Communication is a fine art

In today's world of multiple methods for communication, it always amazes me how lazy we may become with how we communicate.  We spend our time talking through email, IM, text, and social media sites with those we consider to be "friends" but have never met.  And the people we should be talking to - those we know in person, our families, our friends, our significant others are often the last people we may talk to.

In today's methods of communication, not only has our personal lives taken a steep decline but also our professional lives.  Managers no longer communicate to their staff regarding information, they start an instant message chain.  Co-workers no longer work together for an exchange of ideas; an email is sent with the information  hoping the recipient understands what is being presented.

Workplace instruction and communication
Communication is not only necessary for us to survive in the workplace, it is also essential to the overall health of our companies.  It is the need to share information in a clear and precise way that many today do not understand how to accomplish successfully, they do not even know where to begin in effectively delivering the information needed. Understanding the differences between how and when you communicate in an individual or group manner is highly desired by those in any company.

Communication in the working environment lends itself into not only satisfaction within one's work, but also a greater sense of community within a department or entire office.  There are times where disclosure for all information  is not necessary, but for the general priorities, tasks, and expectations - communication must occur.  There is no substitute to a well-informed team able to work independently due to understanding what is needed to happen.  A manager that communicates to his or her team allows those working with them to be able to accomplish more in a smaller gap of time.  A manager that offers regular and on-going communication allows those on their team the ability to accelerate at their positions.

Individual communication and instruction
Imagine being asked by a manager how you would like to have instruction given when being assigned a project. