Building a fluid form of communication in the workplace

By Arifur Rahman

Thinking about how to best develop your staff, well creating new processes, and embedding a systematic performance management just isn’t going to cut it these days. To really harness and develop your talented individuals you must empower them. Learn the art of delegation, work with them through a collaborative approach on a new project, create an open culture of trust and communicate your need effectively.

In the modern workplace where digitisation of old systems to new systems is increasingly emerging and growing at an rapid pace, information and insight is needed much quicker than ever. The idea of sitting in an office doing the 9-5 routine is seemingly starting to deteriorate as employees are now accessing their work remotely and teams are integrating more globally now more than ever. From this, the new age of technology and our need to access new information has become steadfast.

Working remotely and interconnecting via the web has connected people and made virtual teams work more collaboratively in a global economy. However, while this is amazing and is a very exciting time to be living in, people more than ever are lacking in building effective relationships with their fellow teammates as the idea of interaction, building rapport and communicating effectively is being lost to the digital world. It has become apparent that clear communication is being lost - causing tension in the hierarchical pecking order from top-down and is leading to a slow process in reaching the intended outcome. Getting work done is becoming a slow burner as the right tools and methods are not being used effectively to communicate the message across. This leading to exhaustion and stress of being overworked and doing tasks which creates no impact on the organisational need.

Organisations need to more than ever step-up and be more fluid in their approach to communication in the workplace to compete in the marketplace and meet with the competing demands of the modern digital world.

“To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace”

-Doug Conant

Founder of Conant Leadership

Adopting new technology can be one way to enhance and enrich efficiency. Another approach is to simply cut the expenses - stop wasting time on designing processes to keep control and monitoring performance and then blaming someone for when things go wrong. This in hindsight provides no added value. The ideal way to be proactive and productive is to work smarter not harder. According to the Holmes Report USA, companies with effective communication strategies have 47% higher returns to shareholders, more engaged employees, and less employee turnover. Among 400 corporations surveyed over a year, an estimated $37 billion was lost due to employee misunderstanding or error due to poor communication. Conversely, companies these days must be fierce in keeping up with creating long-term growth and in the state of a low economic growth budgets are under enormous scrutiny to save costs, retain talented individuals and keep key clients. From this, the focus should be more on creating workplace efficiency and developing key communication strategies across the entire company.

Through social bureaucracy we see many companies adopting the vertical form of communication being top-down only. This can be effective in getting the message across, however it doesn't take account of understanding soft principals of effectively communicating the need to the right target audience. Having a more fluid approach of communication takes account of a more holistic view and compellingly gets the right message across.

Regardless of globalisation and working with different cultures and backgrounds every individual has their own unique style of communication. This is influenced by their current situation, status in the workplace and the expectations they have of the current company they work for. It can therefore prove to be difficult to have one form of communication for the message to be truly translated to the individual or team.

Organisations need to adopt a more fluid form of communication for the message to truly get across. A fluid form of communication translates across using a more holistic personalised approach to communication in looking at: top-down, bottom-up, vertical, horizontal, informal and formal channels.

Here are 4 Tips in using a fluid communication approach in the workplace:

Use different forms of communication to convey the message to the right audience 

Be sure to effectively communicate the need through different channels. When communicating to the wider team be sure to use a top-down approach but also filter the message horizontally across to the team through informal channels such as via social media, mobile text message, personal call/voice message this allows you to create a formal structure in creating an effective personalised message.

Be more self-aware

Communication is a two-way process. Understand the impact of the message to the individual/team. Be in their shoes. What would it feel like them talking back at you looking for answers and them receiving the message?

Tell stories 

Storytelling is a very powerful tool and is a highly compelling way for you to get your message across. It can also be inspirational in building trust and authenticity between you and your team. Telling stories has the power to being a natural influencer. Telling stories creates the visual picture of the message you are conveying to your team, this makes it more memorable and people take stories on board faster.

Give feedback effectively

Give solutions, ask open questions, use positive resources and attributes in allowing the individual to build upon their own thinking. Criticising conversations are always challenging for the manager and the employee. Management fear the loss of motivation and reduced co-operation. Employees fear being misunderstood, personally insulted or treated in an unfair way. Rather than focusing on justifying who is to blame focus on company goals and the future development of the organisation, this will help to reach a positive outcome for both parties.

At G&A Initiative our team offers leadership development, coaching and training in a range of areas in communicating effectively in the workplace, talent management and having difficult conversations. All of our services are bespoke to match your specific needs.

For more information or to discuss developing and engaging with your staff contact us on info@gainitiative.co.uk –feel free to email!