The Reasons Why Many Change Programmes Fail - Poor Communication (Part 5)

Poor Communication

It’s unavoidable.

Communication issues are constant within any organisation.

No matter what kind of organisation you ask, large or small, they’ll all say that communication could or should be better.?

Informal and Formal communication

Typically, communication can be put into two forms.?

Form one?

Formal communication.

This is where planned meetings and briefings are conducted, often coupled with communication infrastructure such as boards, newsletters etc.?

And form two?

Informal communication, of course.

This is pretty self-explanatory, but it’s when people are generally talking to each other either one-to-one or in small groups.?

Both are equally important to master, especially when the effect of poor communication can be so devastating.?

Let’s go over the consequences of poor communication.?

?People Stay in Silos and Cross-Working is Limited

When communication is good, your employees feel a sense of belonging.

They know where they fit within their work system.

Without good communication, employees tend to stay in their silos and limit cross-working with other teams and employees.?

Therefore, leaders, whether in business or on projects, must be able to communicate the importance of working together as a team as well as individually.?

Employees Get Fed Up

When your boss isn’t communicating well or providing you with the tools you need to communicate effectively, it can be frustrating.?

Unfortunately, this error often leads to misunderstandings, less accountability and less empowerment.?

Things get missed, projects get delayed and someone ALWAYS gets blamed.?

It’s not an efficient way to work and it won’t motivate you to come to work each day and give it your all.?

The result? Disengagement.?

Interestingly, companies that demonstrate excellent relationships with their customers through communication similarly have great employee relations.

This shows that when communication is embedded into an organisation it results in high morale throughout the business.?

Less Efficient?

Poor communication means poor productivity.?

That’s a given.?

However, communication also impacts proactivity.?

Employees are less likely to take an initiative if they’re unable to communicate their plans going forward, which effectively stunts the growth of the organisation.?

New Ideas are Suppressed?

The best thing about effective communication and collaboration?

Innovation is sparked.?

Innovation takes creativity and imagination, but it also takes teamwork.?

Giving your employees a platform to communicate, share data and ideas and track their progress can only augment the innovative culture companies need to stay competitive.?

It’s not hard to put employee skillsets, current projects, experience and availability in one place where workers can easily find it to quickly connect and see what that does for innovation.?

Rumours Become the Truth

Employees complain.

It’s something that happens and has been happening forever.?

But it’s what they’re complaining about that makes the difference.

If one disgruntled employee feeds information to 5 other employees about how unhappy they are, news quickly spreads.

Now that social media has taken off, it puts a gigantic megaphone to every employee’s rants, exposing companies to a reputation crisis.?

So, what’s the biggest complaint employees have when it comes to their employers?

A lack of communication.?

This can be either between employees or from executives to lower-ranking employees.?

Communication matters.?

Your employees want to feel like they have open doors and an effective communication platform that they can access to converse with each other at any time.?

Without that, things quickly become to fall apart.?

People Leave

No matter what industry you’re in, turnover is always an issue.?

Losing employees, after such a short period of time, costs companies billions in lost productivity; and costs associated with recruiting, hiring and training,?

According to the authority on the matter, Forbes,?

“Two-thirds of a company’s survey score is based on the results of the Trust Index Employee Survey. The survey asks questions related to employees’ attitudes about management’s credibility, overall job satisfaction, and camaraderie. The other third is based on responses to the Culture Audit, which includes detailed questions about pay and benefit programs and a series of open-ended questions about hiring practices, methods of internal communication, training…”

Camaraderie and internal communications are among the main topics that rank employers high in employee surveys.?

What is your organisation doing to foster camaraderie and communication??

(Yes, they go hand-in-hand)

Email may help with communication, although clumsily, it does nothing to build rapport.?

Employee communication software can help with both because it is purposely built to do just that – give people a platform on which to communicate, share ideas, build relationships, and foster innovation.?

The Solution??

Let’s look at these photos:

1. Team Development?
2. 20 Team Target Performance Board

Both of these are tremendous aids for day-to-day communication for employees and leaders alike.?

Many boards in organisations are still management boards, meaning they’re there to communicate down to the employees.?

Boards like the examples above should be owned by the team(s) and tell a story from left to right in three sections;

1. What the team is trying to achieve
2. The current activities to achieve (1) photos, drawing from team members is ideal
3. Current results

For informal communication, we also ensure that leaders at every level of an organisation engage in informal discussion.?

Even more so when embarking upon a significant change programme.?

In some cases, senior leaders believe they need to know all the answers.

However, it’s very powerful when leaders listen carefully to people.

When they can’t answer a question, saying “I don’t know either, this is new to all of us, I’ll find out” reminds employees that they’re all on the same journey.?

All senior managers should walk the floor and talk to employees at least twice a day.?

Remember one of Covey’s key messages;?

“Seek first to understand and then be understood.”

Asking open questions first and then listening to people to then build your comments upon unites your employees AND gives you a perspective you may have otherwise never had.?

Communication is key to the success and growth of your business.

Don’t forget it.?

If you’re enjoying this series so far, stay tuned for next week’s topic – A Legacy of Previous Change.?

While you’re here, why not subscribe? That way you’ll get notifications each time a newsletter is published.?

See you next week!