Communication

Today I would like to just think about and talk about communication. Over the past 40 years in the workplace, it has been frequently observed that poor communication was often cited as the cause of various issues. Recently, I was fortunate enough to be able to facilitate a session on communication. I asked the forty people present to write down their definition of communication, to no one’s surprise each person had their own definition of communication. Communication often receives criticism, because of the various definitions of what constitutes poor or effective communication. Once a group agrees on a standard definition of communication, it becomes possible to evaluate effective communication against this agreed-upon standard. I compare this with the rubric for an assignment in a class, if there were no guidelines, how could anyone fairly evaluate the assignments?

The quality of communication depends on how communication is defined. Discussing this definition with your team can be beneficial. Once there is a common understanding, it is possible to improve communication within your organization.