Whenever I talk to employees, it never takes long for them to
tell me about it.
Because it’s missing, it makes them unhappy, disengaged
or just confused about their work.
And that means they’re not as productive as they could
be.
What’s missing is the right level of communication. And –
to some degree – it’s missing everywhere.
Without the right communication, different people have
different knowledge at different times, so getting things done becomes much
harder.
Without the right communication, people feel overwhelmed
at times, so they start to switch off.
Without the right communication, there isn’t a single,
understood version of the truth, so people start to create their own.
Look at the Engage for Success
Four Enablers
Communication is the foundation for them all.
- Status and Reputation
- Integrity and Values
- Leadership and Vision
- Management and Support
- Expectations and Focus
- Voice and Contribution
- Accomplishment and Control
- Recognition and Value
- Learning and Progress
- Time and Place
- People and Teams
- Environment and Process
Communication
enables all of them. People can’t know what’s expected of them, how they should
do it and what’s in it for them without a good dialogue.
Now,
comms is tough. It’s probably getting tougher, because organisations need to
react and change more quickly than before, and their people need to follow.
Or even,
their people need to lead.
Read this passage on Employee-Led
Innovation from the London Business School: “Innovation, as a bottom-up
activity, is about trying to do things that go beyond our job description. By
definition, it is about taking time away from what we are officially being paid
to do, in order to try something that offers uncertain pay-offs, at some time
in the future, to someone else. Even if we convince ourselves that we can find
the time and resources to do it, we also have to persuade those around us, and
we have to push against all manner of formal procedures and systems that were
designed to maintain the status quo. All of this is well known. But companies
still struggle with how to overcome these obstacles without compromising
today’s business”
Communication
must play a large part if those obstacles are to be overcome.
We
understand this. But we also know that the precise issues are different at
different organisations.
So we are asking people what their biggest communication
challenge is. It’s a single free text question, with a couple of optional
follow ups. So you can tell us if it’s the channels, the message, the culture,
the whatever.
As a thank you to all that take part, we will send them a
copy of our report that details the most frequent communication challenges, and
offers insight into how they can be addressed.
