As most managers know, interoffice communication is very important, but have you looked at your company communication lately? When office communication is not working well, it will cost your company time, efficiency and money. Communication style and method also plays a part in effective interoffice communication.
It used to be memos, phones (with cords) and dare I say it – talking. I’m in a small office with 5 people and no one talks until lunch time. Communication is happening via IM, email and through our project management software. But…we’re in the same room! There are some good things about the new way to communicate- less distractions and interruptions, but is this worth the communication errors that occur? Here are some thoughts about this…
As a soon to be former air traffic controller, I know that the FAA takes the “style” out of interoffice communication by mandating exactly how everything is said and communicated. Verbatim phraseology is mandatory with the single purpose of avoiding disasters. And it works! As I learn to run my web design and internet marketing business more efficiently and try to scale up this year, I find that interoffice communication or lack of, is a huge time and money killer. It’s also turning out to be a challenge to correct.
I’ve thought about instituting mandatory phraseology, complete sentences, read-backs and creating rules against blank stars, grunts and head nods, but decided instead to coach my staff on those communication 101 things like talking, listening, acknowledge and the confirming by repeating back trick. These are things we loose in IM and e-mail. On the other hand, with IM and Email, you have a record of what was said, which is great for pointing fingers after the mess has been created, but it doesn’t do much for the communication understood confirmation part.
Next month I retire from the FAA and I’ll be in our office full time. I intend on fixing this issue pronto. The first thing I want to fix is, the perception that talking is a failure to comply with the communication system(s). I get the feeling that most would rather never talk at all and are more comfortable communicating via IM and Email. News alert– IM and email is for when you can’t talk to someone (for the most part). Not a replacement to speaking. IM’ing someone in the same room should be for sending a link or “I need to talk to you. Got a sec?”
OK, now that we have that all straight, who am I writing this for? you or my staff?
KO Websites is a Bay Area web design company that’s been producing outstanding websites for over 11 years. Specializing in SEO and social media marketing. Contact KO for these related web services and internet marketing.