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Effective Communication in Organizations 63

Effective Communication in Organizations

© 2019 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Revathi Turaga*

Communication, the one skill we always keep learning—from our parents giving us little tips in listening and speaking and teachers guiding us on how to talk to friends and elders, to institutes coaching us on being confident in interviews to organizations training us on continuously improving our communication with our team members, bosses, and clients. Learning effective communication has become an essential skill for almost any career today. So, it is no surprise that organizations strive day in and day out to help their employees learn to communicate effectively. This paper gives a simple technique to make your communication in an organizational context, or even in a personal context, as effective as possible.

* Director, Revathi Online Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd., International Trainer and Inspirational Speaker, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. E-mail: [email protected]; Website: www.revathionline.com

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

– George Bernard Shaw

Communicate  Grow  Succeed Communication – a concept so powerful that it can either make or break the performance and productivity of any organization.

If a genie were to appear before the leadership of any organization and deliver them one wish, to eradicate one challenge or concern in their organization in their path to growth, development and success, at least 9 out of 10 would probably choose that challenge to be ‘communication’.

Communication is best judged by the effect it has on others—the impact it generates and the results it achieves. Organizations constantly keep facilitating workshops (Figure 1) in many ways with many techniques to help their employees enhance their communication. In fact, there are way too many. Here, we will attempt to simplify the theories of communication concepts by learning a few simple, example-driven set of techniques to remember.

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TALK To communicate effectively in any situation in organizations, one just needs to remember to TALK effectively. This might appear to be simple common sense and one would ask, “What is that great about this as a technique?” To know this, let us expand TALK.

• T: Think before you speak

• A: Assert yourself

• L: Listen to others

• K: Konnect with everyone

Learning to apply each of the above four in their simplistic ways helps enhance an organization’s communication, thus also creating multiple opportunities for cohesive and collaborative partnerships and leading to organizational as well as individual success. Let us explore each of the concepts of TALK in detail.

T: Think Before You Speak Respond, do not react – a phrase so simple, yet very profound in helping one communicate effectively; and a simple yet methodical way of doing this is to ‘pause’.

Every time there is an uncontrollable and unpredictable external stimulus that happens in any conversation tempting one to react, all that the person needs to do is— to pause, and wait for the feeling to subside. Pause (Figure 2) and ask themselves some of these series of questions—“Wait a minute, the way I am going to react now, is that the way I really want to react, is that the best and most effective way of giving back at the situation or to the person? Is there a better and more effective way of responding?

Figure 1: Communication

Source: http://www.evansincorporated.com

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What will happen if I do not react this way and instead respond in another way? Is this way of reacting really going to take me close to any of my major goals in life?”

Figure 3: Triple Filter Test

Source: https://tumblr.com

Practicing this technique in our professional lives can be done by following the Socrates’ triple filter test. Socrates (Figure 3) had three filters that he constantly wanted everyone to run their words through before they told it out loud to someone else.

Figure 2: Respond, Do Not React

Source: https://i.pinimg.com

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He always iterated that if the sentence does not pass the first filter test, then it must be taken to the second filter test, and if not passing that too, has to be taken through the third filter test. Any sentence, point, news, etc. that did not get a yes from any of the three filters, does not need to be told or spoken out loud, thus giving us a formula to use to think before we speak... The three filters are: (1) Is it the Truth? (2) Is it Good? and (3) Is it Useful?

The above technique can help us in easing communication in many ways. For example, giving someone a constructive feedback (Fielding, 1998) on their presentation of a topic is not only the truth from your perspective, but it is also very useful for the other person to improve. However, it can be in a good way that motivates the other to improve while it can also be in a destructive way to dampen the other’s spirits. It is this difference that this technique wishes to highlight.

One’s ability to think before one speaks not only helps an individual to speak the appropriate sentences at the appropriate times and more importantly, not speak the inappropriate, thus enhancing positive and effective communication all the way.

A: Assert Yourself Many times it is taught in training workshops that assertiveness is about being frank and to the point and being able to stand up for one’s rights whilst also respecting the other individuals. One of the most popular meanings of being assertive is an individual’s ability to say no (Figure 4). It is true that being assertive helps people in an organization to express their feelings and thoughts in a simple and acceptable way and definitely helps an organization in enhancing its communication channels. In fact, along with all the above, assertiveness is also about many more aspects of communication, such as giving constructive feedback to an individual to improve their performance or appreciating a team member for their achievements.

Figure 4: Assert Yourself

Source: https://www.slideshare.net/PowerHour/assert-yourself

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Amongst the platter of techniques for assertiveness that exist, one simple technique is christened “B.I.F.A - Behavior Impact Feeling Action”.

• The ‘Behavior’ part of the statement lets the other person what specific behavior of that person has made you feel angry.

