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Barriers to Effective Communication

08 28 2013

US versus THEM, Incorporated

Barriers to Effective Communication, Business Management Consulting, Communication Issues, Conflict Resolution, Corporate Therapy

August 2013

Overview

An overwhelming majority of organizations have inadvertently created “us versus them” cultures. These organizations have turned much of their focus and resources away from serving the customer and directed it toward in-fighting and power struggles. Businesses I work with often have good products and services, but are on the brink of going out of business or have had a history of losing significant market share and revenue because of such a culture. Oftentimes, these losses are not caused by the poor economy or stiff competition, but are actually self-inflicted and caused because of conflict or what I call the “US versus THEM” culture.

The “US vs. THEM” Culture

In essence, people who work in the “US Versus THEM” cultures do so out of necessity. Their day is often focused on the internal problems of the organization rather than providing better customer service, product improvement, and increasing revenue. Oddly enough, these people have the best of intentions, but over time, problems get worse and things start to go downhill very fast until staff and management are reduced to finger-pointing, blaming, and incessant gossiping. Do the following statements sound familiar?

  • “They have no idea what they are doing and we constantly have to do work over because they didn’t plan well. Why doesn’t management ever ask our opinion?”
  • “The last person who gave her honest opinion was picked on by the boss until she was forced to quit.”
  • “I wish I could get my employees to follow-through on projects and think for themselves.”
  • “We just lost eight more employees. Why do people keep quitting after we spend all that money training them?”
  • “Who am I going to promote to manage that department? I don’t have anyone decent to choose from.”
  • “My boss doesn’t know how to manage and build people up; all he knows how to do is tear people down and berate them.”
  • “They want us to do more work, we have less people then we did three years ago. We simply don’t have enough time.”

“They” and “Them”

When working within organizations, I have never met “They” or “Them.” In fact, there is no “they” or “them;” only “us.” So, if you find yourself in an “Us versus Them” culture, get off the fence of indecision, quit griping, and do something about it. Basically, you have three choices:

  1. Choose to stay and learn how to make the best of the way things are.
  2. Choose to leave and find a better environment to work in.
  3. Choose to help change and improve your organization. In other words, be part of the solution.

Choosing the Best Path

If you choose to stay and make the best of it, know that it is a choice you are making and be content with that choice.  Accept your situation and look for positive aspects. For instance, today find five things you like about your company, the product, or the people. Yes, this will be hard, but what choice do you have? You decided to stay.

If you choose to move on, do it within three months. Or, choose to improve your skills or education, and then make the job change within 6-12 months. Yes, it may be inconvenient, but you decided to leave, so do something about it.

If you choose to help the organization improve, it doesn’t matter what your current position is. Isolate the top 3-5 problems in your department, make a plan and offer solutions. If you don’t start the process, who will?

“US” vs. “Them” can become “We are a profitable, winning team and loving it.” The choice is yours.

Kelly Graves, CEO
The Corporate Therapist
Email: Kelly@ProfitWithIBS.com
Cell: 1.530.321.5309
Toll-Free: 1.800.704.3785
Office: 1.530.321.5309
Internal Business Solutions, Inc.™

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Posted by at 9:51 AM

08 19 2013

How to Improve Employees’ Functionality by Improving Internal Customer Service

Barriers to Effective Communication, Business Management Consulting, Communication Issues, Conflict Resolution, Corporate Therapy, Improvement, Mergers: How to Manage & Coach People Through Change, Project Implementation: How to Create Ownership, Staff Development for Profit

August 2013

Moving our bodies from point A to point B requires the use of our two legs working together to achieve this simple task. If one or the other of the two legs does not fully support the body, or if one does not make a full and even stride, then the act can be diminished by varying degrees.

The metaphor holds true for your organization and its internal customers as well. Internal customers are those people who make up the other departments that work with you inside your business. For example, accounts-receivable, sales, production, finance and marketing are each other’s customers. For your organization to function smoothly, people among departments must communicate clearly, organize tasks and timelines, and implement or take “action” on these tasks.

The more effective people are at serving each other, the smoother their processes will be, and they will achieve better results (i.e., production, efficiencies, and profits). Likewise, the more efficient a person is with “leg movements,” the better they will be at walking, jogging, and even running. If they take this act seriously and become expert in this area, they may even end up running faster than others, which is, of course the objective in business — outpacing the competition.

Here are suggestions on how to provide stellar internal customer service:

1. Be aware of what you think about yourself and others. Behavior follows thought. Are your thoughts helping you and building you up, or are your thoughts hurting you and making circumstances more difficult? Practice self-respectful thoughts.

