Never be late!!

Some people have the habit of being always late. When they meet with friends, when they go to the movies, when going to class or even at their workplace. Obviously, peole who arrive late for work usualy don't keep their jobs for too long...

First, it's the awful impression that it gives. When you are consistantly late, it is very easy to think that you don't care because, if you did care, why would you be late all the time? 

This also make you appear to be less trustworthy for other people. Let's face it, responsible people are almost never late. Imagine being late for a job interview, do you think you would get the job?

Never underestimate the importance of being on time. If you know you have trouble sleeping, go to see your doctor. Try to do sports or any kind of exercise as it will help you with that.

Charlotte's amazing story

I came across a video recently that I feel I had to share with you. It is about a little girl called Charlotte and how a sbstance called Cannabidiol saved her life.

Interview - Javier Fernández, Communication expert

Today we have the honor of having with us psycologist and communication expert Javier Fernandez. He has been working with deaf children for more than 20 years, so there is a lot lo learn from him.

- Question: First of all, why did you decide to become a psychologist?

- Answer:  Well, as a child I was always amazed at people's different ways of thinking, they are so diverse! I didn't have any brothers or sisters, so I would often enjoy myself observing other people, for example at restaurants or malls. As I grew older, I became more interested in the psychology as a science, I wanted to try and understand the human psyque.

- Q: And were you able to understand it?

- A: Most of it, yes. See, one of the main differences between psychology and psychiatry, from my point of view, is that you don't talk about illnesses or diseases, but rather disorders or pathologies. And this is very important.  If the impairement is physical, it has to be treated differently. So when it comes to understanding the underlayers of human conduct, it is rather easy with what you could call a healthy brain, but there is still much that we don't know about certain diseases.

- Q: How did you end up working with children?

- A: It's funny because I never thought I would end up working with children, it was pure chance. It was the first job I found when I finished my degree and I haven't wanted to do anything different ever since. Children are great to work with, but specially kids with disabilities are even better.

- Q: What is the biggest challenge for a deaf kid, communicatively speaking?
- A: Being deaf is not a limiting disability, specially for adults, but children need to learn from a very early age that they are different than other kids, and also that they are exactly the same as them. As you can imagine, some kids feel retracted, others ashamed and some don't even care about their disability, they are the happiest kids in the world. In terms of communication, once they know the silent language, it is very easy for them to establish relationships. Even if it may sound contradictory, they don't have a communication deficiency.

- Q: Thank you very much Javier for granting us these minutes, it has been really interesting talking with you.
- A: Thank you for having me here, It has been a pleasure.

Asperger syndrome

Asperger syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development. Although not required for diagnosis, physical clumsiness and atypical (peculiar, odd) use of language are frequently reported. (Source: Wikipedia)

If you have met someone with Asperger's you may not have noticed any strange behavior, maybe an inclination to loneliness or lack of communication with others. These are produced mainly by a difficulty in information processing in their brains. An an early age, a human's brain learns to focus its attention in certain stimulus, discarding whatever is not necessary, and therefore being able to process them. This does not happen with Asperger.

For a person with Asperger's, this process of ruling out stimulus doesn't happen, so they are continuously overwhelmed with stimulus, and their brains have a hard time to focus in a particular one.

Imagine being at a restaurant full of people, having lunch with your friend, and not being able to just focus on your conversation, but instead being constantly bombarded by waiters walking by, peoples voices, lights, silverware noises etc. It would certainly be a challenge.

But luckily Asparger's patients can learn to improve, and there are also many things you can do to help them, such as speaking softly to them, trying to keep a certain distance so they don't feel invaded. Basically trying to understand how their brains work will make it easier for you to be able to help.

Find more information at http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/asperger-syndrome

Engaging your audience

In the previous post we spoke about the fear of speaking in public. Some people do not have this fear, but instead they are not able to maintain the attention of the audience, people just wonder off because they are not feeling interested, engaged.

Making your speech memorable requires you to pay attention to several details. For example, you need to be aware of who is going to be your audience, so you can adapt your register and therefore be closer to them. 

An impressive start will inmediately catch the attention of the public, and a good end will make them remember you.

Here's another video on how to engage your audience by Roger Reece.

Fear of public speaking

Speaking in public may be difficult for some people. They get nervous, insecure, their voices tremble. Others have a lot of self confidence, but nobody listens to them because they can't keep people's attention.

For those who're nervous, there are sevral techniques and exercises you can do to train yourself. Practice, of course, will help a lot. Here is a video of speech instructor Steven D. Cohen, giving 3 tips to overcome the fear of public speaking.

In the next post we will speak about how to make your public appearances more interesting.

Communications in engineering - ISO Standard

The International Standarization Organization has been, since 1947, setting worldwide standards for fabrication processes, sizes, rules etc. for all sorts of areas such as sofware, electronics, materials, inspections, resource management...

This allows, for example, that A4 paper is the same size everywhere in the world, bolts and nuts' sizes are also standard everywhere. There is even a set of rules of how to properly cite documents or web pages. 

http://www.comunidadism.es/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/iso.png

Nowadays, it is necessary to have these standards, production is worldwide. For example, the Airbus A350 has pieces built in more than 10 different countries and then come toghether in the main factory. Without ISO this would be a lot harder, if not impossible.

On top of this, any place or company or product rated ISO is guaranteed to have certain quality standards.

Here are some interesting ISO for engineers:

- ISO 690: Bibliography citations.
- ISO 3166: Country codes.
- ISO 8601: Date and time formats.
- ISO 9000 - 9004: Quality management systems.
- ISO 9899: C programming language.
- ISO 50001: Energy management systems.

Dressing accordingly

A first impression is based on looks, and when facing a job interview you must bear in mind what is the application for and how to dress properly.

