Effective Tools and Tips for Getting the Most from Your Work Relationships by Mathew Gilbert - Assignment Example

A Book Review of Communication Miracles at Work - Effective Tools and Tips for Getting the Most from Your Work Relationships by Mathew Gilbert Mathew Gilbert teaches some of the most important communication skills that can assist anyone improve his relationships with organizational personnel like managers, clients and fellow workers. The reader of this book gets an opportunity to learn to identify the various obstacles to communicating well, communicating effectively to achieve harmony in the workplace, and break the bad communication habits. This paper is book review of Mathew Gilbert’s Communication Miracles at Work: Effective Tools and Tips for Getting the Most from Your Work Relationships. Brief Overview of the Book Mathew Gilbert has written extensively on business, spirituality, and psychology topics. He has also served as an editorial director at the renowned Institute of Noetic Sciences. Apart from authoring Communication Miracles at Work, Gilbert is also the author of The Workplace Revolution. This book provides its readers with the ability to identify some of the obstacles to effective communication in the workplace. This book also outlines some of the ways of breaking bad communication habits and how employees can communicate effectively at their workplace to achieve harmony in the workplace. The major topics in this book include; the role that stress plays in ineffective communication, influencing corporate culture on the ability of employees to get along with one another, gender issues, and effective communication skills for navigating a variability of real-world situations (Gilbert 34). The author, Gilbert also offers practical advice to its readers that can be applied to any job situation. In essence, this book practically demonstrates that improving communication within an organization is the key to having and enjoying a better day-to-day work experience. The author starts off by first of all talking about the workplace itself and how it has gone through changes over the years. In his opinion, this author claims that most companies were initially straitlaced, with lots of earnest men dressed in starched white shirts and conservative ties undertaking narrow but important roles with steadfast commitment (Gilbert 9). There existed specific rules, clear chains of commands and a general drone of commerce. This defined the times when companies like IBM, Ford and General Electric ruled the Western World. Unfortunately, this is no more since more women are in the workforce, there is more autonomy for employees, there is more teamwork and partnering, there is flextime and job shares, and the ever growing multicultural diversity. As a matter of fact, the modern day workplace bears little resemblance to the one in which our fathers made a life commitment to work in (Gilbert 10). After this introduction, this book narrows down to addressing the challenges that the modern day work place experience like gender issues, stress, influence of corporate culture among others. Application to Organization Behavior The principles that Gilbert outlines in this book are very much relevant to today’s work environment. This book addresses issues relating to corporate culture and how it hinders or enhances the ability of people within the organization to get along. According to Schein, corporate culture is the collective behavior of the people who form part of the organization and the respective meaning that they attach to the actions that accompany their behavior (34). In most instances, this culture comprises of the organizational norms, visions, values, beliefs, habits, and working language. Schein further defines corporate culture as the set of shared psychological suppositions that guide how workers interpret information and act within the organization. Unfortunately, there have always been communications problems in relation to the organizational culture since sometimes conflicting cultures co-exist within the organization due to the different characteristics of the management body. In solving these corporate culture communication problems, Gilbert offers solutions on ways in which corporate culture can be used to enhance how people get along well. He also outlines some of the ways in which corporate culture has worked to hinder the ability of people to get along well. This book also addresses gender issues especially in talking and listening. The workplace environment today has seen a lot of women coming on board and occupying the positions that were initially a reserve for men. Issues relating to affirmative action and female representation in the workplace have been on the increase. In this book, Gilbert strongly affirms that God created men and women in different ways. In this respect they have different styles of communication and unless one understands the other there would not be any meaningful agreement. This book plainly illustrates how effective and good communication skills can be used everyday situations. This book slowly guides its readers in seeing how their own gender related personal obstacles can hinder communicating positively in the workplace. After outlining these hindrances, this book provides practical effective tools on how to make nearly every workplace encounter a chance to grow as a person and spiritual. This book also addresses workplace stress which often occurs when there is a conflict in roles, misunderstandings, social problems and health issues. Most of the workplace stress is caused by ineffective communication. Stress also leads to further deterioration of communication hence more conflict in the workplace. The work environment is dynamic and ever changing as the days go by. This book’s principles are essential in everyday workplace encounters and experiences as it provides information on how to effectively build relationship building-skills that can help achieve workplace harmony. Furthermore the principles are simple and easy to grasp and suitable for all types of workers from those who are just entering the workforce, to the more experienced employees, managers and chief executive officers of the various organizations. Impact in the Workplace Impact of this book in the workplace environment will depend greatly on whether its principles are adhered to by the staff. If we take an assumption that all the staff members have read this book and are making efforts in implementing what it say, then the following will be realized. First of all, co-workers, and mangers will be experiencing breakthrough moments in their communications and a deeper understanding of one another. Most of the employees in the workplace will possess effective communication ad relationship building skills. This means that they will be more concerned about their fellow employees more than themselves. This will lead to positive interpersonal relations among the members of the organization. Improved interpersonal relationships will trickle down to reduced amount of employee turnover since employees will be in good terms most of the times. There will also be reduced amounts of call outs, efficient customer service, increased productivity and clear focus among the employees. Secondly, there will be an improved workplace or corporate culture. According to Gilbert, effective communication in the workplace environment plays a major role in developing long lasting employee satisfaction and motivation (8). A well-established communication structure and system is a plus that every organization should strive to achieve since well-established organizational communication helps to improve relationships. Effective communication between staff and management ensures things go smoothly and enhances the understanding of the goals and the direction in which the firm is moving towards. Improved communication will also results in good time management in the workplace. Each and every worker within the organization will be focused in managing time well and focusing on meeting deadlines. Furthermore, the employees of the organization will feel important as they will be recognized and feel needed within the organization. There will also be an improved innovation experience inside the organization. This is because improved workplace communication enhances brainstorming sessions and gives teammates an opportunity to bounce ideas off one another. This increases innovation within the organization and leads to profitable gain. The organization will also experience increased transparency since members of the organization will enjoy greater awareness as to the ongoing activities within the company. In addition they will give each other time to understand how their contributions are making impacts in the organization and can encourage them to work even harder. In addition, communication will increase team building and increase productivity within the organization. Communication within the team members works to increase their relationships and ability to work together as a team. This provides the organization with more tightly-knit teams to build its businesses. Conclusion In conclusion Mathew Gilbert has illustrated some of the most important communication skills that can assist anyone improve his relationships with organizational personnel like managers, clients and fellow workers. His book providers its readers with an opportunity to learn to identify the various obstacles to communicating well, and practice how to communicate effectively to achieve harmony in the workplace, and break. The workplace environment of today is far much different compared to the one that existed in the previous years. Now we have a good number of women in the corporate world. This change requires new communication mechanisms for increased productivity. The impacts of these communication principles are increased employee participation and productivity. If these principles in this book are adhered to, ten issues relating to organizational culture problems, stress and poor interpersonal relationships will be a thing of the past. Works Cited Gibert, Mathew. Communication Miracles at Work: Effective Tools and Tips for Getting the Most from Your Work Relationships. Berkeley, CA: Conari Press, 2002. Print. Schein, Edgar. Organizational Culture and Leadership. Read More