Any company under the sun would be remiss to tell you communication isn’t the cornerstone to the success of any business. Without updates, discussions and most importantly, brainstorming, there can be no true progress; no brilliant idea that would eventually have evolved into the next 20 million dollar venture.
Process in business is just as important. Without the consistent analysis and rejuvenation of the way in which a system runs, its only probable end is a defunct one.
Ultimately, though, both of these require a continuous, progressive plan to improvement in order to have any effect on the workings of your business.
You may not be convinced; is it truly this simple?
In implementation, no, absolutely not. In theory, yes.
Let’s discuss one great example on the matter.
In one 2010 article, the necessity for a better level of personal communication was highlighted in one specific field: engineering.
In the last decade, the engineering education [institutions] and industry have requested assistance from communication educators. Responding to increased attention on the changing expectations for practicing engineers and an attendant need for better communication skills, these teams of engineering and communication educators have been working to incorporate speaking and writing in engineering education. Despite a great deal of anecdotal evidence that communication is important to working engineers, relatively little data based information is available to help us understand better the specifics of how and why communication is important for these particular professionals.
The issue was so rampant that engineering firms themselves were hiring outside resources to “re-teach” their employees to talk to one another. While they knew the success of their industry was contingent upon the ability to improve this issue, they failed to understand was the reason behind this contingence: why was communication such a big deal?
The key is that communication itself is the only aspect of business that effects it on a multi-faceted level. Employee morale, clear and positive communication, and effective and detailed descriptions of tasks are all based on an individual’s ability to connect to another.
In fact, according to interpersonal communications firm CRM Learning, “80% of a work-related conversation is spent rehashing the problems of the past and assigning blame; 15% is spent on what’s happening now and 5% is spent on solutions and future possibilities.”
80 PERCENT.
Imagine that you were able to optimize communication to the point that even half that was spent on “what’s happening now” instead of the problems of the past?
If we haven’t convinced you that communication, process and continuous improvement should be your priorities, we certainly wish you luck.
We’ll see you at the top.
