We think we are effective communicators such that we know what we are supposed to do and that our team all fall into place with one accord. How many times would we realize that we are very wrong. The link between action and ideas, the process driven by our KPIs that would result in profitability, our emotional glue with co-workers, clients and business partners are at stake if we fail in communicating - encoding and decoding the meanings correctly across to our counterparties.
[Interview]
Boss: I see you majored in communication.
Man: No. Miscommunication.
Boss: But your CV clearly says ‘Communication’.
Man: See?
Imagine if the organization would improve its communication by 50%, it would enhance productivity, staff morale and the bottom line by many folds. An organization spends much time in communication through talk, zoom, email, text... and among them, meeting is one of the costliest.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, has laid down 3 rules for an effective meeting:
- 2 pizza - limit the number of participants.
- 6 pager - prepare a narratively structured memo as the context for the discussion.
- 30 minutes - start with participants reading the memo silently.
Perhaps a timely advice is not to meet unless it is absolutely necessary.
One of the great communicators I admire of is Cheng Ho, the great fifteenth century Chinese admiral, who had to communicate with 28,000 crew members in 317 ships in long expeditions stretching a few months to a few years, without any mobile phones, facsimile, telegraph... not even a loudspeaker.
Effective communication entails much effort on the part of everyone in the company - from the top to the bottom. Let's make it ultra-effective!
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