Communicating to Thrive, Especially During COVID-19

Let’s face it: we miss going into the office. We miss seeing our colleagues, standing casually by their desks to brainstorm an idea or even sitting with them in the dreaded conference room during team meetings. COVID-19 and sheltering-in-place has taught us: we need our work relationships.  

But how can we continue to build and maintain relationships in the absence of face-to-face communication?

This webinar will focus on understanding our basic interpersonal needs of inclusion, affection and control, and cover how to effectively communicate our needs to others, as well as understand and accommodate others’ interpersonal needs, and how to best create immediacy and connection over screens in personal and professional contexts. 

In this webinar, you will:

1.    Assess your need for affection, control and inclusion in professional communications.

2.    Consider the interpersonal needs of those in your professional network.

3.    Determine the impact of social distancing and remote work on your ability to meet your own needs and those of others.

4.    Create a Communication Action Plan and Interpersonal Thrive Map.

Marisa Michaels directs the business communication program in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. She teaches Communication for Managers and coaches MBA advanced field projects. She holds a bachelor’s and a doctorate from the University of San Francisco and a master’s from San Francisco State University. She specializes in self-presentation, interpersonal communication and public presentation strategies and arms students with tools to create desired impressions in their written and oral communication.

Mikel Chertudi and Amber Owens are both business communications lecturers in the Eller College. Chertudi’s expertise is founded in startup business development, international business, cross-cultural communication and strategic marketing. He carries the hard-won lessons of growing a company through the Great Recession, creating and funding business plans and managing projects through their life cycles. Owens concurrently serves as the associate director of instructional design for the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law, where she leads a collaborative team to design, develop and deliver educational programs for online and hybrid programs with a global reach.