The purpose of this activity is to have the participants realize the complexity of communication. Successful communication depends on 5 main parts: sender (content and expression alignment), message (content clarity), receiver (ability to understand the content objectively), feedback (receives expressed relation on the message) and noise (other competing discourses).

The first step is to define the main parts of communication. This is done by answering a few questions about the message sender, receiver, intent of message and feedback (see the image below). 

-          What influence does the sender have on the message? Can sender influence the content of the message only by the means of expression?

-          What defines a good quality message? 

-          What qualities are important for a receiver to comprehend the message correctly?

-          What defines good quality feedback? How should it be constructed?

Figure 1 The communication process: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=87012&section=4

After a short discussion led by facilitator the group will have common understanding about the sender, receiver, message and feedback in the communication process.

In the following step the group has to pick a communication challenge which they all encounter. The defined challenge will be used in the following activities when tools and techniques are explored. The most convenient way to do so is by following these 4 steps:

• The first step is to choose a target audience whose communication challenges the group will be analyzing. The target audience either could be parents or school leaders. If the group finds it difficult to decide then it could be split into two groups, one for parents and another for school leaders. 
• The second step is to have an individual brainstorming time by writing down personal communion challenges with the chosen target group. Every challenge has to be written on a sticky note. For example: parents do not read messages, school leaders do not provide positive feedback and so on.
• The third step is to share these challenges with other group members. That is done by sticking the notes on one flipchart. Then these notes have to be grouped by their relation in categories. For instance: communication in the meetings, communication via emails and etc.
• The fourth step is to choose one category of challenges which has been defined. This could be done by voting. The chosen category will be used in the next activities.

RESULT: After this workshop the participants will have a better understanding of ineffective communication and what is the main challenge they need to overcome. It might change during the process, however, at this moment is the good point to move forward.

If you having this module in online, then for the mind map creation you can use online platform: https://miro.com/templates/concept-map-maker/