Good communication is the strongest key to binding your organization together
Nike, a well-known company, famous for its footwear, apparel, and equipment faced an internal problem in 2018 that was an adverse outcome of communication failure. The female employees pointed out the male-dominated culture that fostered harassment and discrimination in the workplace.
It started as an anonymous survey by a group of women at the company’s Beaverton, Oregon headquarters about their experiences. Later, those disturbing results were delivered to CEO Mark Parker.
CEO Mark Parker apologized to employees for permitting a workplace culture where some felt excluded and management didn’t take complaints seriously, according to a copy of his speech obtained by CNBC.
Communication failure or collapse is a breakdown or failure of an organization’s workflow. It has occurred when employees have different objectives, which can affect how efficiently they collaborate.
According to Pumble.co, A study by the Economist Intelligence Unit further illustrates how poor workplace communication can hurt the success of a workplace — it may result.
- Failure to complete projects — in 44% of the cases,
- Low employee morale — in 31% of the cases,
- Missed performance goals — in 25% of the cases, and;
- Lost sales — in 18% of the cases.
Effects of Communication Failure :
Communication failure can be a major cause of breakdown in an organization.
Here are the main effects of communication collapse on an organization:
1. Unessential conflicts
There can be a certain rise of conflicts dues to a lack of communication. For example, suppose two people are working on the same project but are not cooperating properly, which results in both ending up doing more work than necessary.
Perhaps they thought the other person was not doing a certain task, so they took it on for themselves only and later find out that the other person had already done it. This can cause tension between both of them.
2. Misunderstandings
Misunderstandings happen all the time. Misunderstandings can lead to some serious issues in the workplace.
Let’s take an example, say A and B are working in the same company and A thinks that he does all the work better than B but only B gets the credit. Here is a misunderstanding of A towards B. This can lead to a serious dispute between A and B. Therefore proper understanding and cooperation are important.
3. Mistrust
A lack of communication can lead to mistrust in the workplace in a whole array of situations. For example, if A manager knows about an opening for a promotion but doesn’t communicate it to their team, they might not trust the manager has their best interest and career development in mind.
4. The "Grapevine" Effect
A lack of communication can lead to the grapevine effect also known as the “telephone game”. If one person communicates wrong information and it is easily passed along throughout the office. Of course, the dissemination of information can lead to disarray, panic, and overall disaster in the workplace.
5. A Broken Company Culture
At the end of the day, a lack of communication can hurt company culture. Company culture relies on communication. Likewise, with no guidance or direction, and with no clear explanation of the roles and responsibilities of the department and individual workers, employees might be at a loss for how to operate together.
Above mentioned are the results of communication failures, therefore communication plays a very important role. Business longevity tips are important for an organization to avoid broken company culture.
There can be many reasons for communication failure in an organization, mentioned below are the 5 most important reasons among them.
5 Main Reasons for Communication Failure with Examples:
To understand better how communication failures materialize in the workplace, review multiple types with examples illustrating the consequences:
1. Lack of Oneness
Togetherness enables coworkers to work towards a common goal. When employees feel distant from their counterparts that don’t work in the same vicinity, the quality of their communication decreases, and there may be confusion about how the functions of one team complement the output that another team delivers. Staff members may know their colleagues although they share an employer.
Let’s take an example, A company has several internal departments like human resources, marketing, advertising, and so on. All are required to work in unity and cooperate, if one among them fails to do so then there can be communication failures.
In order to create unity among employees you can know more about the training of employees, behavioral attitude creates unity in an organization
2. Obtuse Response to Emergencies
Emergencies often require immediate responses.
Take an example, Suppose that Employee 1 is trying to communicate with employee 2 through a call for an urgent meeting, but employee 2 fails to stay in touch with employee 1 then this can cause trouble for staff and management of the company
3. Overlooked Writing Mistakes
Public written works, such as emails, newsletters, social media captions, and press releases can represent the organization and influence the reputation of its brand.
For example say, A medical organization published an article on ‘7 ways to maintain personal hygiene and content creators also posted it on social media. Readers commented that the report contained only 5 ways, not 7.
Since content had gone live on multiple platforms, there was an influx of similar comments. Hence this can create a bad reputation in the eyes of the reader for the organization.
4. Excessive Information
Delivering too much information about a topic. Employees may find it challenging to understand that.
For instance, A company hires some new freshers and the recruiter gives them a daily dose of information regarding the company. He explains everything so fast and furious and doesn’t even give breaks. In return, the freshers understand nothing and also get panicked and hesitated in such situations.
5. Inadequate Delivery
When you represent a company publicly, the delivery of your messages can influence how consumers respond. They may base their interpretations on your tone and word selection to determine if you’re meeting their needs.
For example, A company that supplies beauty products went to a Mall for live testing of their products, where they used a product on a girl with dark skin color and said you are already ugly how can these products work on you.
This created a destructive impact on the viewers there and everybody refused to use their products. Afterward, the company apologized to its viewers and was able to renew support.
Considering the above examples you can understand better about communication breakdowns faced by various companies
Prevention of communication failures:
5 tactics to avoid communication breakdown:
1. Create a Plan
It is important to create a well-organized plan to avoid miscommunication. This is one of the first steps you should create for every project, regardless of its size and scope. Before you try to get your points to others, you should have a very clear plan for the message you are trying to communicate. As an entrepreneur, it might be difficult for you to create an organized plan you can get motivation on how to be organized and planned through these motivational quotes for entrepreneurs.
2. Widespread Communication
Communicate with your employees daily, clarify ideas, and hear their opinions or suggestions. If you don’t understand the point that someone is trying to make, don’t be afraid to ask them to repeat it, or explain it again in a soft manner. It is important to build a strong team for better communication.
3. Take Responsibility for Your Action
If an organization makes a mistake then apologize, and try to improve the situation rather than exploit it more. Take care of your body language and tone not only verbally but also non-verbally as well.
4. Channel the Viewpoints of Your Consumers
Hear out the points-of-view of your customers, their expectations might be different. You can learn how to reflect their interests and needs when you interact with them.
Conclusion
In the end, I concluded that communication may fail due to many communication barriers. Therefore communication plays a very important role within an organization. It is important to share one’s thoughts and feelings to live a fuller and happier life.
