Managing the Flow
At a recent conference I attended, Donna Coppock, Corporate Training
with the Great Game of Business, presented a session on "The Communication
Circle" and highlighted the importance of making communication
a priority within your organization/business. Ultimately, what this
entails is creating an environment of mutual trust in which all participants
feel comfortable.
If we take a look at information flow within an organization, it's
important to understand that 70 percent of what employees want to
hear has to do with their particular job assignment or work group.
They are looking for information that verifies:
- What is my job?
- How do I, and my work group, fit into the total picture?
- What are the goals of my work group?
- Am I/are we meeting those goals?
Only after you have communicated this information with employees will
they be ready to hear what you need them to hear. It is then
that you can communicate things like:
- The nature of your business
- Why the business exists
- Where the organization/business is headed
- What their piece of the puzzle is
- How their puzzle piece interlocks/interacts with other puzzles pieces
that exist in the business.
It is important that you, as the business owner/manager, give employees
the information and tools they need to understand your business, so
they in turn can be actively involved. Employees can't help you fix
a problem if a) they don't know the problem exists, and/or b) you don't
provide them with an opportunity to provide input. Keep in mind that
an informed employee is an engaged employee.
Having talked about the importance of sharing information with employees,
let's now take a look at ways to share that information. Frequently,
the number one determining factor for successful information transferal
is directly related to the relationship employees have with their supervisor.
If that relationship is good, the information transferal process often
runs a lot smoother. Regardless of relationship, however, a few rules
of thumb apply:
- Performance-related information should always be provided face-to-face.
- Work group-related information should come directly from the respective
supervisor.
- More global information about the company needs to come from management.
Keep in mind, also, that people assimilate information in a variety
of ways (visual, verbal, tactile). Therefore, if a message is important,
it must be communicated on three different occasions in three different
media forms. Also note that most adults must hear something seven times
before they "get it" and make it part of their knowledge base.
The "grapevine" is often undermined in many organizations/
businesses, yet it can be a significant information dissemination tool.
Most businesses waste a lot of time, money and effort to eliminate the
office grapevine.
An alternative is to learn how to use the grapevine. Listen to what
is being said, endorse accurate information, disavow inaccuracy, and
feed the flow with information you want to disseminate.
Studies also indicate that 10 percent of a business/work group's members
influence the actions of the other 90 percent. These are the influential
people within your organization. You as the business owner or manager
need to make sure that the people who have the power to influence others
(informal or formal) are "in the flow" of information. From
your vantage point, make sure they are informed with accurate and timely
information. Work to ensure the influential power that these people
possess is working for, not against, you.
Ultimately, in managing the flow of information in your business,
communication needs to be:
- Fast. You need to capitalize on the opportunity to get information
to people quickly. The longer it takes to get the message out, the
greater the opportunity there is for corruption to occur.
- Factual. Business owners/leaders often don't want to share
bad news. You must, however, always tell the truth and be a "straight
shooter" in sharing information. As mentioned earlier, if employees
don't know a problem exists, they can't help you fix it.
- Frequent. It is very important to keep the communication
machine well oiled.
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Authored by: Jackie Rasmussen, Business and Industry
Specialist, University of Missouri Extension
Source: Creating Quality Newsletter, Volume
11, Number 5, May 2002
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