Communication Problems in a Business

Between conference calls, email, instant messaging, meetings, memos, texts, tweets, video chats and more, people are trying to communicate with each other. So why are there communication breakdowns? You might be familiar with this scenario: A communication problem arises, and it comes down to “He said, She said” or “Who said or didn’t say this?” or “Who sent or didn’t send or receive that email?”

If you’re tired of everyone pointing fingers at everyone else, consider some of the reasons why communication breakdowns occur, and what you can do about them.

Communication and Information Overload

Problem: With so many ways to communicate, from person-to-person to texting, being in the business world can feel like information overload. Between personal and business communications, it seems as if there’s a constant onslaught, and the only reasonable solution is to disengage. Employees that have pressing deadlines will ignore texts and phone calls, and many don’t check their email. Important messages about meetings, statistics and problems are sent but not seen.

Solution: Encourage streamlining for all communications. These days, most business communication is via email. It’s vital that everyone have separate personal and business email accounts, and that they maintain a business-only policy for their business email account. This may involve unsubscribing from communication not work-related in their business email. Instruct everyone to put the most important point of the email in its subject line for easy scanning. Forego clever email addresses like “techieguy” in favor of the simple: name.company.com. That way, their email will be found easily via a simple search. Keep meetings to a 15-minute maximum, so that all team members can attend and so that you don’t lose their attention.

Lack of Listening  

Problem: Only one person on your team recalls being told about a new procedure or a need that you’ve addressed several times. This happens quite often. Or, employees complain that they give information to you or to others, as asked, and are told that it wasn’t received.

Solution: Everyone has something to say, and very often, they’re waiting for their turn to speak, instead of listening to what’s being said. Emphasize the importance of active listening, and be sure you’re practicing it yourself. Consider holding a workshop for it, or create your own session by acting out some of the problems that occur when listening. For example, one person makes a statement, and the other person responds with an answer that shows he wasn’t really listening to the other person.

Departmental Blinders and Not Seeing Connections

Problem: People around the office are complaining that no one seems to know what anyone else is doing. They’re each doing their own job without understanding how it relates to the other jobs or to the company as a whole.

Solution: It’s easy to get caught up in your own day-to-day life without peeking around your blinders to see what’s happening around you. Hold short informational sessions in which someone from each department spends one minute describing what her department does, and what her own job is. You could even make it fun and memorable by turning it into office charades, in which a group of people act out a task and others will guess as to which task they’re acting out.

Dead on Delivery

Problem: After meetings, including important meetings, people often don’t seem to know what was said or what action they need to take. It’s almost as if they weren’t even at the meeting.

Solution: Chances are, they were there in body only. Their minds were somewhere else. If this is happening with nearly everybody, it’s probably an issue with the delivery of information. Think of a meeting as an important sales pitch. You need to grab your audience’s attention and you need to hang onto that attention.

Unless the topic is about staff raises or bonuses or how staff can earn a free trip to the islands, few topics are spellbinding. Teach managers to use stories and anecdotes to gain and hold attention. Instead of an explanation of what could happen with a vendor, relay a story of what actually happened to you regarding a vendor. Consider these two meeting openings:

• “The purpose of today’s meeting is to talk about unplanned customer meetings.”

  OR

• “Yesterday, I stopped in to see my favorite customer, and guess what I found…”

Beware the Flying Rumors

Problem: It seems as if there’s always a new rumor floating around the office. You’re losing an important account. People are going to be laid off. The company might merge and no one’s job is safe. The Martians are coming.

Solution: Sometimes, the rumors are just silly, like the game of telephone, in which each person whispers something to the next person, and at the end the circle, the original comment is barely recognizable. But in many instances, there’s a grain of truth within it, or at least a possibility of truth. Management needs to get out in front, ahead of the rumors, and address issues that people will be hearing about. Don’t wait for them to learn about the rumors in the newspaper or via word of mouth.

Even if it’s a difficult conversation or you don’t have all the details, let employees know that you will keep them informed so that if they don’t hear it from you, it’s only a rumor.