Communication is key to your success. It is so vital for a successful culture and business, it’s easy enough to do but it’s a balancing act for it to be effective.
Are you communicating too much? – In which case people have stopped listening. Are you not communicating enough? – In which case people just fill in the gaps and make up stories of what they think is happening in the business.
What’s your answer? Do you know?
First, what is the purpose of good communication? Well it can really help your team understand what is happening to the company, as this knowledge helps them understand what they need to do to be successful in their role and help the business. It improves morale, as they know how well you’re doing and if you’re not doing well what your plan might be to improve. It keeps your employees connected to the business, which in turn helps with keeping your team engaged.
I once worked for an organisation that had a daily news bulletin on the intranet for all it’s staff. You could see what all the various units were up to and there were staff interviews and highlights on successful innovations and projects and how the company was doing in the market. It didn’t matter where you lived in the world or what you did, everyone had the same story and were taken on the same journey. Now you don’t have to do something so elaborate, but it goes to show the lengths that some companies go to, to ensure that their staff are engaged and kept in the loop.
I’ve worked with teams that had a stand-up meeting every morning just to give everyone a quick update on where everyone was at, what the focus for the day was and to celebrate the successes of the previous day. These meetings were concise and took no longer than 15/20 minutes. This kept everyone in the loop and focussed on the day’s business. This could be an effective communication tool in your business.
There are many ways to use communication in your business – see what works – it may be a case of trial and error – get, and give feedback – implement something and understand it’s impact and effectiveness and decide whether to continue it or use something else.
Some ideas:
- Newsletters – do these online so you can monitor how many people read it
- Company meetings – ask for feedback on what people would like to hear, take note of how many people attend and whether they participate with questions
- Department or Management meetings – give everyone the opportunity to share what is happening in their areas and learn about others
- Noticeboards – change the information regularly and allow everyone the opportunity to add to them and see who takes part in sharing the information
Hopefully you will implement one or mores of these communication ideas or come up with some of your own and watch the morale/engagement in your organisation grow.
Please do share your communication ideas with other readers below.
