Marketing Model

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Lesson Plan Industry Sector
Marketing, Sales, and Service

Lesson Plan Originally Created By: Laurel Brock

Interpersonal Communication & Culture

Part of Unit: Interpersonal Communications and Leadership Skills

Lesson Plan Overview / Details

Students actively participate in learning how interpersonal communication between peers of diverse cultural backgrounds can impinge on effective communication.  Team building activities allow students to recognize similarities and differences among each other yet still strive for a common goal.

Times

1 Class Block
110 Minutes

Standards

California Career and Technical Education Standards

California Academic Content Standards (Integrated)

California Academic Content Standards (Reinforced)

California Standards for the Teaching Profession

Student Objectives / Goals

  • To work together as a team to accomplish a common goal
  • To recognize the difference between communication and interpersonal communication
  • To understand communication differences between cultures
  • To practically apply interpersonal communication and team building skills with peers of culturally diverse backgrounds

Activities in this Lesson

  • Ice Breaker Activity - Hooks / Set

    Divide the meeting participants into groups of four or five people by having them number off. (You do this because people generally begin a class by sitting with the people they already know best.)

     

    Tell the newly formed groups that their assignment is to find ten things they have in common, with every other person in the group, that have nothing to do with work. (I tell people no body parts (we all have legs; we all have arms) and no clothing (we all wear shoes, we all wear pants). This helps the group explore shared interests more broadly.

    Suggestions:  What is your favorite food?  What do you like to do after school?  Do you work?  Do you like to shop?  Do you like to drink coffee?  Do you have a pet?  Do you play a common sport?  What color eyes do you have?  Do you have any siblings?

     

    Tell the groups that one person must take notes and be ready to read their list to the whole group upon completion of the assignment.

     

    Ask for a volunteer to read their whole list of things in common first. Then, ask each group to share their whole list with the whole group. Because people are your best source for laughter and fun, the reading of the lists always generates a lot of laughter and discussion. You can also catch the drift of the conversation in the small groups based on the transitions made from item to item.

    This team building icebreaker takes 10 – 15 minutes, depending on the number of groups. To keep the activity to ten minutes, after seven minutes of brainstorming together, I usually tell the groups that the lists they have created are perfect, no matter how many items they have, and discuss.

  • Communication Lecture - Lecture

    Suggested introduction to the presentation as background information. 

    Leading and managing projects is one thing; leading and managing people is another. Moving from an outstanding worker or employee into a management or supervisory role requires letting go of the everyday hands-on skills that got you there. It also requires that you implement a new set of leadership skills. Dealing with people – as a leader or as a manager – involves human relations, coaching, decision making, and communications skills. These are learned skills that need practice. Examine the skills that enable strong, effective leadership and sound people-management.

    One way of defining interpersonal communication is to compare it to other forms of communication. In so doing, we would examine how many people are involved, how physically close they are to one another, how many sensory channels are used, and the feedback provided. Interpersonal communication differs from other forms of communication in that there are few participants involved, the interactants are in close physical proximity to each other, there are many sensory channels used, and feedback is immediate.

    Present the Communication Lecture PowerPoint to your class.  Request that the students take study notes during your presenation.

  • Self-Reflection - Check Understanding

    On a separate piece of paper answer the following questions:

    Have you ever had an experience speaking with people whose native language was different than your own?

    How did these conversations usually turn out?

    With hindsight, what might you have done to make these conversations run more smoothly?

    Turn in your responses to the instructor when complete.

  • Mine Field Activity - Group Work

    To apply interpersonal communication skills among cultures, conduct the Mine Field Activity.

    Make sure your students are in mixed-culture groups.  Suggestion:  When giving the students numbers make sure that each ethnic group has it’s own number.  For example:  give caucians the number 1, and Asians the number 2.  When putting the groups together, put them together by 1, 2, 3, and 4.   

    Materials needed: 

    blindfolds
    materials to scatter on the floor that you don't mind getting steps on.

  • Assessment - Assessment

    As students to take out a piece of paper and answer the following questions about the group activity.

    • How much did you trust your partner (out of 10) at the start?
    • How much did you trust your partner (out of 10) at the end?
    • What is the difference between going alone and being guided by another?
    • What ingredients are needed when trusting and working with someone else?
    • What did your partner do to help you feel safe and secure?
    • What could your partner have done to help make you feel more safe/secure?
    • What communication strategies worked best?
    • Did you feel that your cultural differences helped make these strategies work?
    • What communication issues occurred?
    • What communication issues were caused by cultural differences?

    Turn in the answers to the instructor when complete.