Communication is More Than a Buzzword
“Open communication is always two-way and it allows people to openly express their thoughts and ideas to one another without retribution or judgement.”
Everyone loves to toss around the word “communication” as a qualifier to join an organization. Every job description has "Proficient in written and verbal communications" or some variation of that. The irony is, most companies significantly struggle with communication.
In KindCulture we use the term “open communication” because there are all types of communication. Most frequently we see communication that is limited to one way- more often than not it is a leader talking to their teams AND not with their teams.
Open communication is always two-way and according to an article from Indeed.com, it allows people to openly express their thoughts and ideas to one another. I also add, it allows people to express their thoughts without retribution or judgement.
When a culture lacks open communication we see department silos, misinformation spread, and a failure to identify and solve problems that impact how the company functions. When there is no open communication, leaders can be unaware of issues brewing that can impact products, sales and even stock prices.
While the financial impacts may vary, there are significant financial impacts. One LinkedIn article shared that a company with 100,000 employees averages a loss of $64.2 million due to inadequate communication. And in a separate article a study reports that a company with more than 100 employees loses an average of $420,000 per year due to poor email communication. Costs that have yet to be measured on a macro level include costs associated with duplicative work, employee disengagement and lost customer confidence as well as potential lost revenue.
If poor communication is this expensive and organizations emphasize the importance of being able to communicate to join, what has gone wrong? It’s a loaded question for sure. Much has been discussed about work culture over the last decade and workplace dynamics have changed quite a bit in in that time. According to Gallup, only about a third of employees identified as engaged and the numbers are dropping.
The workforce has been telling companies for years it wants a more collaborative approach to operating and solving problems. It is that simple. The autocratic leadership style, where leaders hold all the power and make decisions without partnering with their teams, will not work going forward.
The great news is, it’s never too late to make a change. To create a culture of open communication it begins with the highest levels of leadership setting the standard and providing the space for cognitive diversity and continuous information sharing up and down the organization. Here are a few ways to transition to a culture of open communication:
Set clear, actionable goals and share across the organization
Add open Q&A sessions to your Quarterly/Monthly All Hands meetings
Create intimate employee feedback sessions w/actionable takeaways for leaders
Use cross-functional frontline & individual contributor working groups for problem solving
A kind work culture is not hard to achieve, we simply have to make the time to actively listen, share information and take small steps forward.
