Advanced Search

Business Communication 2 - Lesson Plan: 3 x 1 hour lesson

A series of 'off the shelf' lesson plans and resources for use in the classroom. These lessons deal with Business Communication and are relevant to the following specifications:

• AQA: Module 5, 14.1
• Edexcel: Unit 6, Sections 5 and 6
• OCR: Module 2876

Aim:

The aim of these lessons is to explore different aspects of communications in business. The intention is that the activities can be utilised to facilitate role-play and discussion to help bring out the key issues facing firms in generating successful communication. The emphasis is therefore on student involvement and discussion rather than any written outcome, although this could be used if desired.

There are three activities outlined. Activity 1 focuses on a document received from a supplier regarding the installation of a new piece of equipment. Students are asked to summarise the key points for circulation to the team who will be using the equipment. The intention is that students will attempt to simplify the messages and in so doing interpret the instructions and guidelines in different ways. Discussion should be held on why there are differences in interpretation. As an extension to this activity, students could be asked to re-write the simplified instructions to yet another group to see how far the message gets changed and distorted. Another approach would be for students to attempt to interpret the document through oral means to see how successfully the message is transmitted. One group could write out the summary, another could present it orally, and a comparison could then be drawn between the two approaches.

Activity 2 presents a series of different scenarios - students are asked to suggest the most appropriate way of dealing with communication of the message within the scenario. There can be more than one way of dealing with the communication and there are no right or wrong answers, but students should be encouraged to justify the choices they have made in line with the basic principles of good communication.

Activity 3 can be carried out through reading the conversation or, to bring out the different nuances that could be gained from body language, setting the conversation in the context of a role-play, with students adopting different characteristics implied by the conversation. The intention is that there should be some hints that all is not well between Mr Trubshaw and Helen but that the same conversation could be explained in a variety of ways - Mr Trubshaw could be a sexist bully, an old fashioned, hierarchical manager, a kindly boss interested in the welfare of his staff, etc. It will be interesting to see how students interpret the conversation, and if role-play is used, filming the conversations could help to analyse the body language on display.

The aim is to try to understand how the same conversation can have different interpretations depending on the approach of those involved, the emotions involved, tone of voice, etc.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, students should understand:

• The main characteristics of effective communication
• The main methods of communication, their benefits and limitations
• Factors influencing the extent of successful communication
• The importance of hidden communication in considering successful communication

Resources:

• PowerPoint Presentation - Business Communication [307K] (basic version also available for quicker download [238K])
• PowerPoint Presentation - Communication in Business [88K]
• Mind Map - Business Communication
• Activity - Business Communication
• Use of a video recorder (optional)
• PC and digital projector

Lesson Structure:

The lesson structure will depend on the approach taken. The initial part of the first lesson should be devoted to going over the principles of communication as outlined in two PowerPoint presentations, one aimed at AS level, the other at A2. This should help to remind students about the key features of successful communication.

The subsequent time can be devoted to the three activities. The suggestion is that the activities are carried out in as student-focused a manner as possible and that it should give the opportunity to engage students in some role-play activities. The outcome of these activities should be discussion of the issues arising in successful communication and the problems facing businesses in breaking down the barriers to communication and understanding the issues that influence the direction of communication in the workplace.

The number of lessons may extend to 3 but could be 2 depending on the size of the groups concerned and the extent of the discussions. The 'Aims' section above does give some hints as to possible ways to develop some of the activities and can be built upon by the educator as desired.