You are the reason why communication is broken

Every organisation faces some level of communication issues. These problems are especially evident if your organisation is spread across the globe. It’s a major issue, as poor communication is the leading factor behind unnecessary tension and slow execution speed on business matters.

Every day, I work with people across the globe, representing different cultures and different backgrounds, and have noticed that most of the problems are coming from difficulties to make yourself clear to others. We all have a good imagination and this confusion plants fictional problems into peoples heads and breaks down communication even more.

There are many factors that make long-distance communication difficult:

• It lacks constant face-to-face contact between people
• Information flow through the screens — email, chat, phone, messaging boards — none of these are ideal to transmit the full meaning behind our communication, unlike body language, vocal cues, facial expressions, etc.
• Cultural differences in countries, offices or even between areas of an organisation can cause mistranslation and confusion
• Delays caused by different time zones
• People come from different backgrounds (cultural, social, economical, etc.)
• Variance in information at any single moment

I’m here to make a bold claim…

If communication is broken, then it’s because of You and no one else!

It doesn’t matter whose area, responsibility or skills base this mistake arises from; it’s your problem because you will be hurt by the problematic information. The message did not reach you or you failed to make yourself clear enough for others to work effectively. Either way, it’s an issue that needs to be resolved.

Acknowledge that it’s your problem and fix it

• Make yourself visible — Be everywhere! Be in people’s heads and make them want to share information with you. It’s a bad situation when you have to wait for others to share information with you. People have a limited amount of space in their minds and mostly, it’s preoccupied with their own tasks and concerns. It’s quite simple; if you’re not visible, then you’re not on anyone’s priority list to share their information with you. Visibility takes time. You have to be proactive and take a genuine interest in what people are doing, while also making it clear what you’re working on, making yourself available if others need you, offering help, explaining why you need certain information for your work and how it affects you, them and the whole organisation.

“Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.” — Rollo May

• It’s your job to share, so you have to take the first steps — Go the extra mile and take the first steps to sharing more. If you’re not sharing, then don’t expect others to share anything with you. Explain what you’re doing and how this affects others (remember that others cannot see into your head). It’s often not enough to simply write some emails and expect everyone to understand your agenda. It helps to speak face-to-face, and then send a follow-up in written form to ensure that the information was actually received and in its correct form. It’s only then that you can start to occupy people’s minds, which means that they will want to share their knowledge and information with you.

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” ― George Bernard Shaw

• Do not accuse others; it’s your problem — When you feel that someone failed to share needed info with you, then it’s never helpful to accuse them for that reason. The problem primarily happened because others did not understand your agenda well enough or did not know that you needed that particular information. Accusing others will only build new barriers between you and the information, thus creating unnecessary processes that slow an organisation down even more. Put yourself in other people’s shoes.

“Guilt has very quick ears to an accusation.” — Henry Fielding

• Make friends — Make sure that you know the people around you and what they are doing. Travel, meet, and socialise with your colleagues; be proactive to sync your brainwaves with others. Even having casual chats over lunch can help you develop a better understanding of how others are thinking. Communication gets much easier when you know how others will think and react in certain situations.

“Sometimes, reaching out and taking someone’s hand is the beginning of a journey. At other times, it is allowing another to take yours.” ― Vera Nazarian

• Avoid a process overkill — When problems arise, it may seem like creating a set processes for communication is a miraculous tool that allows you to agree on the steps and who needs to sign off before the information is ready. However, in reality, this formal process slows everything down, and people stop trying to make things better; instead, they simply try to game the system. Instead of assuming that problem was in message delivery mechanism and creating yet another process, try to understand real cause why information was not reaching correct recipient and fix underlying cause.

“Contracts don’t work together, people do” ― R.G

• Agree on language — In a complex organisation, one thing can have many meanings. The most common misinterpretation relates to the word “Ready”. Developers may think that it’s “ready” when the code is written, system administrators may think it’s “ready” when it’s deployed to the system, and product managers may think than it’s “ready” when customers can use it and so on. Agree on what words mean in your organisation.

“Think like a wise man, but communicate in the language of the people.” — William Butler Yeats

It’s that simple — You make communication happen, not the other way around

It’s helpful to take a humble approach to broken communication. It is never anyone else’s fault but your own. Take responsibility and act with authority to make things better for the next time!