Pearl Diving Assignment #2

ENCE 424 Section 0101

Matt Byrd
3/9/19
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Three Concepts from the Readings

The required readings have continued to impress me with insightful and applicable skills
that I can use in my everyday life. After reading the last few assigned chapters for each book, I
have had three major takeaways to implement in my life. They are 1. Create and maintain a safe
space when having crucial conversations. 2. Look to Apply the networking tips for introverts. 3.
Use Tysons strategies for effectively conveying technically challenging concepts. These ideas
each are found in a different one of the readings and address different areas of shortcomings that
I have in my own professional communication skills.
The first takeaway is from the book Crucial Conversations. Chapters 4 and 5 dives into
the importance of having a safe space and how to create one. Earlier in the book a safe space is
defined as a place where everyone in the conversation feels free to add to the pool of shared
knowledge. This atmosphere is so important to keep because if you lose the safe space people
can revert to tactics such as silence or violence. Silence is where the other person/people in the
dialogue refrain from sharing their ideas because they felt they may be attacked, are not valued,
or simply out of protest towards another member in the group. Violence is where the other
person/people get more focused on winning the conversation instead of completing the initial
goals of the dialogue. My takeaways from the chapters are to recognize the need for safe spaces
in the conversations I have and to implement strategies to maintain the safe spaces. Some
strategies the book mentions are to “step out. Make it safe. Then step back in” (Patterson 74).
Once you have stepped out, some things you can do to make it safe are “Three hard-hitting skills
that the best at dialogue use: apologize, contrast, and create a mutual purpose” (Patterson 82). All
three of these tactics work to restore safety to the dialogue in different manners. Each is unique
and deciding which technique to use is dependent on the situation. By trying to create safe spaces
in all my conversations I can start to avoid hurt feeling and have more productive dialogues with
my peers.
The second takeaway is from the book Networking for College Students and Graduates.
The most recent chapter explored different ideas that introverts can use to be effective
networkers. I personally would not consider myself an introvert in social settings, but I am
finding in professional settings I tend to be more reserved and revert to introverted tendencies.
Acknowledging that fact and embracing strategies to still be effective in networking will do
wonders for me in my professional career. A couple of ideas the book gave were to “Have an
objective. When attending a networking event, set an objective to meet and follow up with at
least two people” (Faulkner 86). Doing this will help make networking events a little less
overwhelming for me. I am an objective oriented person so going in knowing what I would like
to accomplish will help me have a more productive time. Another idea was to “use lots of open-
ended questions… an open-ended question is one for which the response cannot likely be a short
one – or two-word answer (definitely not a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question)” (Faulkner 88-89). I think this
tip is extremely helpful as well. Often, I can start a conversation but quickly become unsure of
what to talk about with higher level professionals. If I get in the practice of asking good open-
ended questions, I can allow the other person to do most of the talking while still remaining
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engaged in the conversation. Implementing these strategies and others from chapter 5 of
Networking for College Students and Graduates can help me remain effective in networking
despite my introverted networking tendencies.
The third and final takeaway from the reading came from the book Five Stars. This book
used an extended example of Neil deGrasse Tyson, a remarkable astrophysicist who is also a
master in communicating. I really appreciated this extended example because as an engineer I
can often find it hard to convey technical topics I am learning to my friends. The extended
example of Tyson was focused on how he effectively communicates complex topics and ideas to
the public to get them excited about learning more astrophysics. Some advice the author of the
book had to give after watching Tyson included “keeping one foot in pop culture and one foot in
his field, Tyson inspires his audience to jump into the topic with both feet” (Gallo 67). Tyson
effectively related his work to pop culture happenings that his audience could understand. If I
can look to do this with engineering topics I am learning, I will no longer be talking about
internal combustion and torque but about why car number 6 won the Indianapolis 500. A topic
that non engineers can relate better to. Another piece of advice Tyson gave was “there’s nothing
wrong with cherry-picking the cool stuff” (Gallo 65). The truth is that there are some boring
concepts and math behind just about everything that happens. Focusing on the cooler topics will
get the audience more exited and engaged in what you have to say. It may even spark enough
interest where the audience would be willing to learn more and eventually work through the
boring stuff. I hope to imitate Tysons strategies as my professional career develops and I get to
explain to people what I do and how it may relate to them.

Concept from Class

We have had some interesting and engaging in class sessions the last few weeks and I
have learned a lot from these activities. I was our groups presenter for the safe space scenarios
which pushed my comfort level and abilities. That being said, I think I learned more in the
debate activity as a panelist. It was very interesting to see the different group dynamics and
structure. The concept I learned the most about was non-appointed leaders. I was in the panelist
group for the big dig debate and we had someone appointed leader of our group that needed to
participate more in class. As time went on and we got into our groups, we remained unorganized
and unproductive. Another member of the group and myself started taking charge and directing
the group to split up and start researching the topic to develop questions. Once we took this step
and initiated structure in the group, the appointed team leader realized they were not doing their
job and started being more active in running the group. I found it very interesting how our groups
scenario played out. In class we talked about a leaders ability to influence others and debated in
appointed leaders were leaders at all if they did not actually influence people. My conclusion
after the in class activity is that leaders must have influence. The team leader for the big dig
panelist initially did not have any influence on the group which is why nothing got done. Once
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influence was established by the other non-appointed leader and myself work started to happen.
Overall, I think we did a good job of being a non-appointed leader helping to get the group
moving but not keeping control of the group for the rest of the activity. Power dynamics and
authority are something all good project managers and leaders need to keep in mind. The activity
was useful to observe and participate in this concept.

Business Civility

One business civility I learned about while reading The Essentials of Business Etiquette
was some standards for professional dress. This is quickly becoming a more and more important
topic for me as I get ready for interviews in the next month and considering how to dress for
these. The book had many good suggestions, a few that were new to me included “wear shoes
with a tie (lace) if you are wearing a suit with a tie” (Pachter 96). And “Look at what higher-
level professionals in your organization are wearing. You can usually model your clothing after
them” (Pachter 88). And finally, “Dinners at the boss’s house, the company holiday party, or
conferences are still business event, and your clothing choices matter” (Pachter 87). This next
week I will need to buy some dress shoes with laces. The pair I currently have are not laced and I
need to be looking as professional as I can for this upcoming interview. Also moving forward
with my current internship, I may want to start modeling my dress after my supervisor and other
full-time employees to look the part better.

Networking Abilities

This week to increase my network I put some serious work into my LinkedIn account. In
Networking for College Students and Graduates chapter 5 talked about the importance of
Networking on the internet. It said, “Online social networking is an efficient way to establish and
maintain relationships with others in your field” (Falukner 93). I realized that I was not doing a
good job of maintaining a lot of my professional contacts from back home because I have been
away at school. I already had a LinkedIn but did not put a ton of work into creating a network
and keeping up with my profile. This past week I added my most recent internship experience to
my profile. I also have been continuously working to add contacts that I know and sift through
the recommended contacts. I need to keep up and maintain relationships with these people if I
want to continue to consider them as contacts.
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References

Faulkner, Michael L., and Andrea Nierenberg. Networking for College Students (and Recent
Graduates): Nonstop Business Networking That Will Change Your Life. Pearson
Learning Solutions, 2011.

Gallo, Carmine. FIVE STARS: the Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great. PAN
Books, 2019.

Pachter, Barbara. "Essentials of Business Etiquette: How to Greet, Eat, and Tweet Your Way to
Success". 2013.

Patterson, Kerry, et al. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes Are High.
McGraw-Hill, 2012.