Food for thought

At dinner on Saturday night I was lucky enough to be sitting at the lively end of the table. Amid a range of topics which could have given the BBC Question Time panel a run for its money, my very entertaining companions were regaling me with their stories of life in the companies where they worked, particularly their views of poor communication.

Happily it didn't take long to stop feeling like a doctor who can never socialise any more because strangers want to share their illnesses over the cheesy pineappley things on sticks.

None of what they told me was surprising (which is why there is still plenty of work out there) and I had a few 'remedies' to give them between the starter and pud. Much of our conversation surrounded our views of the barriers to effective comms, how to spot them and points to avoid.

So here they are, sans a particularly tasty bottle or two of chenin blanc and in no particular order:

Listen up: communication is about listening and acting upon what you hear. It’s not just telling people what to do

What's the story? This starts with the leaders of the organisation – many of them struggle to agree on a strategy or if they have one find it challenging to articulate it or share it with employees

Honesty is the best policy: businesses are often governed by their external agenda thus there is still tension around timeliness and transparency of information which needs to be shared with employees

Loosen up: a command and control organisation often struggles with good communication – the great irony is that the military learned long ago that, if you want to win, you have to engage the intelligence of everyone involved in the battle

Do what I say not what I do: everything we do communicates, particularly our behaviour

Take responsibility: effective communication is the responsibility of managers - leaders at all levels need to be able to communicate openly and honestly. It's not a third party activity run entirely by a comms team at HQ!

Hold that thought: there is no shame in saying “I don’t know”. Try: “I don’t know but I will go and find out and come back to you.”

As ever, please feel free to add your thoughts...