Lectures Communication & Leadership
Lecture 1.1 - Introduction
Content of this course
- focus on effective interaction/communication
- at interpersonal level and in (small) groups
- look at the processes of influence
- skills in context (person & environment)
5 axioms of human communication (Watzlawick et al., 1967)
Pragmatics of human communication
- syntactics = transmitting information
- semantics = meaning of communication
- pragmatics = behavioural effects of communication (= psychology)
1. One cannot not communicate
- not communicating sends a message as well, which means that you are still
communicating
- thus, the problem is not ‘to communicate or not to communicate’… …but ‘to
communicate effectively or not to communicate effectively’
2. Every communication has a content and a relationship aspect such that the latter
classifies the former and is therefore a metacommunication
- context, intonation, the way you say something etc. matters
- the relationship aspect, classifies the content
- the relationship aspect is a communication about the communication and is therefore
a metacommunication
3. The nature of a relationship is contingent upon the punctuation of the communicational
sequences between the communicants
- the interpretation of that communication sequence depends on
where you put the punctuation
- who said what, when and where?
- is my behaviour a reaction to the other person’s behaviour, or
am I the instigator?
- punctuation is about causality (the sequence of events)
4. Human beings communicate both digitally and analogically
- digitally -> all verbal communication (for addressing content)
- analogically -> non verbal communication (for addressing the relationship)
5. All communicational interchanges are either symmetrical or complementary, depending
on whether they are based on equality or difference
- for example at the synchrony workshop (mirroring each other vs. leader/follower)
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,Summary 5 axioms
1. We cannot not communicate
2. Content and relationship level
3. Punctuation
4. Digital and analogic
5. Symmetrical or complementary
Lecture 1.2 - Mindset
Fixed mindset vs. growth mindset
- fixed mindset = intelligence (or an other
ability) is a fixed trait
- growth mindset = intelligence (or an other
ability) is a malleable quality, a potential that
can be developed
!! this is related to the sort of goals people set
themselves
Performance goals vs. learning goals
- performance goals = looking smart is most
important
- learning goals = learning is most important
Effort beliefs
- fixed mindset -> effort is negative, it should
come naturally
- growth mindset -> effort is positive, work hard,
effort is key
!! so there is a difference in the beliefs these two
groups adopt, but what about their behaviour?
Strategies when anticipating failure
- fixed mindsets -> they provide themselves with an excuse/external cause for their
failure
- self-handicapping = ‘I failed because I
had too many drinks the night before
the exam’ (external explanation)
- feedback avoidance = ‘I don’t want to
know my grade, or how well I did’
- growth mindset -> assume they have ‘not yet’
mastered the relevant skill and keep going
- ‘I’ll see it as a practice run’
- ‘If i keep studying/working on it I’ll get it eventually’
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,Strategies after failure
- fixed mindset -> helplessness, self-serving
bias, downward comparison
- growth mindset -> resilient, mastery-oriented,
upward comparison
Zone of Proximal Development
!! so a student with a fixed
mindset disengages when a goal
seems unattainable, while a
student with a growth mindset
remains effective
Study #1 Blackwell et al., 2007
- students making a transition to 7th grade
- students with a fixed mindset (entity theory) do
not improve very much
- students with a growth mindset (incremental
theory) actually improve in their math grade
- incremental theory is related to learning goals and
positieve effort beliefs, which are both related to positive strategies -> higher grades
- the kind of mindset you adopt is predictive for success
Study Mueller & Dweck, 1998
- where do these mindsets come from?
- each student worked on a non-verbal IQ test and was given one kind of praise
- intelligence praise -> ‘Wow, that’s a really good score. You must be smart at
this.’
- effort praise -> ‘Wow, that’s a really good score. You must have tried really
hard.’
- control group -> ‘Wow, that’s a really good score.’
- proportion of children who selected
performance (rather than learning)
goals plotted as a function of the type
of praise given
- praising children for being
smart or trying has an effect on
the type of goals they set for
themselves after the test
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,Efforts of intelligence vs. effort praise
- when they were praised for being intelligent and
they got a difficult trial, their confidence and
motivation was low and their performance
decreased
- when children were praised for their effort and they
got a difficult trial, their confidence and motivation
was high and their performance increased
- before failure there is not really any difference, but after failure (especially compared
to the control group)...
- the children who were praised
for their effort, did better than
the children who were praised
for being smart
- after they completed the intelligence
test, children could receive information
about their performance (how well
they did compared to other children)
or information about strategy (what could be a good strategy to deal with problems in
the future)
- the children who were praised for their intelligence, selected performance
information
- whether children who were praised for their effort, selected strategy information
- when another adult asked the children about their score/how they did -> children in
the intelligence group tended to misrepresent their scores more (lie)
- there was not any difference between de control group and the effort group
Study #2 Blackwell et al., 2007
- can we manipulate mindset?
- growth mindset condition -> were given information
about ‘You can grow your intelligence.’
- changing mindsets by training
Change in math grades
- it has an effect on their math grades
- it also influences their motivation
- children in the growth mindset condition
reported more increase in their motivation
than children in the control group
Study Wood & Bandura, 1989
- about mindset and management decisions
- students were the manager of a fictional (complex) company and they had to perform
an number of tasks that were difficult (especially in the beginning)
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, - half of the students were told that the task they were performing, would measure an
underlying basic capability (not changeable -> fixed mindset)
- the other half were told that the task would measure a skill and we expect you to
improve (changeable -> growth mindset)
Results
- when you have a growth mindset the self-efficacy belief remains high during different
trials -> but when you have a fixed mindset the belief in your own skills decreases
- the group with a growth mindset keeped setting goals for themselves
- the efficient use of strategies increased during the trials in the growth mindset group
- the organizational productivity remained the same during the trials for the growth
mindset group, whilst the productivity in the fixed mindset group, decreased
Two mindsets
!! the growth vs. fixed mindset is not limited to intelligence or some specific abilities, but can
be applied to many different settings
Take home message
- adopt a growth mindset… and improve your abilities in communication, leadership
& reflection!
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, Lecture 1.3 - Critical reflection
Who is critical reflection for?
- used in many fields, but developed most fully in….
- health professions (e.g., Aronson et al.)
- teacher education (e.g., Korthagen et al.)
- also useful for YOU as an academic professional
!! what is critical reflection? -> reflection vs. critical reflection
Reflection
- ‘a thought, idea, or opinion formed or a remark made as a result of meditation’
- ‘serious thought or consideration’
- ‘careful or long consideration or thought’
Critical reflection
- goes beyond ‘consideration or meditation’
- a skill developed over time
- a tool for learning and life-long professional development
Critical reflection = the analysis of personal experience to enhance learning and improve
future professional behavior and outcomes
- a cognitive or metacognitive process
- requiring engaged examination of SOS -> Self, Other & Situation
- in order to
- learn from experience
- direct future behaviour
- so not just what happened (anecdote)
- it is more than personal opinion of events
- it requires
- data gathering and analysis
- integration of past, present and future
- contextualizing and reframing
- learning!
Why should we critically reflect?
- examples from medical education
- increased student exam performance
- increased student clinical performance with standardized patients
- decreased resident diagnostic errors
- increased residents achieving rotation goals
How do you critically reflect?
- use structured guidelines (it will be more effective)
- detailed consideration of experience
- attention to/includes
- multiple perspectives from feedback or relevant research
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