Not All Workplaces are Communication Cultures; Here's Why You Need One
Current hidden problems can be solved, cost savings can emerge and performance gain can be actualized. Here's what else happens...
Communication is not a strength in every organization and not everyone comes into a workplace and its culture able to interact effectively. Other dynamics create additional challenges. That may not strictly be because of the leadership, cultural norms or the team members. Leadership however can benefit the whole by developing certain awareness, principles and skills.
Lauren Parr, the co-founder and product director at RepuGen, a healthcare reputation management platform, recently wrote about the important need of building a strong communication culture.
“Invest in staff-wide communication training,” she advocated in an article at Forbes.com, explaining that, “This equips them with active listening, empathy and clear communication skills.”
That needs to be accompanied by feedback from surveys, Parr wrote, which need to be listened to and heeded. The reasoning is clear.
“This valuable road map helps identify communication gaps and streamlines any confusing processes, demonstrating your commitment to continuous improvement,” she wrote.
People communicate, just not always effectively. Development is helpful and available through training yet leaders have to come to feel and confidently conclude that it is vital, affordable, cost effective and practical.
“Staff-wide communication training is far more affordable than constant staff turnover and training new people,” says Judnefera Rasayon, an executive communications coach at Judnefera Rasayon coaching, where she specializes in helping women uncover their blind spots and communicate effectively so they can get recognized.
“And it’s definitely cost effective. Teaching employees how to successfully have difficult conversations, such as delivering and receiving difficult feedback, how to engage with difficult clients, etc., is far more practical than not addressing tough issues or potentially losing clients.”
Communication training to assist in building a communication culture is “overdue,” says Stephanie High, a performance psychology practitioner, trauma-informed educator at Kaizen Catalyst and doctoral student in trauma psychology.
“I’ve led organization-wide communication trainings and what I’ve found is that poor communication costs a lot more than training ever will.
“When teams aren’t on the same page, projects stall, tensions build and people burn out. It’s absolutely worth the investment.”
“Professional development and investing in your people is something that’s normally done at successful, profitable businesses,” Rasayon offers as a reminder.
“Investing in staff-wide communication training is no different. Not only will it help you address any potential recurring issues and source new ones, it shows your employees that you value them and want to help them succeed, which boosts employee satisfaction and productivity.”
Communication can become better understood for what it can be and should be in different interactions.
“From a performance lens, communication is about effectiveness, how to achieve what you need from a conversation, whether that’s clarity, collaboration or results,” High says.
“It’s about striking a balance between assertiveness and safety, learning how to speak up in a way that respects everyone’s capacity to listen and engage,” she adds. “It’s not just about what you say, it’s about how and when you say it and what the environment allows for.”
Desirable outcomes increasingly become possible and the presence or frequency of certain problems can be prevented or lessened.
“There are a host of beneficial outcomes that could evolve and problems that could be minimized,” Rasayon argues.
“One, successfully addressing small problems before they snowball into bigger, recurring issues; two, creating an environment where all employees feel heard, valued and appreciated, resulting in increased productivity and reduced staff turnover; and three, increased profitability.”
“When communication training takes hold, teams start to understand each other,” High agrees. “People feel seen and heard, which builds trust.
“I've seen this firsthand, when people practice active listening and empathy, there’s a noticeable shift. Conflicts de-escalate faster, decisions are made more collaboratively and people stop talking past each other.”
The people connection goes deeper, she contends.
“It also creates a stronger sense of belonging,” High says. “When someone knows their input matters, even if it’s not always the final decision, they’re more likely to engage.”
She does offer a warning about organizations expecting miracles from training alone.
“For it to stick, leadership must walk the talk,” High stresses. “You can’t just send folks to a workshop and hope for magic.
“You need consistent reinforcement, modeling from the top and permission to mess up. I always tell teams: dropping the ball is okay, what matters is your ability to pick it back up, reset and keep going.”
In her article, Parr showed that she was a proponent of regularly gathering feedback through surveys, for the purpose of identifying communication gaps and correcting confusing processes.
She says doing this provides the critical, necessary, helpful insights and shows your people your commitment to continuous improvement.
Determining the organizational drivers that inspire leaders and employees to make this standard operating procedure becomes the task.
It’s not simple though, High says.
“Surveys can be useful but they’re only effective if people feel safe being honest. If employees worry about being tracked or judged for their responses, you won’t get real feedback,” she states.
“Anonymous tools help but sometimes even better are guided reflection practices, like team check-ins, where people share highs and lows or talk about what’s working and what isn’t.”
She prefers and recommends implementation as a show of evidence, that overseeing and assuring an effective communication culture is a team mission.
“What really gets buy-in,” High says, “is when people see their feedback actually go somewhere. If you’re going to ask for input, you have to show that it matters; you can’t just gather it and move on.”
She provides an example of change that improved a dynamic.
“One company I worked with had a team that felt left out of key conversations,” High recalls. “Once leadership started including them earlier in decision-making, not just sharing outcomes, they felt more connected and valued.
“That one shift created so much more alignment and trust.”
Leaders may be intellectually, emotionally moved and spurred into action by “the knowledge of how much poor communication and a lack of empathy and active listening affect a company’s performance,” Rasayon says.
She presents some numbers.
“In ‘The Cost of Poor Communication’ by Daniel Grossman, a survey of 400 companies, each with 100,000 employees, found ‘an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year as a result of inadequate communication to and between employees,’” Rasayon says of the evidence.
“This was back in 2011 so one can only imagine what the cost is now.”
These types costs are not confined to larger organizations.
“In the article Top Ten Email Blunders that Cost Companies Money, Debra Hamilton posited that ‘miscommunication cost even smaller companies of 100 employees an average of $420,000 per year,’” Rasayon adds.
That’s not insignificant.
“Those aren’t small numbers and would definitely help motivate leaders and employees to establish communication surveys as part of their standard operating procedures,” Rasayon forecasts.
It’s more than the money though, she concludes.
“In addition to the bottom line, coming into work and knowing that everyone is at least somewhat invested in better communication, makes work less stressful,” Rasayon says as a reminder. “There are plenty of stressors that are outside of our control. Poor communication is not one of them.”
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I appreciate the reminder that surveys only work if people feel safe to be honest. In my experience, they are not that effective. Building that trust takes time and genuine effort, but it pays off in spades. Happy Tuesday, Michael..