…And I’ll Tell You No Lies, is an oft used phrase attributed to the Irish playwright Oliver Goldsmith. It’s been bouncing around in my head on and off for a few weeks now, courtesy of a recurring theme – communication, and specifically how do folks get better at it?
The Front Line
A lot of my work involves spending time conversing with and listening to frontline staff which is very stimulating because with apologies to all you shiny tabled, big desked, thick piled carpeted CEOs out there, the frontline is usually where the real action is. The edges of an organisation buzz, any place where one group interacts with another and dialogue is taking place offers great learning and great opportunity. And yet thanks to the multi layered effect of most companies that vibrancy often doesn’t manage to penetrate to the centre.
The Centre
But that’s OK – because the centre does its damnedest to communicate, frequently too often as it tries to compensate for the fact that so little feedback is received. ‘Maybe we’re just not shouting loud enough and often enough?’ ‘Well let’s send out more news more often then’, and so it goes on, and on, and on.
Ask More, Tell Less
So how does it feel to be on the receiving end of all of this? Let me paraphrase something I’ve heard many times in recent years which I think will help create that feeling: ‘All they do is tell us stuff. They never ask us any questions’.
Alas – all too often ‘they’ simply don’t ask questions or invite opinion, and ‘they’ also mistake their approach as communicating. Sure there may be times when you just need to get a message out, so go ahead and broadcast it. Most often though – if you begin the practice of asking for feedback and ideas and reflecting and responding, you’ll create an environment that’s less coercive and more open – more communicative.
Remember this:
com•mu•ni•cate: Verb/k??myo?oni?k?t/
To share and exchange information, news, or ideas.