2. Communicate clearly and often. Ask for clarification when you are unsure of what is conveyed through verbal and non-verbal means.

3. Talk face-to-face or by phone to others instead of using e-mail. The benefits of this process far outweigh the time saved by using e-mail. Too much e-mail can be a “crutch” and seriously impact the fluidity of a group of people working to achieve common goals.

4. Conduct department-to-department staff meetings so that people can ask each other for information, clarification and process refinement, etc. It’s like “speed dating” for departments. For instance, gather staff from each department and give those people 10-15 minutes to ask people from another department for what they need or could provide to make their processes or organization function more smoothly. In other words, this is what we need from you. What do you need from us to make your jobs easier, more effective and fun?

Prioritize these ideas, assign who will do what by when, and then monitor in thirty days to determine results and make adjustments. In fewer than 60 minutes, the people in both departments will have gathered tons of precise information and a new outlook on their colleagues.

5. Talk about the white elephant in the corner that everyone knows about and talks about in their “cliques” but doesn’t address directly or in formal meetings.

These “TABOO” topics are the “real problems” that keep departments and companies from running faster than they currently do and could if they learned to overcome them.

Everyone knows about these white elephant topics and the professional “manipulators”, so the quicker these topics are brought to the table the quicker the organization can find solutions to them and move forward. I am not saying this process is going to be fun. All I’m saying is that I’ve done this HUNDREDS of times and in every case 99% of the people are much more productive and happier. and as a result, the organization can dump the anchors and start moving swiftly again. (the one percent that aren’t happy are the manipulators that either have to change their game to get along or are forced out).

This part of the process is often very difficult to decide on and implement. But like surgery, everyone is much healthier after the fact and the business and people within it will fly once this ball and chain topic or person isn’t keeping it grounded.

Kelly Graves, CEO
The Corporate Therapist
Email: Kelly@CorporateTherapist.com
Cell: 1.530.321.5309
Toll-Free: 1.800.704.3785
Office: 1.530.321.5309
Internal Business Solutions, Inc.™

Kelly Graves, CEO
The Corporate Therapist
Email: Kelly@ProfitWithIBS.com
Cell: 1.530.321.5309
Toll-Free: 1.800.704.3785
Office: 1.530.321.5309
Internal Business Solutions, Inc.™

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Posted by at 2:42 PM

08 17 2013

Barriers to Effective Communication

Barriers to Effective Communication

Aug 2013

Substandard employee, department & organizational performance is often directly related to poor communication, but blamed on other superficial symptoms. Removing these barriers relies on trust, brutal yet empathic honesty, and achieving joint objectives.

This is where you are, but… THIS is where you WANT to be…
  • Team members communicate poorly.
  1. Conflict is reduced between people.
  2. Morale is higher and more consistently positive.
  3. Conflict is actually used to make the teams stronger.
  4. Teams use conflict to articulate their positions for greater bottom-line results.
  • Problem diagnosis, problem solving and decision making are meager (or worse).
  1. Alternative solutions to problems may be found.
  2. Individual and organizational problem solving and decision making skills will be significantly improved.
  • Employees express frustration that they aren’t being heard or taken seriously; even clients have complained.
  1. Improved communication results in less “failure” work, increased customer service, and more positive interactions.
  2. Employee and customer retention rates are improved.
  3. Greater market share is achieved.
  • Few, if any, creative ideas are being generated.
  1. People move to take action.
  2. Consistent innovation is the norm.
  3. Creativity is sparked because people from all levels are contributing their best efforts and working as a team.
  • The rumor mill and misperceptions are impeding all business functions.
  1. Individuals and departments stop having turf battles.
  2. All work is focused toward organizational objectives.
  3. People learn how to articulate and clarify their positions, so that individual and group performance benefits.
  • Meetings, evaluations and team building scenarios are short-lived or have become nightmares.
  1. People grasp the issues, become aligned around a common purpose, and create new directions with full understanding of the dangers and opportunities.
  2. Broad participation quickly identifies performance gaps and their solutions, improving communication and productivity.
  3. Momentum is consistent toward individual and organizational goals.

 

You have compiled the brightest, most skilled team in your industry, but barriers in communication are making even the best and the brightest stumble; your organization is falling short of its goals. So, what can you do to battle with the elusive and invisible barriers to effective business communication? What do you need to do so your teams can achieve, so your organization can thrive?

