Ithaca, NY--Michael D. Zimet, president of Dialogue Solutions, a management consulting practice, will speak on "Upward Communication: Catalyst for Organizational Effectiveness" at Ithaca College on Thursday, October 21. The talk, sponsored by the Department of Organizational Communication, Learning, and Design, will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Emerson Suite B, Phillips Hall. The event is free and open to the public; a reception will follow.

Zimet, who graduated from Ithaca College in 1970 with a degree in television-radio, has more than 20 years experience in employee and management communications. He began his corporate career with IBM, where he directed Speak Up, a program that presented employees with a broad range of options to communicate their thoughts and feelings to management. As a consultant, Zimet now develops similar programs that have been implemented at Xerox, General Electric, Coca-Cola, and United Technologies, among others.

"Bulletin boards, speeches, publications, advertising, those are all good ways for businesses to communicate information to their employees and customers," Zimet says. "But those are examples of one-way communication. Effective communication is really a two-way process that lets customers and employees express opinions, ask questions, make suggestions, or vent frustrations and then receive a direct, candid response from management."

The key is to get people talking, Zimet says, and effective ways to do that include the candid question-and-answer format based on the town meeting concept, real-time computer conferencing using e-mail, and meetings coordinated by a neutral outside facilitator.

Zimet's innovative communication methods and an ongoing internal communications program he developed have won awards from the International Association of Business Communicators. He is the co-author, with Christopher Mykrantz, of "The Comprehensive Guide to Upward and Face-to-Face Communication" and has written a chapter, "Communication Works Both Ways (Down and Up)," for "Employee Communication: The Comprehensive Manual for People Who Communicate with Today's Employees," published by Ragan Communications.

Zimet's consulting business, Dialogue Solutions, is located in Baldwin Place, New York. For more information on his talk, call the Department of Organizational Communication, Learning, and Design at (607) 274-1025.