READ/WRITE: essential skills for taking notes, summarising, analysing, and orally communicating clearly, succinctly , and effectively.
We’re going to be reading and viewing a lot of diverse material – from Economist articles to professional journal papers, TedTalks to Stanford Yale MIT public lectures, Youtube clips from Youtube and Coursera, , and of course….the textbook! I’m going to be asking you to discuss, think, interact, talk about this material on your feet, in class, in forums online…on your own and in small groups. So…basically you/we* need to sharpen up your communication skills.
Matt McGaritty at University of Washington has kindly given me permission to use the video clips from his Coursera courses (part of a 4 course specialisation offered on Coursera ).
I’ve embedded the overviews of each week (about 1 minute in length) in reverse order (that’s a game theory strategy) for you to get a quick overview of each (note – a skill in creating and performing a clear effective summary this is what every manager needs). Following are embedded clips for each week (in chronological order)
week 4 overview
collated set of all clips for week 4:
week 3 overview
collated set of all clips for week 3:
week 2 overview
collated set of all clips for week 2:
week 1 overview
collated set of all clips for week 1:
Don’t be mislead by the term “speaking” – this stuff is all about intelligent , clear oral communication with and between real human beings. Personal stuff. Social stuff. Everyday bread and butter stuff for managers and employees working together (or not) and between managers and customers , managers and suppliers, managers and regulators. More basically, for this MBA class spending time with some or all of Matt’s material will make you a better note-taker, a better “on-your-feet” critical thinker, a better report reader and writer, a better public speaker anywhere, from the boardroom to chalk-talks with employees or presentations to customers and suppliers – video, audio, text or combinations and permutations of all.
The links below take you to the Coursera website where you can see the course outline in micro detail and watch the videos that most interest you (but explore, explore….you’ll strike intellectual gold – something that will improve your thinking/communicating skills most everywhere you explore) :
- Speaking to inform: Discussing complex ideas (with clear explanations and dynamic slides)
- Introduction to Public Speaking
I’ve also collated the videos for each week here in my Vimeo site where you can download an entire week (usually about an hour), the overview (about 1 minute) .
*Note I say “we”. I include myself here – even though I have been “communicating” for nearly 50 years to the widest possible audiences you (can’t) imagine – writing and delivering lectures and seminars and public talks, actively participating in think-on-your-feet-fast seminars on an immense range of subjects (most of which I know little about) , writing journal articles and books, creating/editing webcasts , etc etc. Believe me when I tell you that no matter what your past experiences ….you can always benefit from improving your communication skills, and Matt is an excellent effective communications teacher. Indeed, in the age of automation and AI , our/your comparative advantage over the latest versions of R2D2 and C3PO will probably be your communication skills -video, audio, text or combinations and permutationsof all.
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