Kelly Graves The Corporate Therapist can help you recognize, name, remove, and replace those barriers to effective business communication. With my extensive background in the business world, my command of organizational psychology, years of hands-on and in-depth formal education, I have the skills and knowledge to recognize and deal effectively with even the most unpleasant barriers to effective business communication. In the short term focus on these points:

1. For people, departments and organizations to flourish there must be two major components in place: the first is TRUST. If I trust you and you trust me then we can talk about the uncomfortable topics that surround every partnership and business. I must know that I will feel safe and that my dignity will be respected. If I don’t feel this, then I will nod, smile that fake smile, keep  my mouth shut and my head down. When problems arise I will shrug my shoulders outwardly, but in my head I will justify my tactics as survival in this untrusting environment.

2. The second major component to a successful business is what I call brutal yet empathic honesty. Brutal in that one cannot hold back; empathic means you can usually say things from a caring and respectful position and yet still be honest. One sacrifices the short term comfortableness in exchange for the long term growth and development required to evolve a professional relationship, department and/or business.

3. The third major component in this abbreviated model is joint objectives. People perform their best when the objective is clear i.e., a touchdown, crossing a finish-line, making a basket, closing the deal or hitting the quota. In each of these examples, multiple people are involved in front of and behind the scenes. And yet in every single case, when the winning objective is met, all anger, frustration and petty remarks are forgotten due to the team, department or organizational success. People in the stands cheer, players who had a tiff just moments earlier high-five and sales and production people smile at each other and shake hands IF the project is debriefed properly. For this to happen, objectives must be clear enough so that anyone in the organization knows what it is and where the organization is at in its achievement of the goal. This moves employees into being a part of the game rather than observers of the game. This INVOLVEMENT helps to inspire INTRINSIC  motivation and helps people overcome the pettiness that accompanies stressful events or environments.

These steps and actions ARE NOT EASY, but they are very achievable and the results are magic in their ability to disarm, reconnect people and transform people, partnerships, departments and organizations. Imagine the relief your team and you will experience once the barriers are taken down! Once communication is on track again and your team is moving toward common goals, the successes won’t stop there (nor will the work). I know that remission of bad communication habits is human nature; it is the natural tendency for people to return to familiar communication patterns (even if the familiar means dysfunctional). These phases are a natural part of the process of creating any improved communication systems. Be aware: improving communication is a process that takes time. But, when it’s done right, it’s self-perpetuating. (If quick fixes could have solved your organization’s communication problems, well, you might not be reading this now.) Maintenance requires that, once skills are learned, employees and leadership staff must practice and use these more effective communication behaviors and skills. Those who practice and use these skills must also be recognized and rewarded in a timely manner. Throughout all the steps and phases, I will guide you to build a learning environment where your team members teach and support one another, day in and day out. This is how your investment with me will continue to keep your organization on track long after I am gone.

You have my commitment that I will help to support, to coach, and teach your team to collaborate. Simply put: Your success is my success. I will work with you to make sure the habits of effective business communication remain an integral part of your organization’s culture and success for the long term. Replace the ineffective practices you’ve lived with for too long with successful business communication systems that get results and promote innovation and an improved work environment!

Kelly@InternalBusinessSolutions.com

 

Kelly Graves, CEO
The Corporate Therapist
Email: Kelly@ProfitWithIBS.com
Cell: 1.530.321.5309
Toll-Free: 1.800.704.3785
Office: 1.530.321.5309
Internal Business Solutions, Inc.™

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Posted by at 11:23 AM

05 07 2013

Silence is Deadly

Barriers to Effective Communication, Communication Issues

I had been working with a group of managers and their director on preparing for some major restructuring within their large school district. A lot was going to be happening very soon and we wanted to be prepared. We all knew too well, that once it all started, any problems would be costly and would be played out in the local newspapers. As we approached this challenge, I noticed some uneasiness and quiet maneuvering surrounding two managers. I knew we couldn’t go on unless we addressed this covert problem.

It turned out that a couple of years earlier, these two managers had had a significant disagreement and, since then, they had stayed away from each other whenever possible. But, even with their attempts at careful avoidance, their once covert friction had grown loud and developed some teeth. We didn’t need internal sabotage in our mix. There were enough issues to deal with without adding this subterfuge. And, too many other employees sincerely cared about these two managers. Loyalties would be strained if these two formidable players squared off. We had to resolve this quickly so that we could go into our restructuring free of clutter, and with a crystal clear and mutually accepted vision.

I talked privately with these two managers and encouraged them to take the lead to resolve this matter. I suggested they use a structured, problem-solving approach to discuss this topic in front of their departments and the whole group, so that neither gossip nor misunderstandings would follow. They agreed. A whole group meeting was set up with my facilitation. Then, each taking turns, they each told their side of the story. As usual, they each harbored many misperceptions that needed to be cleared up. Clarifying what had happened, what had been said, and what had been meant was essential. Many misunderstandings were cleared up once and for all for all present. Some issues needed additional time and resources, so they were tabled to be addressed at a later time. When appropriate, the group joined in to lend support and clarify their own misperceptions and to squelch rumors and gossip, as well. This meeting didn’t take more than forty-five minutes, but it was invaluable for bringing this team together and helping them learn how to REALLY communicate. Loud and clear this session modeled two values they later chose to guide their group as a whole:

We agree to face challenges sooner rather than later.

