Volume 1, Issue 7

July 13, 2010

Rolled Throughput Yield of Communication

Every process is dependent on the process before it and the process after it.  For instance, customers might experience the performance of the sales department, and then the performance of operations, followed by customer service, and lastly billing.  If the performance of each department is 80%, is the customer experience 80%?  No, in fact it is the product of the individual performances, meaning the customer felt a performance level of 41%.

When communication follows the same principles, it is no wonder it exists as a common problem across sectors, size and social circles.  There is a difference between what we want to say and what we do say, what was said and what was heard, what was heard and what was interpreted, and the last step, often skipped, is what was the response and what was actually fed back.  In order to improve communication, remember it is no different from any other process improvement: it requires patience, iteration and care.

Definitions Are Required

It seems every industry runs across a need to invent a word to describe something unique to them.  Some organizations really have fun and success doing this, creating collaborative engagement, an opportunity for creative innovation, and a high profile for the new term – excellent ingredients for creating a shared understanding of the meaning behind the label.

Yet, these terms last while employee’s turnover, supplier’s transition and customers shift.  Definitions need to be captured and provided for new hires that may otherwise feel that everyone else is speaking a different language.

Beyond unique words, traps still exist, including the propensity to create unique words, diluting the power of community to create that shared understanding.  Learn more about communicating for clarity and results...Read More.

Communication Meltdowns

Is swearing ok?  According to author Bob Sutton of the No Asshole Rule, swearing can create inclusion into a community, convey the authenticity of being human and snap the audience into attention.  In the July/August issue of Psychology Today, a full page is dedicated to the “world of taboo words”.

Be careful who you want to flock with.  In the past ten years, the percentage of public swearing has decreased for men, while it climbed for women.  Perhaps women are pushing for equality here too, just like smoking, voting and sporting.  It also may be that the percentages have more to do with the growing total than any decline in individual propensity.

One benefit is that swearing has been proven to increase tolerance of pain.  If we need courage to accept the things we cannot change, is swearing counterproductive to improvement?

Zig Ziglar, the guru of selling and motivation goes farther than that.  He believes our words create our realities, and goes so far as to say he is going far, but that 90% of all conflict would disappear if words of violence and negativity were eliminated.

When this debate would not even exist in the era of white gloves, manners and leather bound literature, one has to wonder if it is just another example of lowering the bar of humanity.  On the other hand, those were also the days of conforming to roles, limited opportunity and unacceptable forms of expression.

With so many words to pick from, surely there is a word that is more accurate than a generic swear word?  Eighty percent of swearing is captured by ten words, and of that group, one third from the top two.  With use that often, how can it be specific?

If communication is the intent, send the message you intend while minimizing opportunities for the audience to draw their own conclusion, while letting them to exactly that, avoiding the use of foul language as another form of bullying.

The Bottom Line

There is no question, communication is crucial and complicated.  Choose your words carefully, be clear with definitions and create a common language.  When we can understand each other we can achieve the notion that two heads are better than one, and so on, and so on.