MODULE TITLE

Module 4: Communication and Networking

AUTHORS

Evangelia Chatzikonstantinou, Panagiotis Kallianis, Maria Symeonidou, Stylianos Portokalidis

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Effective communication is a critical tool for building relations not only between individuals but also between companies. It is the connecting link and key factor influencing success in any collaboration, partnership, or transaction.

Communication is also a key element for Collaborative innovation and its supporting activities.

By acquiring communication skills, you can:

identify the right partners
share ideas
share innovative marketing efforts
apply effective management

To increase the effectiveness of your communication, in this module it is important to learn about the most important communication skills:

Verbal communication can be any written or spoken communication where a message is transmitted through words and gets across to the receiver.

Active listening is the ability to focus completely on the speaker, understand their message, comprehend the information, and respond thoughtfully,

Empathy is also one of the most important skills in the internal and external environment of a company. It means the quality or process of entering fully, through imagination, into the other person’s shoes.

2 Teamwork skills are also important for communication and networking:

Management of people, is the process of training, motivating and directing employees to optimise workplace productivity and promote professional growth

Adaptability is the ability to be flexible and adjust to changing factors, conditions or environments

(Source www.sayit.com)

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon completing this module, you should be able to:

identify the cognitive and practical skills you must have to communicate and network in a work environment,
know how to select, as well as apply basic methods, tools, materials and information for better internal communication (with colleagues, and superiors) and communication outside the company (with partners, clients, and suppliers).
exercise management and supervision using active listening, but also demonstrate patience and openness to dialogue, understanding body language and accepting feedback.
manage complex technical or professional activities or projects, take responsibility for integrating empathy in the communication strategy of the company
apply decision making in the process of people management

Training Content

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

THINKING QUESTION:

Do you think that referred skills’ development will be crucial for extending partnerships and collaborations?

Take 2-3 minutes and think about it.

Then write down your thoughts.

Employers and employees with collaboration capabilities and communication skills would help companies to rise to the challenges of making partnerships and collaborations with different companies, and generally with the public and private sector, and integrate their different bodies of knowledge.[15] Furthermore, open communication brings unparalleled opportunities for innovation and knowledge, empowering open-minded managers to take information-based decisions, that are best for the companies’ future.[16] What is more, these skills would help them to build absorptive capacity because of their ability to expedite the sharing, exchange, and acquisition of knowledge during team projects. As a result, this could bridge inter-institutional differences. Furthermore, collaboration skills would promote fruitful interactions among partners and has the potential to reinforce knowledge sharing and knowledge exchange and to expand the existing knowledge base to enhance absorptive capacity.[17]