Your Facility Management team is struggling with communication. What can you do to help?

To improve communications skills, one should start with basics and should be a good listener first. Paraphrase what you have gathered to avoid any gaps in understanding. try to be proactive in providing updates

One key point I have learned working with many diverse teams in Facilities, is when you have developed the trust factor with them- then even quiet players will open up. As you engage the conversation- you are humble, and give examples of your past learning curves with communicating while building awesome teams then you will see transformation. Trust and respect will give enormous rewards. Set the example and your team will follow. Communication skills are not a one and done but rather a continuous adaptation working with different personalities and characters.

One needs to observe the team dynamics by looking for signs of hesitation, confusion or frustration during the communication process. In my opinion, organizing team building activities and workshops which can strengthen interpersonal relationships and promoting transparency within the team.

To have a clear communication by the team the. Leader requires to share the fields of its domain with their team and ask his team members of any questions if not understood. Then team members should be forwarded to communicate with senior heads of the organisation so they loose the fear to talk.

"I have once experienced this challenge among my team members. I recalled, at some point it began to weaken the team-spirit and affect our work output. I needed to act very fast. To bridge the communication gap I did the followings: (1) Conduct a regular team meeting to foster open discussion and encouraged all to participate. (2) Strengthened feedback mechanism and address all concerns. (3) Create a WhatsApp messaging platform that enhances real-time communication and provide updates on changes. (4) Establishes and enforce standard communication protocols. Upon implementation after perhaps few weeks, we began to see improved team communication, team harmony and a better work output."

To define effective communication for my team, I would establish clear expectations and benchmarks for successful information exchange, collaboration, and interaction among team members. This would entail establishing criteria that demonstrate what effective communication looks like within the team and devising methods to measure its success. The effective communication would be characterized under several factors such as Clarity and Transparency, Timeliness and Relevance, Openness and Collaboration, Active Listening Adaptability and Flexibility. By defining these criteria and implementing measurement methods. By continuously assessing and improving communication practices, it will foster a more cohesive and efficient working environment.

Find out why your team struggles with communication. Is it confusion, trust issues, or different styles? Use surveys or chats to dig into their views. Understand what they need and spot problems to fix in how you talk and share info.

Based on the team and team members' expertise, skillset, experience the communication etiquette / standards and criteria should be broken down to simple yet effective processes which they could relate to. This would enable the team members to understand why the standards and processes are in place and the impact they would have if they comply and if they don't. Ownership of the process would enable each and every team member to be aligned with the company goals.

Regular communication gives effective results The frequency of the Communications should be identified based on the requirement of the goal to be achieved Frequent but crisp communications to stakeholders to be done if results to be derived in a short duration

It’s all about conveying expectations that are realistic. First you need to understand what the barriers to poor comms are and then consult the team on effective solutions, then once they engage set the standards.

Having multiple tools performing the same function is counter productive and creates silos within organizations. Pick a singular and correct collaboration tool for the organization and stick with it. Adapt as necessary.

Communication tools is an important prospect in achieving desired results Written and Verbal communication balance should be given to achieve the required goal Verbal communications are more effective when the internal stake holders are being informed about a requirement

To enhance communication within your Facility Management team, consider implementing agreed templates and dashboards. Templates provide a standardised format for communication, simplifying routine tasks and facilitating consistent information tracking. Additionally, dashboards offer a visual representation of key metrics, promoting transparency and enabling efficient decision-making. These tools complement your chosen communication platforms, fostering a more streamlined and effective communication process for your team.

Choose the right tools for your team to talk better. Pick from email, phone, chat, video calls, or project apps. Think about what's easy, safe, and useful. Train your team to use them well. This makes communication smooth and everyone stays on the same page.

To understand the team's communication requirements is crucial. Addressing factors such as the nature of tasks, team size, geographic dispersion, frequency of interactions, and preferred communication styles. For instance, a large team working across different locations might benefit from tools that enable real-time collaboration and remote communication. Utilizing email remains the core communication tool for official updates, and notifications within the FM team. However, relying solely on email is not advisable. Supplementing emails with instant messaging platforms like Whatspp, Microsoft Teams, or similar tools can facilitate quicker exchanges, enable real-time group discussions, and provide a more dynamic communication environment.

Check if your communication plan is working. Use numbers and feedback to see how well it's going. Look at response rates, errors, and how happy people are. Compare what you expected with what's really happening. Ask your team and others for their thoughts. This helps you know what's good and where you can do better in how you talk and share info.