• The ‘Impact’ part gives specifics of the impact that the behavior has had and how it deviated things from how they should have been.

• The ‘Feeling’ part is the personal part of the technique where the person is told about one’s feelings because of what happened.

• The ‘Action’ part of the statement completes telling the other person how things should have been and what is preferred of that individual.

For example, “Yesterday in the team meeting, when you interrupted me in the middle of my sentence (behavior), I lost track of what I was saying and could not continue (impact). Now, this left the point incomplete and I am frustrated about it. When you do something like that, it irritates me, and I feel angry (feeling). Now onwards I want you to listen when I am talking, and before you speak, patiently wait till I complete what I am saying (action). I shall of course, do the same for you too”.

This technique encourages communicating one’s feelings in a non-emotional and rational responsive way.

L: Listen to Others In today’s corporate scenario, it is neither just technical competency nor just the hardworking ability that takes priority whilst employing individuals. Communication is one of the vital aspects taken into consideration too, and a core aspect of communication is the ability to listen. In today’s fast moving world, maintaining professional relationships while also communicating effectively has sometimes become a challenge, especially when every team member is busy with their respective jobs and has lesser and lesser time to give to bond with each other in the organization. In many such cases, truly listening to the other person can be an effective solution.

It cannot be just a coincidence that the words LISTEN and SILENT (Figure 5) are anagrams (Peter and Clive, 2001), i.e., are made out of the same letters. It is therefore but natural that for one to learn how to LISTEN, one must learn to be SILENT first.

• The S of Silent is Sincere, i.e., to be sincerely interested in what one is supposedly listening to.

• The I part of SILENT is to be Inquisitive, i.e., curious. Asking relevant questions to clarify helps the speaker to understand that the other individual is truly listening and attempting to understand what is being said.

• The L part of SILENT is to Like, i.e., enjoy/cherish the company of the person one is having conversation. Many a time I have seen listening of an amazing

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topic goes flat just because according to the listener, the speaker’s behavior and value system did not resonate with what was being said and such situations need to be avoided for effective communication.

• The E part of SILENT is to Empathize, i.e., to listen to not just what is being said, but it is also about feeling what the other person is feeling, especially in the corporate scenario where emotions are usually given least importance.

• The N part of SILENT signifies the importance of Non-verbal communication which make simple leaning forward, showing facial expressions, etc. letting the other individual know that one is listening.

• The T part of SILENT interestingly means Talk, i.e., using techniques such as paraphrasing, self-disclosure and summarizing during conversations to continue conversations smoothly.

Figure 5: SILENT to LISTEN

Source: https://www.rvcj.com/top-10-interesting-facts-english-language/silent-listen/

K: Konnect with Everyone If the first thought that crosses one’s mind is that connect starts with a C and not a K, then this point has made its impact. The concept of being able to connect with other team members and colleagues at work is so important that one needs to constantly make an effort to keep that rapport alive, even when it comes to the person naturally.

Every manager, every leader, every successful entrepreneur who has worked with an individual in any professional capacity has constantly maintained that the two most important aspects that create a make or break situation are ‘trust’ and ‘connect’ with the individual. Thus, across various communication models, the most common set of techniques one finds is on how to connect with the other individual, on how to build that rapport that begins a trusting, long-lasting relationship. Connecting with an individual is being in harmony or in sync with that individual.

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Using simple techniques such as VAK (Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic) or matching and mirroring, etc. individuals in today’s corporate world of communication need to build a two-way rapport between themselves and their team, thus developing a bond of trust and connect with each other leading to a comfortable discussion and working relationship.

Conclusion Communication is the life blood of any organization, the lifeline that lives through all of its employees. Whatever be the role of an individual in an organization, the ability to communicate appropriately is considered a vital ingredient. A failure to communicate effectively can create stress, conflict, strained relationships, misunderstandings and problems between any two or more individuals. On the other hand, effective and successful communication can result in many advantages such as mutual understanding, successful business agreements, harmonious family life, conflict resolution and finding solutions to problems, increased productivity and team work.

The problem is that good communication is such a well-known concept that everyone knows what the do’s and don’ts are. What they do not know are the simple ways how to ensure they use the do’s and avoid the don’ts at that point in time while actually communicating.

In today’s very competitive and learning-oriented world, using the above set of techniques helps individuals have seamless and smooth communication and thus work more effectively with each other, and walk confidently in their path to individual success and organizational productivity.

Learn to TALK. Leverage communication to succeed.

References 1. Fielding M (1998), Effective Communication in Organizations, 2nd Edition, January

31, Juta Academic.

2. Peter Hartley and Clive Bruckmann (2001), Business Communication, December 28, Routledge.

Reference # 50J-2019-03-05-01

Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.