What do you do if your team's communication is hindering innovation?

In assessing communication barriers, it’s important to determine if your team has a culture of psychological safety where they feel empowered to reveal and discuss mistakes as new learning and growth. If there is a culture of silence out of fear of retaliation and negative consequences, innovation is stifled and will not thrive.

When teams don't communicate, there can be a range of issues, but they generally stem from a few root causes: trust, motivation, and clarity. Trust is complex, but in this context, it can be categorized into three major areas: trust between one another, the teams' trust in you and your ability to lead and trust that they will be rewarded or recognized. Second, motivation inspires action, and if one or more team members lack motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic), they'll default to "not communicating". Finally, clarity: One of the fastest ways to stymie communication and innovation is to create confusion or ambiguity about the company or team's mission. Don't confuse chaos, ambiguity, or an environment without guardrails for "autonomy."

Diferen?as quase sempre geram conflitos. é na diferen?a que está a riqueza de uma equipe, e é nas situa??es de conflito que está a riqueza da comunica??o. Novas possibilidades e perspectivas surgem quando aprendemos a explorar essas diferen?as. Diferentes experiências e pontos de vista podem e devem ser incorporados, em toda discuss?o, e esse é um dos caminhos para a inova??o.

The terms listen and silence are constructed with the same letters arranged in different order. Both are dependent on each other for providing undivided attention. Active listening is crucial in emotional intelligence because it shows a deep level of respect and understanding for the other person's feelings and thoughts. By actively listening, you demonstrate empathy and validate the other person's emotions, which can help build trust and strengthen relationships. Additionally, active listening allows you to fully comprehend what is being communicated, enabling you to respond appropriately and effectively, leading to more meaningful and productive interactions.

It is not always helpful to focus on common ground in conflicts. When we do this, we might miss the opportunities that conflict situations provide. Instead, we can learn to use these situations to explore our differences and values. By doing so, we can discover new perspectives and possibilities that we may not have seen before. Think about the headlights on a car. A driver can see a lot because the overlap of the two lights is relatively small. The purpose of having two lights is to illuminate a larger area, not to make the overlap brighter. Similarly, by looking beyond the common ground, we can expand our understanding of the situation and find new paths forward.

In the formation of teams, it’s recommended to establish a conflict resolution plan at the start. This allows for a common approach to how conflict will be resolved. In a team or individual setting, it is important to be aware of your own emotions, be empathetic, engage in active listening, communicate clearly, repeat what was heard and seek feedback to check for understanding and collaborate from a posture of calm.