Communication

Do you have a communication problem? Does your team complain that they do not know what’s going on? Are you really communicating or just informing? Informing is where we put out information and expect others to read and comprehend the message intended by the sender. Technology makes it easy to inform so we adopt it as a counterfeit. Communication is a process resulting in a shared understanding. A robust communication process prepares, delivers and verifies the message. Media like email and newsletters push news out but leave it to the recipient to read and comprehend. It is easy to produce content and deliver it. But if you want to communicate, prepare your message, how it will be delivered and the means by which you can verify it. This could be as simple as asking someone to acknowledge receipt and what their next steps are. In large distributions it may be talking to a sample of people and asking for their take away. This will take effort but if you want to raise your game from informing to communicating, this is a capability worth developing.