When my husband announced we would have new hardwood floors & carpeting on the 2nd floor in our home, I was elated with the change. When my entire world was disrupted that Monday and had to re-arrange all my plans, I did not respond well. What happened? My husband communicated the change. He gave me the details of what to expect. He was frustrated we did not appreciate the process for which I felt really bad. The breakdown came because communication fails when we don’t have two-way understanding of the impact. Let me share more so you don’t make the same mistake in business.
Leaders cascade initiatives and deploy change agents so communications happen throughout the organization. The presentation is polished, videos are recorded and townhalls arranged in hopes that the organization understands the impact. The key word is “Hope”. Where leaders fall short is they invest the communication and not on the outcome of understanding.
A few ideas that can help a leader though this issue to avoid conflict, irritation and dissention among the rank and file.
Invest in Understanding as the outcome of what you’re trying to achieve. The communication is simply the vehicle towards understanding.
- Ensure you cascade in detail the change and the expected impact
- Ask people if they can articulate the impact to their work; confirming understanding.
- Ask people to raise issues associated with the event that were not considered and with open discussion, you can ease the tension.
It’s not rocket science, but when we ask people to think in terms of outcomes and impacts from the end user perspective, we realize we have a lot to learn about communication. Remember the telephone game where what starts out as one message is degraded by the time it gets to the last person.
As leaders we have a responsibility to assure that what we communicate is understood; else we fail to be leaders.
Getting back to my situation; I was banned from my office for two days and could not function in a noisy home that transcended all three floors. There was no escape, so I needed to adapt. I found work arounds, including my basement for which I was able to continue doing business. I later recorded a video thinking I had a virtual background that later failed and I was recording my basement background! How embarrassing, but it added to the humor of the situation and I might say a fun recording!
The next time you have to communicate, change your mindset that you’re in the business of effecting understanding for a better outcome!
If you’d like to discuss how we can build this competency into your team, let’s talk!
Until then, wishing you better Two-Way Understanding!
-Deb
