Effective Communication
in New Normal
Business need
SkillsPro is a medium-sized company that provides administrative services for clients. The company has well-established practices to track the progress of the projects using physical visual boards and the teams are updated in everyday matters.
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Due to the rise in Covid threat, the board of directors plans to move all their activities to a remote working situation. They already place different tools and software to support this transition however, recent survey results depict that the staff are not relying on these but extensively use emails for communication. This may cause for their productivity as abundant emails always lead to deteriorating efficiency.
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The senior management has already placed job aids and training videos on how to use the tools available (Slack, Google Workplace etc). The business need for this simulation is to provide real-time scenarios for the staff to make decisions on when to use them appropriately.
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Learning objectives
At the end of this module, the learning will be able to:
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Decide when to use Slack channel for communication
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Determine when to use shared documents
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Explain best email practices
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Schedule a meeting in outlook
Audience
Project managers, Team leads and team members at SkillsPro
Tools used
Gitmind (mindmap creator), MS Word, Articulate Storyline 360, Review 360, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop
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Audio is not used for the course as there are no audio equipment in the client organization.
Process
After working with the SMEs, it is identified the actions that the learners should perform in order to have an effective remote working environment. The main issue with the staff was that they know the tools and software available for communication, however, they always use email for every matter without using the most appropriate tool for the job.
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Therefore, I created the action map as a scenario-based simulation allowing them to experience the opportunities in real-world scenarios to take the correct decision at the correct time. Then created the text-based storyboard for SME's evaluation.
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After approval from SMEs, the text-based storyboard is created followed by the interactive prototype (this is called click-dummy which does not have animations but only the navigation paths). Once received feedback from SMEs, I completed the project using animation and other interactions.
Action map
Text-based Storyboard
(sample)
I have identified the real issues in using emails by discussing with SMEs, analyzing some of the previous incidents (issues when staff missed emails) and from a survey done by the training department.
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The scenarios are designed based on the real situations that they face where they could use alternative and most appropriate tools to stay in touch.
Interactive Prototype
(Click-dummy)
I created the first scenario in Articulate Storyline 360 as the click dummy for SME feedback. To personalize the course, I have captured the user's first name and provided avatars based on their preference.
Since there was no separate learning section, an avatar was included in each scenario to provide tips on the most appropriate tool. The users could use this "Ask Kim" feature to get tips of the alternative options for emails.
I also animated the consequences of each choice for demonstrating what could happen. The course will allow the user to go back to the scenario and select the correct option or explore other choices.
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My intention was to have a longer retention period by making the course interactive and allowing to experience a real-world scenario for the users.
