We all know that measurement is important in business. We measure cycle times, revenue, profitability, and production.
By measuring something we begin to get a baseline, against which we can measure our improvement over time.
How do we measure communication effectiveness? I believe we need the equivalent of a “Balance Sheet” and “P&L” which will measure the effectiveness of a company’s communications. If you have ideas about this I would love to hear them.
Maybe this measuring could start with analyzing the projects that fail with the communication methods and percentage of usage of those methods then compare with that of projects that are a success? I would think that one of the hardest things to document will be the face-to-face conversations between manager and worker that is in the hallway, etc.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Check out a previous post, Rules for communication:
ReplyDeletehttp://communicationnation.blogspot.com/2005/08/rules-for-communication.html
One of the rules is "If it wasn't said by email, it wasn't said."
I just went through two types of training for a job as a bookstore salesperson.
ReplyDeleteTraining #1 was a 3 hour video by a professional motivational speaker, who taught the basics of selling, positive attitude, building relationships.
Training #2, which occured right after the video, was a salesperson who rushed through the fundamental computer inventory operations, forms to fill out, switches to turn on for various video presentations and kiosks for customers to watch, etc.
Training #1 was fantastic, I wrote notes in a syllabus that contained good outlines.
Training #2 was pathetic, too fast for me to scribble any notes, totally reluctant, haughty, and impatient.
Why do companies have a high quality training, followed by a horrid training?
Why don't they provide a written set of instructions for computer inventory operations, switches to turn on, forms usage, etc.?
The theory gets good treatment, while the nuts and bolts practical aspects are haphazardly conveyed.
I may not survive in this new job, the VP had to show me a few things, and I could tell, though he smiled a lot, he was disgusted that I didn't absorb everything I needed in one day.
I could have...if it had been presented in an orderly, written fashion.
No "secrets" are involved, just mundane instructions, so why this manner of training?