Communicating in a Global Context: Know Your Audience (Video on Demand)

In Communicating in a Global Context: Know Your Audience (Video on Demand), you'll learn ...

• Critical thinking skills used to evaluate and anticipate audience interactions
• Communication best practices including foundational skills such as self-awareness and empathy
• Techniques for identifying and assessing audiences and for developing the action steps you will use to communicate effectively with different audiences

Overview

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Credit: 1 PDH

This course explains the rationale for knowing your audience and adapting your style for effective communication. It also provides action steps to help you prepare for conversations with various stakeholders. It’s not enough to excel at the technical components of engineering, successful engineers need to be able to communicate effectively with various groups and individuals in a wide range of settings. Communicating effectively involves preparation and knowing how to anticipate and navigate challenging conversations with ease. Engineers are known for being knowledgeable and highly skilled and involved in work that impacts society. Challenges arise and opportunities are missed when engineers cannot convince others of the importance of their ideas or of solutions to problems. To do so, engineers must know their audience and be able to share information with them respectfully, and in a way that involves them and helps them feel informed.

This course was inspired by a senior professional engineer, Kevin Forbes, who appreciates the importance of engineers being able to adapt their communication style and messaging to different audiences. Kevin is the Director of Engineering at the Indianapolis Airport Authority.

“If an engineer’s primary goal is ultimately to solve problems for society, this goal may not be fulfilled if engineers cannot communicate effectively. Engineers can develop great solutions, but if we cannot effectively explain to society a solution is safe and viable, then we have failed.” -Kevin Forbes, P.E.

This course is designed to enhance participants’ communication skills, enabling information to be delivered in a purposeful and persuasive way—with knowing your audience at the foundation of all effective communications. It also aims to guide engineers through the process of assessing and understanding an audience by using a set of key questions.

Specific Knowledge or Skill Obtained

This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:

• Prepare for communicating with diverse stakeholders using an audience assessment
• Appreciate foundational skills including self-awareness and empathy in the communication process
• Posture yourself more confidently in front of different audiences
• Effectively communicate ideas and persuade others

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 10 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.