Written by: SmartGrowth 5/28/2010 3:49 PM
In many ways, poor organizational communication is like hypertension. Often you don’t recognize that your organization is suffering from poor communication because there are no symptoms -- only catastrophic events: top-performing employees leave the company, key client relationships are jeopardized, important deadlines slip, and market share declines. What you don’t see or hear – the “silent killers” -- are the lack of focus on the company’s stated mission, the confusion about priorities, employee alienation from lack of involvement in decisions, and the tenuous nature of employee engagement. But this does not need to be so. A recent study conducted by Watson Wyatt Worldwide determined that companies making a significant improvement in employee communication increased market value by 15%. The link between organizational communication and shareholder value is often overlooked because of the complex nature of communication and the discipline required to track how one affects the other. However, this is not a justifiable oversight on the part of senior executives, not when the rewards for improving organizational communication can yield double-digit increases in shareholder value. Let’s take a look at how you can help your company improve its internal communication and reduce the risk of organizational hypertension. To begin, we define organizational communication simply as the interactions required to direct a group toward a goal. In any business, a large number of interactions must take place to generate revenue. You are, of course, in the manufacturing or banking or retail business but that is only a small part of what you do. Most of your and your employees’ time is devoted to communicating. So it follows that improving communication will improve your ability to achieve business goals. Good communication requires hundreds of thousands of interactions each day, but most concern four major categories of organizational communication:
Executive Communication Leaders of successful organizations are able to align employee behavior with the company’s mission and values. They are also able to articulate that mission to external stakeholders. To ensure success, leaders must have a communication blueprint. Communication Next, managers must be skilled communicators because their work combines specific communication events, including performance management, hiring, retaining, deciding, motivating, and finding efficiencies. Team Communication In the modern organization, teams and self-directed work groups make up a significant amount of the workforce. The success of these teams depends on the communication of its members. Effective team communication helps reduce conflict, accelerates decisions, and drives productivity. Customer Communication Finally and ultimately, communication is the most critical skill in the employee-customer relationship. Your employees must be able to articulate value-cost propositions, deliver customer care, and respond to customer problems with confidence, knowledge, and conscientiousness. Dealing with Organizational Communication Poor organizational communication is just like high blood pressure -- no real symptoms – only deadly outcomes, such as the inability to get things done, tension between work groups and departments, and, most devastating of all, unhappy customers. How, where, and why does poor communication begin in an organization? We know that high blood pressure is caused, at least in part, by poor diet, stress, and lack of exercise. Poor organizational communication is usually the result of lack of clarity on the part of executives and managers about the organization’s mission, goals, strategy, and tactics; little or no communication planning; and poor communication skills at the individual level. So what can executives do to remedy the situation? Just like treating high blood pressure, the first step is diagnosis. A thorough exam will tell you whether you have high blood pressure and it may uncover the underlying causes. Organizations need similar diagnostics. A communication audit can help you understand whether and where problems may be lurking. Specifically, a communication audit tells executives the following:
Communication audits are easy to administer and provide immediate insights into how an organization is functioning. In addition, the subsequent executive report provides practical solutions and recommendations for improving low-scoring areas. Not paying attention to your blood pressure because you don’t feel sick is misguided and dangerous. Not knowing the health of organizational communication because it’s seemingly “intangible” is equally dangerous. For more ideas on how build and a lead an extraordinary organization, call us at 919-324-6770