What is the cost of not communicating with your colleagues?
What is the cost of not communicating with your colleagues?
Communication in a business can be a challenge, with so many other things taking up your work time, so common that “People not available for discussions” is one of the top time management problems. Setting a date, place and time to talk each of the key people in your business cam make all the difference to your profitability and overall effectiveness. Of course the pressures from others, customers, suppliers, projects, deadlines can be so great as to interfere, and if frequent calibration and communication is missing... watch out it can get very expensive
Contrary to popular belief, communication is not some warm and fuzzy nice to have, it doesn't really matter if we don't have time. Communication is nothing less than the lifeblood of your organisation. If blood doesn't circulate at just the right pressure and speed to all parts and extremities of the body, that body will become unwell and potentially die.
By communication, I don't mean just vision and mission statements from the top; I don't mean news releases publicising financial results or new product announcements; I don't mean internal or client newsletters, annual reports or mass messages to the troops. These are all important and have their place, but they form just a fraction of the communication and miscommunication that takes place every day in the workplace.
Nothing happens without communication.
It takes the everyday interaction between people to create a product. It takes frequent collaboration to approach a new market. It takes constant talking and working together for a teamwork to implement a strategy. It takes a stream of written and spoken words, requests and promises to run the machinery of business. And if that machine breaks down, as it often does, money is lost. Real, hard cash...
Where can you see the results and impact of poor communication?
Here are just a few examples:
- Long, boring, unproductive meetings that reach no conclusion and serve no purpose;
- People who can't get through to key decision makers so projects stop;
- Sales presentations that show no concern for, or understanding of, the client's needs;
- Badly written e-mail messages or letters that cause misunderstandings and wasted time;
- Employee irritation caused by managers who won't make the time or the effort to listen;
- Lack of understanding between people, different departments, age, gender...
...and that's just a small sample
Poor communication costs the business world millions every single day.
Most of the cost of not communicating effectively are hidden, partly because there isn't a line on the balance sheet to account for poor communication. Nothing shows up in the accounts saying, lost productivity due to miserable meetings or missed business opportunity because someone wasn't available. Nevertheless that cost is real, very real....
How much more could you accomplish with effective communication across your team or organisation?
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