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Have you ever watched American football on TV? Do you really understand the strategies and tactics associated with the game? Big guys padded up like two legged rhinos get the ball and always appear to immediately charge back into the pack. After much pushing and shoving someone breaks away with a “game plan” and scores a touch-down. It appears to be very exciting, but unless you know the rules of the game, you’re not sure why.
That’s how many people view communication strategies. They can be communicating with others and not really understand what’s happening. So it’s important to not only know the rules of the communication game, but also to have a game plan. And if this leads to higher morale, better customer service, motivated staff and better business - surely it’s worth improving your communication game?
The essence of communication is creativity. You shouldn’t be arguing with people, debating with people, showing them where they’re wrong, embarrassing them or banging your fists on desks. Don’t be antagonistic in any way.
So remember, Better Communication = Better Business
Fundamentally, organisational communication occurs on 3 levels - the first level is intrapersonal i.e. communication with oneself.
The 2nd level is interpersonal i.e. when you communicate with another person, face to face 2 way discussion - I ask you a question, you listen and respond and vice versa. Probably half of your waking hours are spent in interpersonal communication behaviours.
And thirdly, group level - either individual to group or group to group
Communication may take the form of written or spoken words, gestures or even visual symbols. It involves the sending and receiving of information resulting in a degree of shared meaning between a sender and receiver.
This dynamic process presupposes a search for meaning, an attempt to understand. Meanings reside in people and not in words themselves; thus to accomplish understanding can be extremely difficult
So today, I’d like you to take a moment to think about how and where you could make at least one improvement so that you become more effective in getting your message across.
During communication, one person never fully comprehends fully or identically what the other person is saying because of personal differences such as environment, upbringing or frame of reference.
Communication is successful when the sender of a message and the receiver of that message achieve a high degree of similarity in the interpretations of the meaning to the messages transmitted. If you can say “I hear you and understand what you’re saying” then communication is successful.
The goal of any communication should be to convey information such as instructions, policies, procedures, orders so that the listener will hear, understand, agree and accept the message. Then to react as intended.
Over 40 years ago, the label “organisation man” was applied to most managers because of the organisation’s efforts to enforce conformity. With knowledge workers you will need to use a collaborative communication model. This model may be preferable because of information power, fluctuating power relationships, & participative decision making.
Today, I’d like you to think about how communication works in your organisation. Does it have clarity? Do people understand what the organisation is all about? And what is one improvement that you could personally make?
We’re living in exciting times today. The changes taking place are phenomenal and change is so rapid that our imagination cannot keep pace. This tremendous rate of change probably is one of the primary causes of a manager’s communication problems. Managers must learn to communicate more effectively.
Despite the leaps and bounds in information technology, global satellite communications and the World Wide Web, we have failed to create and maintain deep, satisfying and understanding relationships. In fact, I believe that communication is the major problem in society as well as in business.
Some of the factors that affect a manager’s communication abilities are technology, the knowledge explosion, information overload and employee values and beliefs. These tend to put a strain on communication and it is therefore important for managers to understand the basic fundamentals of communication.
Those managers who acknowledge the importance of the characteristics of communication in the organisation will know how to deal with the constant problems facing them.
So what one thing will you do today to improve your communication!
“Management doesn’t keep us informed!” This is one of the most frequent complaints in business and industry today.
The job of any manager is to build a community of communication with employees, an environment for the sharing of messages, ideas or attitudes. Communication must flow not only from management to employee but also from employee to management.
Ours is an extremely verbal world. We have discovered that written communication is frequently ineffective. Verbal communication provides visual contact and the opportunity for a two-way information flow. As you advance in your career, you will learn that success depends on your ability to communicate with others. Thus if you fail to learn verbal communication skills, you will be limiting your career and business possibilities.
Oral communication is a process in which a speaker interacts verbally with a listener to influence the listener’s behaviour.
How’s your oral communication? Do you need to work on it? What is one thing that you could do today to improve it?
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Author: Ricky Lien