The Communication Circle

At a conference I attended, Donna Coppock, Corporate Training with the Great Game of Business, presented a session on "The Communication Circle" and highlighted the importance of making communication a priority within your organization/business. Ultimately, what this entails is creating an environment of mutual trust in which all participants feel comfortable.

If we take a look at information flow within an organization, it's important to understand that 70 percent of what employees want to hear has to do with their particular job assignment or work group. They are looking for information that verifies:

• What is my job?
• How do I, and my work group, fit into the total picture?
• What are the goals of my work group?
• Am I/are we meeting those goals?

Only after you have communicated this information with employees will they be ready to hear what you need them to hear. It is then that you can communicate things like:

• The nature of your business
• Why the business exists
• Where the organization/business is headed
• What their piece of the puzzle is
• How their puzzle piece interlocks/interacts with other puzzles pieces that exist in the business.

It is important that you, as the business owner/manager, give employees the information and tools they need to understand your business, so they in turn can be actively involved. Employees can't help you fix a problem if a) they don't know the problem exists, and/or b) you don't provide them with an opportunity to provide input. Keep in mind that an informed employee is an engaged employee.

Having talked about the importance of sharing information with employees, let's now take a look at ways to share that information. Frequently, the number one determining factor for successful information transferal is directly related to the relationship employees have with their supervisor. If that relationship is good, the information transferal process often runs a lot smoother. Regardless of relationship, however, a few rules of thumb apply:

• Performance-related information should always be provided face-to-face.
• Work group-related information should come directly from the respective supervisor.
• More global information about the company needs to come from management.

Keep in mind, also, that people assimilate information in a variety of ways (visual, verbal, tactile). Therefore, if a message is important, it must be communicated on three different occasions in three different media forms. Also note that most adults must hear something seven times before they "get it" and make it part of their knowledge base.

The "grapevine" is often undermined in many organizations/ businesses, yet it can be a significant information dissemination tool. Most businesses waste a lot of time, money and effort to eliminate the office grapevine.

An alternative is to learn how to use the grapevine. Listen to what is being said, endorse accurate information, disavow inaccuracy, and feed the flow with information you want to disseminate.

Studies also indicate that 10 percent of a business/work group's members influence the actions of the other 90 percent. These are the influential people within your organization. You as the business owner or manager need to make sure that the people who have the power to influence others (informal or formal) are "in the flow" of information. From your vantage point, make sure they are informed with accurate and timely information. Work to ensure the influential power that these people possess is working for, not against, you.

Ultimately, in managing the flow of information in your business, communication needs to be:

• Fast
  You need to capitalize on the opportunity to get information to people quickly. The longer it takes to get the message out, the greater the opportunity there is for corruption to occur.
  
  
• Factual
  Business owners/leaders often don't want to share bad news. You must, however, always tell the truth and be a "straight shooter" in sharing information. As mentioned earlier, if employees don't know a problem exists, they can't help you fix it.
  
  
• Frequent
  It is very important to keep the communication machine well-oiled.
  

- Jackie Rasmussen, business specialist, MO SBTDC. For Creating Quality Newsletter, May 2002. Revised 2/21/08.