Communication is a Synonym for ‘Life’
T
his is a line from a video I used to show as a college professor back in the 80s. It has stuck with me ever since and I say it quite often.
‘Communication’ is getting harder with more distractions. Cell phones abound – most of the participants in training courses that I deliver have 2 phones. As soon as a slide goes up, they’re looking at one or both of them.
With distractions everywhere, how can we communicate better? Well, first of all, let’s start with at definition: communication is ‘…the process of passing information and understanding from one person to another…’ (Quora). Another requirement is that the sender ensures that the receiver understood the information the way the sender intended. That’s why…
‘e-mail’ is not ‘communication’
The sender of an e-mail never knows if the information got passed or if the receiver understood it. It’s dangerous to send anything ‘important’ by e-mail. You’ll get the result that you deserve!
A few more tips:
- Meet face-to-face for best results
- Use ‘plain’ language
- Pay attention to the person you’re talking to
- Look for feedback from what you’re saying
- Make time available for teams to meet
- Communicate the ‘purpose’ of your organization whenever possible
This is not an exhaustive list of ways to improve communications in your organization, but it might get you started!
Know Quality, Know Profit…No Quality, No Profit
We have some great communication tools and methods built into our Cloud-based Management System platform. If you’d like to see if it can help improve your communication activities, schedule a demo. We’d be happy to spend 10 or 15 minutes with you to see if it’s a fit…