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On Friday, October 12th, I attended and hosted Kip Soteres, of Soteres Consulting, who came as a speaker to talk to my Business 105 class.  According to his website (http://soteresconsulting.com/author/kip/), Kip is a leader and a change communications expert with 20 years of experience in high-tech banking and health care industries.  In those years, he has won Gold Quill and Silver Anvil awards from the International Association of Business Communicators and Public Relations Society of America for change communications targeting large employee populations.

The main concepts of his lecture were focused on what he does on a basic day in his business life, different forms of communication, how he developed his communications skills, and how he utilizes those skills in his work.  What Kip does is he talks to various businesses who are going through changes and tried to make the employees and workers comfortable with what is going on.  Kip shared with us some forms of communication which consist of: formal e-mails, memos, presentations with visuals, and formal reports.  I found that the e-mail segment of his presentation stuck out as the most important being that it is the most used form of communication in the business world.  He said that the key points to make sure an e-mail is professional is to use correct addressing of the person who the e-mail is being send to and also punctuation and politeness.  This is also discussed in chapter 14 of the business text book under forms of communication.

I saw an article online titled “Don’t Just Tell Employees Organizational Changes Are Coming – Explain Why” and it discusses the ways in which major change in the workplace can effect the attitude, moral, and overall work ethic of an employee; wether it be an atmosphere change, management change, etc.  Communicating a change to your employees can and most likely will affect the work staff at your business.  Motivating and incentivizing people to work well for prizes and bribes can be a solid way to get workers adapted to a new system of work.

Overall, I found Kip’s lecture very informational and full of insight.  I liked how he was able to talk about communications by communicating with the class and myself.  I was able to understand what he was talking about throughout the entirety of his presentation.  I now know how to write formal letters, e-mails, and give strong, compelling presentations.  These skills will be very useful in the future as I enter the business world.

Don’t Just Tell Employees Organizational Changes Are Coming – Explain Why –  https://hbr.org/2018/10/dont-just-tell-employees-organizational-changes-are-coming-explain-why