Strategies for improving Organizational Communication

Following are the tried-and-tested techniques for improving organizational communication:

• Encourage Open feedback: If accurate information is the key to effective communication, then organizations should encourage feedback. After all, feedback is the prime source of communication. But then again there lies some risk factors such as, workers may get afraid of the repercussions they may face when being extremely open with their superiors. Likewise, high-ranking officials may be somewhat apprehensive about hearing what is really on their workers' minds. In other words, people in organizations may be reluctant to give and receive feedback - a situation that can wreak havoc on organizational communication.

           These problems can be coped and curbed out by following some techniques:

1. 360-degree feedback:  A formal system in which people at all levels give feedback to others at different levels and receive feedback from them as well as outsiders - including customers and suppliers. This technique is used in companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Motorola and 3M.
2. Suggestion Systems: These are programmes that invite employers to submit ideas about how something may be improved. Employees are generally rewarded when their ideas are implemented. For example, the idea of mounting film boxes onto cards that hang from display stands, which is common today, originally came from a Kodak employee.
3. Corporate hotlines: These are telephone lines staffed by corporate officials ready to answer questions and listen to comments. These are particularly useful during times of change when employees are likely to be full of questions. For example, AT&T used hotlines in the early 1980s during the time period of its anti-trust divestiture.

• Use simple language: No matter what field you are in, chances are that it has it's own special language - it's jargon. The trick of using jargon wisely is to know your audience. If the individuals with whom you are communicating understand the jargon, using it can help facilitate communication. However, when addressing audiences whose members are unfamiliar with the specialized language; simple, straight-forward language is bound to be most effective. In either case, rationale is the same: communicators should speak the language of their audience. Although you may be tempted to try to impress your audience by using big words, you may have little impact on them if they do not understand you. Our advice is clear : Follow the KISS rule (Keep it Short and Simple).
• Avoid Overload: Imagine this scene: You are up late one night at the end of the term. You are writing a paper and studying for finals, all at the same time. Your desk is piled high with books when your roommate comes in to explain what you should do to prepare for the end-semester party. If this sounds familiar to you, then you probably know that it is unlikely that you would be able to concentrate on the things you are doing. After all, when people are confronted with more information than they can process at any given time, their performance tends to suffer. This condition is known as overload.   

           Staying competitive in today's hectic world often requires doing many things at once - but without threatening the performance, which is often the result when communication channels are overloaded. Fortunately,several things can be done to avoid, or at least minimize, the problem of information overloaded.
Some of these are given below:

1. Rely on Gatekeepers : People whose jobs require them to control the flow of information to potentially overloaded individuals, groups or organizations are known as gatekeepers. In making the appointments of top executives, administrative assistants actually provide gatekeeping service to them.
2. Practice Queuing : Queuing involves lining up incoming information so that it can be attended to in an orderly fashion. Air traffic controllers do this when they 'stack' incoming planes in a holding pattern so as to prevent them from tragically 'overloading' the runway.

• Walk the talk : When it comes to effective communication, actions definitely speak louder than words. Too often, communication is hampered by the practice of saying one thing but meaning something else. Also, whenever implicit messages (e.g., 'we may be cutting jobs') contradict official messages (e.g., 'don't worry, the company is stable'), it is bound to result in confusion. 

          This is especially problematic when the inconsistency comes from the top. In fact, one of the most effective ways of fostering effective organizational communication is for CEOs to 'walk the talk', i.e., to match their deeds to their words. After all, a boss would lose credibility if he/ she told his/ her employees 'my door is always open to you', but was never available for a consultation. Good communication demands consistency. For words to be heard as loud as actions, the two must match. 

• Be a good listener : Effective communication involves more than just presenting messages clearly. It also involves doing a good job for comprehending messages sent by others. Although most of us take listening for granted, effective listening is an important skill. In fact, given that managers spend about 40% of their time listening to others, but only 25% on effective listening, the latter is a skill that could be developed in most of us. When we speak of effective listening, we are not referring to the passive act of just taking in information the following. Rather, effective listening involves three important elements:

1. Being non-judgemental  while taking in information from others.
2. Acknowledging speakers in ways that encourage them to continue speaking.
3. Attempting to advance the speaker's ideas to the next step.

In a business scenario, we do not attempt to change individual personality traits, nor, for that matter, is it possible; but we can surely understand the role of an individual in communication breakdown.

"Communication is at the heart of the organization : It is the key to organizational success. It exists in everything we say and do, and also in things we don't say and don't do. It is the essence of the organization; it is all pervasive." ~ Eileen Scholes