Summary

To succeed with a team concept, we must communicate, communicate, and communicate some more. We all learned to talk as babies but have we learned to communicate as adults? This chapter asked you to examine your basic communication skills. How well do you share information, listen effectively, and provide constructive feedback? What are you doing to improve these skills? The effectiveness of your team's communication does not rest solely on your shoulders. Are your team members trying to get better at it, too? How effective are your team's meetings, and what can be done to improve them? This chapter also introduced some less common communication alternatives. Are you willing to suggest trying them? If you and your team want your communication patterns to evolve and improve, the team must attempt to change. And change requires some risk taking. Who, better than you, should initiate the effort?