We will always work as a team toward our agreed upon objectives.

Clarifying these values was especially important given the gravity of the challenges that lay ahead. We were embarking on one of the biggest restructurings this district had faced in many years. As a result of the problem solving meeting with all members together, the whole team became closer and learned to communicate much more effectively. From then on, as we all began to prepare our plans and contingency plans for the restructure, we had the strength of “all hands on deck,” which was good, because we needed each and every one of them.

When the final decision to begin the restructuring process was made by the school board, this department had their plans and contingency plans firmly in place. Each person knew his or her role and was ready, willing and able to get the job done. There was no lost or wasted time on unfortunate communications problems or cumbersome baggage to impede their work. As a result, their role in the restructure went very smoothly.

Kelly Graves, CEO
The Corporate Therapist
Email: Kelly@ProfitWithIBS.com
Cell: 1.530.321.5309
Toll-Free: 1.800.704.3785
Office: 1.530.321.5309
Internal Business Solutions, Inc.™

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Posted by at 3:36 PM

05 04 2013

Improved Communication: Check for Understanding

Barriers to Effective Communication, Communication Issues

August 2013

Throughout history, many great communicators have mused about how difficult it is for people to effectively communicate — even those who speak the same language! Some scholars cite how subtle differences in age and style can potentially create real challenges in successful communication. Case in point might be the stereotypical communication challenges faced between teenagers and parents, husbands and wives, conservatives and liberals. These same kinds of communication issues appear in the work world, as well.

I was asked to work with a director and one of her high level computer technicians. This technician was responsible for a major account significant to this director. This technician had the ability to accomplish his work successfully, but it seemed he was horrible at communication and customer support. These two areas of deficit were greatly jeopardizing this major account, not to mention putting the tech’s continued employment in question.

The director, the technician and I sat down for a meeting to see what could be done to clarify the communication and customer service issues. The director spoke very clearly about what she expected of the technician when he met with the clients and when he interacted with others (both clients and colleagues). The technician nodded in agreement and said that he understood the gravity of the situation. He said he understood what he was doing wrong and assured his director that he would “improve.” After they were finished discussing the communication and customer service issues, and the detailed procedures the director had clarified for him, I asked the technician what his next steps were going to be to improve his standing with the clients on this major account. He looked at me and said, “I have no idea.” The director looked dumbfounded; her mouth was literally hanging open. She was without words. She believed she had been very clear. She believed the technician had nodded in agreement to all of the well-thought out plans she had presented, yet clearly now he didn’t know what his next steps should be. This was an example of an unsuccessful communication event.

I further asked the technician a series of questions and led him through the necessary steps, in his mind, using his metaphors and word choices. We essentially created his game plan in a manner that he could comprehend. We clarified expectations, created measures of success, and established timeframes. With that now visually and firmly in his mind, he was able to summarize his next steps. The technician left the meeting relieved. Over a reasonable period of time, evidence indicated that this technician had indeed learned some new communication skills and his customer relations had improved accordingly.

At the conclusion of the meeting with the technician, the Director and I spent thirty minutes debriefing. We discussed different learning and management styles. She was amazed how her message which had been so clearly intended and what she thought was so clearly sent, was not the message received or understood. This realization was a profound one for her. She vowed to check for understanding more often and especially when she interacted with this technician. She wanted him to succeed and had never seen the role she had played in the breakdown of communication between them. She saw how, as the person delivering a message, she had the responsibility to be sure the message had been received and understood. In the case of the technician, she needed to reframe her message in terms that made sense to him, ask him to summarize it back to her, and then review his next steps, so both she and he would leave the communication event with the same understanding. Although she had believed herself to be a skilled communicator (and by many measures she was), she learned that in this isolated event, she had needed a new set of communication skills. She foresaw how she could also generalize these new skills with other people and different situations. She had added another strategy to her repertoire of positive communication skills, one that would help her to be a better leader in the future.

 

Kelly Graves, CEO
The Corporate Therapist
Email: Kelly@ProfitWithIBS.com
Cell: 1.530.321.5309
Toll-Free: 1.800.704.3785
Office: 1.530.321.5309
Internal Business Solutions, Inc.™

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Posted by at 3:37 PM