In this short video you can get the ideas of what aspects of your looks you should care about.

Example of a great presentation

Ted Talks is widely known in youtube, as a channel that offers talks and conferences about all sorts of topics. there is certainly a lot to learn from their videos.

But there is one that caught my attention greatly, as I am in the way of becoming an engineer the following video kept me with my mouth open all throughout. It is an example of both the amazing feats of today's technology and of how an exciting presentation will deeply engage the audience.

Enjoy.

Being assertive can get you far...

Have you ever taken a moment to think about how different ways of approaching people lead to different results? Asertivity is a form of behaviour in which the persoin is not agressive nor they give in to other people's will. Instead, the assertive person expresses their ideas and fights for their rights respectfuly, without intention to hurt or cause damage.

Behaving in this manner, you are more likely to obtain a better response from others. If you picture a situation where someone at work is imposing you something that, let' say, you don't have time to do. There are several ways to react.

You could say "No way! Leave me alone!", so the other person can either respond angrily or just walk away intimidated (I don't think any of them is a good result).

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You can also just say nothing and do what you're told, in which case you'd most likely be in trouble, as you may have to leave some of your own work undone, and to be honest, nobody likes to feel they are being pushed over.

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But there is a third and more interesting solution, where you don't do what you're told, but you explain the situation as it is, and therefore the other person can see the impossibility of what they're asking. For example you could say: "I'm sorry, but it's going to be impossible for me to do it, as I am enroled in another project for this afternoon and I am going to be busy with it all day".

http://www.outstand.org

The other person may get annoyed, if their sense of empathy is not very developed, but still, you have been able to explain why you can't do it, so you don't have any responsibility over the other person's reactions.

Learning to be assertive will certainly make your relationship with other a lot easier.

Video Presentation - Laureate RoboGuide

This video was made by some peers and I for a university contest. The idea was to design a robot that would welcome and guide guests through the University Campus.

This is an example of presentation. In it, we present our project, which at the time was just an idea. We didn't make it to the final, but we're very proud of our work. Please enjoy!!

Writing emails - Effective enough?

Writing emails has been for a while now one of the most used means of communication. But even though almos everybody sends and receives emails on a daily basis, it seems not to be clear what are the rules for writing emails properly and effectively.

The first thing you should take into account is who is going to be reading the mail, and if someone should be in BCC instead of in CC. For example, in the case of a professional environmen, where you are sending the same email to several companies, it would be a good idea to include them in the BCC field, as that way you keep their email addresses private.

The subject has to get to the point. It must not be too long (remember that nowadays most emails are read from a hand-held device) and it has to be easy for the reader to identify what it is about right away.

The body of the message should also be concise and subjects in it have to be ordered, so that, again, information is easy to access by the person reading it. Also the register is extremely important, because you want to use the appropriate language in each occasion. This obviously gains an especial relevance in the professional world.

The signature may seem unimportant, and it mostly is, except when you are representing a company of an official body of some sort. In that case you should include your name and last name, as well as your position and the company name.

No need to say, when you are writing to your buddy you're obviously not going to pay attention to all these suggestions, just make sure it's your buddy you are writing to, not your boss!!

What is your body saying about you?

       Have you ever considered the importance of nonverbal communication? Many studies have been carried out in the past few decades regarding this subject, and it has become a major aspect of communication in politics and in the bussiness environment.

     The way you move your head, your hands, your eyes, even barely appreciable facial expressions, are just examples of telltale signs that will reveal the person in front of you sometimes more information than your actual words. Developing the technique to use body language in your favour takes time, but it will most certainly pay off.

     For example, your head can help you pace your speach, and tilting it slightly as you talk can make you look more confident in front of your audience and even gain credibility. Using your hands is key, as they are the best way to represent what you are saying. Gesticulating with them will draw people's attention towards you. You can also emphasize what you are saying by accompanying your words with your hands. But they can also indicate you are nervous or unconfortable if you seem like you don't know what to do with them or you are constantly touching your face or your hair.

      Your shoulders are very important too. We often judge someone's emotional state by the position of their shoulders. If they are curved forward, we might think that this person maybe is shy, or they're upset for some reason. Someone with their shoulders pushed back, raising the chest, usually is a demonstration of power or a high self confidence.

       Body posture and body language is very important, and even if it doesn't play a big role in our daily life, it is something you must take into consideration whenever you are facing an audience, or a job interview, or any other situation where you want your message to really reach your interlocutor.

Video - How to greet your audience

Continuing with our topic, I would like you to watch this short video on how the introduction to an audience should be. In it, doctor Gary Genard provides some interesting tips on this issue.

I  recommend you watching Dr. Genard's videos on public speaking, they are certainly interesting and will help you a lot when preparing for a public speach.

Stay tuned for more on comms!!

Meeting new people: Who, Where and How

Introducing yourself to new people can be an issue if you are not well aware of the context you're in. Would you talk the same way to a single person and to a large group of people? To your new boss to be   and   to   a   new   classmate?  Obviously  not.

When dealing with these kind of situations you have to bear in mind who you are talking to, where you are and in what situation. Also you should be clear on the information you think is relevant, for example the person interviewing you for a job is not going to want to know the same things from you as the person who will be seating next to you in class for the rest of the semester.

Your academic and professional background will be relevant at a job interview, or when introducing yourself to a large group of people in a professional environment. Personal matters should only be brought up when they are relevant to the subject, or when they complement what's being said.

Remember that your looks are also very important when making a first impression, especially in a formal register, so you must be fully aware of image and decide whether or not it is appropriate.

And don't forget that a big smile will always get you long ways, and that's true for evey situation in life!

See you soon!