Track communication outcomes using quantitative and qualitative methods, including response rates and satisfaction levels. Compare actual outcomes with expectations, identify strengths and weaknesses, and collect feedback from team members and stakeholders. Continuously improve strategies based on insights, adapt to changing needs, conduct periodic communication audits, benchmark against industry standards, and celebrate successes while learning from failures. Establish regular review cycles to ensure ongoing refinement of communication strategies.

Monitoring is very necessary in every system, like any control system we require feedback signals or data according output can be evaluated, just same we have to check is our establish communication system is working according plan, or it needs implementation.

Another simple method here is to disterbute a form whereby asking the stakeholders which way they prefer to be conatcted for updates and being adopable to it will go along way in insuring a successfull communication.

I suggest six sigma methodology for better communication In DMAI C C control is missed. In army even after 36 years of service the person attend daily roll call to understand the message and his role without any ambiguity. Control is must.

Communication among team members in FM is a big important part of daily operations It's good to first and foremost gather all the team members and make their task clear , Right understanding of role and expectation had to be made clear While referring the mail communications if anyone is not upto the mark in his / her comment on the thread email it's good to touch base with him / her singly making him aware of the mistake as had happen . We may also involve the learning and development team to publish email etiquette as Mass mail to all every month basis so that employees can garner more better methods of email writing ...

Communication is a broad term. Stakeholder management/engagement, customer management/engagement, etc are all forms of communication. There should be key milestones/decision events/etc that trigger an outreach for your project/program to your team, stakeholders, etc. based on the type of event, etc. There should be a codified comms plan/process, and then that plan should be reviewed / QC’d throughout the lifecycle of your program/project to ensure it’s effective and expectations are managed. It’s 2024…use modern tools to enhance and improve comms. Yet implementing a new comms tool could present challenges (educational component; reluctance) to your stakeholders/customers and incur a challenge for you to manage that learning curve.

Often the good practices are not recognized and the whole energy is spent on the poor efforts. This sets out a negative mindset in the entire team and might even lead to the ones doing a good job to do an inferior job. Reasoning, recognition and taking inputs from all team members like would only elevate the positivity within the team and keep everyone motivated alike.

Based on evaluations, be ready to make adjustments. Adapt your approach, refine processes, and address specific challenges promptly. Continuous improvement is essential for fostering a culture of effective communication.

Development of the existing skills and techniques are playing a very important role in improving communication outcomes and enhancing team performance

I've noticed being a novice employee makes you afraid to be the bringer of bad news, yet one must consider that the longer it takes to escalate or communicate anything, the bigger the damage of waiting will bring. That's why waiting in itself is a type of waste wherein instead of a solution to be given lickety split, the problem worsens. As an employee (regardless of level), one should: - seek coordination with direct superiors in performing a task - don't be shy in asking for help - if you can assist, express willingness to zero-in on problems I find these effective for me, so lemme just share it.

Whenever possible and allowed, infuse your communication with positivity and inspiration. Years ago, I had the responsibility of sending daily reports to numerous teams, I crafted distinctive and uplifting salutations each day: "What a splendid day," "Beautiful Morning," or "It is sunny here in Lagos." Interestingly, the stimulating greetings overshadowed the routineness of the reports.

I have seen FM team struggle in communication when they don't read proper SOPs/rules, budget and contracts and past history, regulations, don't understand their role properly, don't understand the JOBs of all stakeholders, and organizational values. One must be good listener to have better communication, try to understand pain points of your stakeholder and services receiver, If Team does this, there will be no struggle in communication.

In my experience too many communications are counterproductive. Consider what recipients receive in other forms from other sources and see if they can be combined, simplified and streamlined. Sometimes less is more.

Modern WEB Tools to Improve Communications The Facilities Manager in order to grab the attention of stakeholders and at the same time get his/her message across, need to use online Web Tools. There are many available on the web but the one I have used for over 15 years is Elegant Themes (divithemeexamples.com). A wide variety of templates are available for your projects via their DIVI Professional template. The hosting platform required is Wordpress: a Bluehost.com shared hosting adequate. The learning curve for DIVI is very challenging but the beautiful original designs you are able to do is quite rewarding. When you share your digital web creation your colleagues will be surprised that you did not outsource the Web Development.