This is the third installment in the series on habits which cause organizations, and the people in them, to be unproductive.

In this article, we’re going to look at the perennial issue of communication.

It’s a huge topic, and we’ll only be able to scratch the surface.

You need to remember that communication is more than just the words you say or write. It also includes what you imply or leave out. How you act or fail to act.

You also say them through the behaviours that you expect and condone, through organizational policies and procedures, and by how and to what extent you look after your staff.

In short, communication reflects your organisation’s culture.

It’s likely that you’ve read about an oxymoron called “poor communication”. The fact is that you and your organization are excellent communicators. The difficulty lies in the message you’re trying to send. What you want people to receive and what they actually get may be two very different things.

In this article, we’ll look at five habits that cause organisations to communicate messages that are different from the ones that they intend. As with the first two articles, these are in no particular order. Any of them will exacerbate your communication issues.

 

No communication plan

Some refer to this as trickle-down.

A decision is made by managers somewhere in the hierarchy and then disseminated willy-nilly. Maybe only those who “need to know” are told. Often this is a select few close to the source. Invariably, one or more people “leak” the information to those that were originally thought of as not-needing-to-know.

Why?

Because quite often, the people who will be most affected by it aren’t among those who are told; and some “kind-hearted” soul has decided that that they ought to be.

And as there was no plan for sending the information out so that everyone would get the correct message, the original version gets modified, embellished, or simply changed along the way.

From this comes gossip, rumour, and innuendo. In the end, the organisation is faced with a damage-limitation exercise, if such a thing is actually possible. A simple plan would have prevented it from ever becoming a problem. With email and social media, you simply can’t assume that you can control the dissemination of information.

If you find this difficult to believe, then send a tweet to Donald Trump.

 

No opportunity for feedback

How often have you heard it said that no-news-is-good-news?

It’s not.

Research has shown that people need to receive three kudos for every criticism. It’s not that they’re “snowflakes”; rather that they’re human beings. If you only ever say something to criticise, and never to praise, then people will be left wondering if they can ever please you.

And a time will come when they conclude that since they can’t make you happy, that it’s time to go somewhere else. That’s because of what other research has shown us: That employees leave bad managers, who no doubt have bad habits.

Managers also have a habit of creating organisational policies first, and then asking for employee feedback. What they’re hoping for is the rubber-stamp approval for their ideas. They’re unprepared for disagreement, criticism, or a general lack of cooperation.

The time for feedback is always before you make key decisions. Find out what people think first, then decide.

 

Vacuous management-speak

See if any of these phrases sound familiar.

 

• Blue-sky thinking
• Game-changer
• Get on the bus
• Win, win
• No-brainer
• At the end of the day
• Obviously
• Look under the bonnet
• Think outside the box
• Drill down
• Thought shower

 

There are only eleven here. There are dozens more. Stop using these phrases and make it a point to remove the rest from your management vocabulary. Even if, in the unlikely event, they have meaning to you or your peers, those that you supervise have no idea what you’re trying to say.

Communication only occurs when the people you’re speaking or writing to understand your message to the extent that they take the action that you want them to take.

Nothing else.

If they don’t “get it”, then you haven’t communicated.

End of story. (Oops!)

 

Setting the wrong example

Remember, not all communication is expressed with words. Quite often it comes from behaviours: what you do or don’t do, and what you expect, condone, or forbid.

It also comes from your response to the behaviours of others. Do you have a volatile personality? Fly off the handle easily? Explosive? Are you reactive, like a bad chemistry experiment? Do you get emotional?

Some people throw tantrums. Ever seen an adult pout? It isn’t pretty.

When you’re asked a question, do you give a well-thought response, answer a different question, or smile and say nothing as you walk away?

Do you spend a lot of time waffling? How about breaks? Are you always at the coffee machine?

Breaks are useful for digesting ideas, but if you spend more time washing down digestives, then you’re setting the wrong example. Maybe you’re the most knowledgeable person in your organisation. Do you make sure that everyone knows it?

Smugness - pride - can give everyone permission to become a bit toffee-nosed.

 

Implying that productivity isn’t important

This may surprise you.

This series of articles is about how managers cause themselves and others to be unproductive; but there’s a difference between that and creating the impression that it was never a goal.

How would you do that?

By engaging in activities that make it impossible. For example, when you send an email to your staff, do you expect them to respond immediately?

What would you do if you sent someone an email in the morning, and that person didn’t read it until after lunch? If you expect people to drop everything and read your message, then you’re also telling them that productivity isn’t important.

That’s because it takes about 20 minutes after an interruption to get back to where you were before you were pulled away. If there are a sufficient number of interruptions, you may not be able to recover until the next day.

If you cared about productivity, then it wouldn’t bother you if your employees responded when it was convenient for them.

Maybe you’re one of those people who collects everything off your desk and then spends the day wandering from one person to the other, dropping off work, discussing ongoing tasks, and then going back to see how everyone is doing.

If these visits are well-spaced, then sometimes that can be an effective way to manage. Frequent interruptions, on the other hand, will prevent people from getting anything done.

Delegate what you can, and then let people get on with it; after all, your door is always open, right?

Some organisations are constantly running meetings. Not all meetings take place in a room. Teleconferencing is becoming more common. This may seem obvious, but people can’t be in meetings all day and then be expected to get their other work done. Meetings should be held only when there isn’t a better way to accomplish whatever it is that you have to deal with.

You don’t need a meeting, for example, to brief people. Send them a PDF and then hold them accountable for what’s in it effective at some date. Banks, credit card companies, and websites galore do this.

 

These five habits - no communication plan; no opportunity for feedback; vacuous management-speak; setting the wrong example; and implying that productivity isn’t important, are endemic, though these are by no means the only ones.

They reinforce the culture, and they make your organization unproductive.

It’s worth reviewing your organisation’s policies at least annually to make sure that they promote the outcomes that you want.

Anything less than that will wreck your performance.

 

 

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