mean that
the step can be performed in a timely manner. It is important to focus on individual skills that each team member brings to
the table to solve the problem quickly and easily.
5.Assess the solution: During this step the solution is assessed to know how effective it proved to be.

What is critical thinking?

Critical thinking is the process of rationally analyzing and attempting to solve a problem accurately and efficiently
without relying on assumptions or guesses. For students, critical thinking is an important part of the research and learning
processes. Business leaders rely on critical thinking to help them solve day-to-day problems, along with major
organizational issues, at minimal cost and as quickly as possible. Thus, Critical thinking is the ability to analyze a
situation and make a professional judgement.
What is the difference between critical thinking and creative thinking?
Critical thinking is the ability to interpret data and make a professional judgment whereas creative thinking gives possible
solutions for the data you interpreted and analyzed.

Collaboration and Teamwork Skills

Combined, teamwork and collaboration can foster a healthy work culture and environment where teams of individuals can
achieve goals through powerful skills and effective work. Collaborative teamwork can promote innovation, increase job
satisfaction, find solutions to resolve problems and develop excellent soft skills.
What is collaboration?
Collaboration is the action of working with one or more people who have different skill sets to produce something, such
as finishing a project, developing a shared idea or completing a task. In business, collaboration refers to colleagues with
varying areas of expertise working together on a common goal to accomplish a purpose or produce results. Workplace

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collaboration is a set of learned skills that can improve productivity, solve problems, foster healthy relationships and
create teamwork.
Examples of collaborative skills include:
•Self-awareness: Be clear about who you are, what you want and what you need from others.
•Purpose-driven: Keep in mind the purpose of the project and its goals.
•Resource management: Keep information organized and know how to share it.
•Forgiveness: Be willing to apologize for mistakes and forgive those who make errors.
•Collaboration tools: Communicate clearly and in a timely matter using collaborative tools.
•Address problems: Be willing to find and discuss obstacles with an open mind.
•Learning opportunities: Create team experiences to engage in learning, foster growth and be creative.
•Soft skills: Build your mindset and character as it affects how you handle projects.
•Encourage innovation: Face obstacles and overcome challenges with a positive attitude.
•Share success: Expand your idea of success to include achieving big group goals and team wins.

What is teamwork?
Teamwork is the qualities, abilities and processes of working well with one or more people to accomplish a common goal.
Teamwork in the workplace is a group's ability to work together effectively, communicate well, define roles and
leadership, share resources and actively listen to each other. Teamwork is a set of learned skills that can boost morale in
the workplace, build rapport, increase the quality and quantity of output and improve retention rates.
Examples of teamwork skills include:
•Interpersonal skills: Know how to interact and speak with others.
•Conflict management: Help mediate between members and settle your own disputes fairly.
•Communication: Be open to constructive criticism and sharing your ideas with others.
•Listening: By actively listening, your teammates feel valued and you reduce miscommunications.
•Enthusiasm: Have a positive outlook and be excited about working together.
•Time management: Have good time-management skills as it can affect your team project.
•Respectfulness: Make eye contact and listen actively.
•Positivity: Be positive and help others to be positive, too.
•Reliability: Complete your tasks, be mindful of deadlines and let other know they can count on you.

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What is collaborative teamwork?

When you combine collaboration and teamwork, you get a team whose members have distinct skill sets and have the
ability to productively work together. There is both individuality and a cohesive group. Each individual knows how to use
their role, skills and expertise while also working as one with the entire group to accomplish a goal. Collaborative
teamwork engages the group to combine expertise and problem solve together, while also assigning individual tasks and
roles for autonomy. This type of group work is an intentional coordination of how and when participants act to achieve
efficiency.
Benefits of teamwork and collaboration
There are many benefits to promoting teamwork and collaboration in the workplace. Here are some reasons it's an
excellent practice:
•Increases productivity and efficiency: Collaboration allows individuals to focus on what they do best so that the entire
team benefits. Each person has their own strengths and specialties that they bring to the team, creating efficiency and
productivity.
•Enhances social skills and communication: Individuals on a team grow social skills and communication by learning to
relate to peers, improving decision-making skills, presenting results and strategies, sharing their knowledge and
developing communication skills.
•Common goals: An environment of teamwork and collaboration acknowledges that employees can achieve success not
only individually but through collaborative effort. These outcomes are often greater than what individuals can achieve by
working independently.
•Individual style: Teamwork provides the opportunity for employees to gain insight into their style, such as discovering
whether they focus on the positive or the negative or whether they're reactive or proactive.
•Increases diversity: Working together with different people and personalities, especially from different departments
within a company, lets employees learn from each other and about other aspects of the business.

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•Enables learning: Informal learning naturally occurs when individuals take part in collaboration and teamwork,
particularly when there is a safe environment that encourages learning from mistakes, friendly competition, debrief
sessions and open conversations.

What is design?
Innovation and Design Thinking
Design or making is the process of turning ideas into things. In this design process there is a vision or an idea, it can be
figured out by some drawings work with fabrications of crafts and if everything worked out right then it be materialized.
So, there is a direct correspondence between ideas, drawings, and finished products.
What is Design Thinking?
Design thinking is a methodology that designers use to brainstorm and solve complex problems related to Designing. It is
a human- centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the
possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success. Design thinking is a blend of logic, powerful
imagination, systematic reasoning and intuition to bring to generate the ideas that consist to solve the problems of the
clients with desirable outcomes.
Features of design thinking

Uses of Design Thinking

Design Thinking helps to learn the following
•How to optimize the ability to innovate
•How to develop a variety of concepts, products, services, processes etc for end-users.
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•How to leverage the diverse ideas of innovation

•How to convert useful data , individual insights and vague ideas into feasible reality
•How to connect with the customers and end-users by targeting their actual requirements.
•How to use the different tools used by designers in their profession for solving customers problems

Use of Tools in Enhancing Skills

What is an online learning tool?
Online learning tools refer to any program, app, or technology that can be accessed via an internet connection and enhance
a teacher's ability to present information and a student's ability to access that information. Online teaching tools help in
enhancing the online learning and teaching experience. It overcomes the boundaries of online teaching; these tools are
designed for students as well as teachers. The online teaching tools create a better teaching-learning experience. These
tools reduce the dependence of the students on teachers. The basic concepts of videos, feedback, doubt solving, good
graphics, audio-visuals, and many other features have popularized live classes.
The change in educational services has demanded the digitalization of traditional methods. Regular development of
technologies in education supports the increased use of live teaching apps, virtual classrooms, and digital resources.
Advantages of using tools to enhance communication skills
1.Improves pronunciation: Studying English in traditional classrooms doesn’t allow you to practice your pronunciation
on a regular basis due to the time limit. Meanwhile, with English learning apps for communication, you can listen to any
dialogue and practice your pronunciation at any time and as long as you want. Most of the English speaking apps provide
original dialogues spoken by native people and interactive games, which help to grasp the Standard English accent &
pronunciation in a natural way.
2.Affordable: Most of the English learning apps are freely downloadable and easy to access. This will help a learner to
save a huge amount of money in learning English communication in the long run.
3.Flexible: With English speaking apps, learners only need to download learning content to their portable phones or
computers and practice speaking in English according to their own convenience.
There are a number of webinar tools, teleprompter apps, vocabulary improvement tools, dictionary tools, pronunciation
apps and widgets for interactive quizzes and games that can enhance the communication skills of learners. Following tools
are helpful in learning English:

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