Part 1:

Discussion Prompt:

• How does your organization measure up in providing a safe and healthy environment to provide feedback, exchange ideas, and communicate effectively?
• What would you suggest to sustain the environment (if your organization rates high) or take corrective action?
• When responding, take into consideration the key components of the communication process, the emotionral intelligence quotient of individuals, and how technology has helped or hurt the process.

reply to:

• Jenna Ouellette posted Feb 15, 2026 11:49 AM
• Effective health and safety initiatives reduce the stigma of mental health issues, reduces burnout and stress from being overworked, but most importantly shows the companys care and concern to the overall well being of their employees. A company that is all inclusive, maintains and fosters mental health accessibility ensures brand recognition, a strategic edge over the competition and the trust and loyalty of current employees and future candidates.
• The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) is one of these companies that embraces taking care of their employees. There are open door discussions, picnics, BBQs, pot luck events and other social events during the workday for mental health and employee appreciation. These events occur randomly each month to provide a stress-free environment to mix and mingle with other peers. There is also the Central Green space that is available for anyone to enjoy the sunshine and work outside (weather permitting). This is a great way to release tension and negativity.
• Feedback, open dialogue and an exchange of ideas is most welcome where everyone is encouraged to throw ideas, suggestions, improvements and changes to the team for thoughtful considerations. Self-awareness, self-reflection, motivations, empathy and social skills are essential to build a foundation of trust and loyalty through the communication process.
• Unfortunately, technology has hurt the communication process since emails, texts and the Slack channel focuses on less in personal interactions. Team members can now use Microsoft Teams or Zoom instead of holding in person meetings. While this allows for team members who are offsite or work from home to attend meetings, it can be difficult to get your point across and may cause misunderstanding and miscommunication.
• Overall JHU/APL strives to be a leading-edge company and has been in the top 50 of Best Workplaces for Innovators for the past 7 years by Fast Company.
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• El Hadj Diop posted Feb 17, 2026 8:12 PM
• In evaluating my current organization, I would rate our environment as Accomplished but evolving. We have very clear formal channels for communication, but there are areas where the integration of emotional intelligence and the right technology could be improved to create a safer feedback culture.
• Analysis of the Environment
• Currently, my workplace relies heavily on lean media such as email and quick instant messages for almost everything. According to Media Richness Theory, these channels are great for basic updates, but they often fail during complex feedback sessions because you cannot see a person’s face or hear their tone. This often creates noise in the Shannon Weaver model where a supervisors helpful suggestion might be misinterpreted by an employee as a harsh critique just because the text felt cold.
• From an Emotional Intelligence or EQ standpoint, the environment feels safe, but the lack of face to face time makes Social Awareness difficult. It is hard for leaders to show empathy or gauge how a team is actually feeling when all interactions are restricted to a chat box.
• Suggestions for Improvement
• To sustain a healthy environment and take corrective action, I suggest the following:

1. Prioritize Rich Media for Sensitive Topics. I recommend that all performance reviews or brainstorming sessions happen over video calls or in person. This aligns with the course goal of choosing the right platform to reduce misunderstandings.
2. Move Toward Feedforward. Instead of just looking at past mistakes, we should use a Feedforward approach. As our lessons mention, this is proactive and focuses on future growth, which helps lower the anxiety employees feel during evaluations.
3. Tone Checking with AI. Since technology sometimes makes our communication feel too impersonal, using tools like Microsoft Copilot could help. It can assist employees in tone checking an email before they hit send to ensure it sounds professional and supportive rather than blunt.

• By being more intentional about which digital tools we use for specific conversations, we can build a more inclusive and transparent workplace.

part 2:

Select a YouTube how to on a simple task (e.g., cooking, crafting, assembling an item, etc.). The video should not be of any great length, and the task should not take more than 30 minutes to complete. Complete the task based on the instructions from the video.

Submission Instructions:

Provide a one- to two-page response in which you discuss ALL of the following:

• Include the Title of the video and the creator’s/author name.
• Include a link to the video.
• Include a screenshot of the video.
• What was the task, and how did you approach it?
• How clear were the instructions provided by the presenter?
• What aspects of the presenters communication were most helpful?
• What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?
• How would you improve the presenters communication, and why?

Submission Choice: Choose the format that you prefer only one format is required to be submitted.

Submit as a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation – one slide for each of the above questions.

or

Submit as a Microsoft Word document – one to two-pages to address each of the above questions.

Submission Format:

NOTE: Submissions must follow proper APA, 7th edition formatting [Title Page, if using Microsoft Word (proper paragraph formatting), and Reference Page]

Save document or presentation with File Name as: First Name Last Name – How To. For example: Erica Willis – How To

Be sure to review the following prior to submitting your assignment:

• Assignment Rubric
• If you do not see the rubric, in the blue horizontal navigation bar select Course Tools, then Assignments. Select the appropriate assignment, and the rubric will be located near the bottom of the page.

This assignment aligns with the following: