Loss of communications - collapse of the company

ayshakhatunasha

An effective system of communication between employees is the key to the successful operation of the company. Problems in this area lead to deterioration of relations within the team and financial losses.

Loss of communications - virtual phone number service collapse of the company. Photo 1
The reason for writing this article was a real case, when a distortion of communication led to the need to redo the team's work for the last two and a half months. Changes to some parameters at the initial stage were incorrectly communicated to the performers. The company, where the emergency occurred, eventually coped, but suffered losses.

We will tell you more about insufficient communication, its consequences and ways to correct it in the article.

Consequences of a communication failure
Experience shows that problems with communications at all levels lead to:

incorrect setting of tasks;
empty and unnecessary work;
loss of important information;
the impossibility of finding the person responsible, and so on.
Probably 8 out of 10 people have had major and minor failures in their experience due to poor communication.

Loss of communications - collapse of the company. Photo 2
What types of communications are there?
Communication formats within companies can be divided into interpersonal and organizational. At the same time, the sources of problems in each of the options are different. For example, failures in organizational communication often arise for technical reasons, and in interpersonal communication - due to differences in character and life experience, lack of mutual understanding.

Interpersonal communication involves the exchange of absolutely any information between employees, management and clients. It can occur in person, by phone or in correspondence.

Organizational communication is the exchange of exclusively work information. Most often it is implemented in writing: correspondence in messengers or by e-mail, setting tasks in task managers.



Both options are possible both separately and in close interweaving. Violations in any of the above communication formats can entail various consequences: from minor disagreements among colleagues to missed deadlines, reputational and financial losses for the company.

Any communication includes four components of information transfer: sender, message, channel, recipient. The loss of each link can lead to misunderstanding, complete or partial.

Loss of communications - collapse of the company. Photo 3
For example, a manager sent a specialist an e-mail with an assignment. The task was not completed by the deadline because the letter ended up in spam and the employee read it only at the end of the working day. The problem here lies in the poor organization of the information transfer process.

Two specialists in a team do not get along. During joint work, one of the performers had a question, but due to hostility towards his colleague, he decided not to clarify and did as he understood. Formally, he was right, but as a result, the two parts of the task were not synchronized. It was necessary to spend additional resources on revision. Here, there are clearly issues of building interpersonal communication.

Breaking down any communication into a chain of four elements: sender, message, channel, recipient, helps to determine the nature of the problem and identify the "weak link". Based on this, it is easier to find a solution. That is, in the example with two colleagues, we can talk about an incorrectly formulated technical task, an incorrect choice of performers, but the root of the problem is in the relationships between people.

How to prevent communication breakdowns within a company
When distributing tasks, it is important to immediately set deadlines for completion, even when the deadline is not urgent. In this way, the necessary discipline is created and maintained, and tasks are completed evenly, on time, without rush jobs.

Information transfer channels must be accessible, functional and legalized. For example, if an employee usually receives tasks in a work Telegram chat, he may not see the e-mail in time, since he does not check the mail regularly.

Active feedback is extremely useful. We are all very different, and our perception of the world is not the same. After setting a task, you can ask the employee how he understood the problem and what he is going to do. In this way, at the initial stage, misunderstandings can be eliminated.

The performer must have the opportunity to clarify everything necessary regarding the assigned task. Questions are usually asked in the same way as the task was transferred. The manager should remember that clarifications may take place and respond.

Communicating with the team on topics other than work is also useful. Informal communication (not to be confused with familiarity) gives the opportunity to see the group dynamics in the team, hear truthful opinions, and eliminate conflicts at the initial stage.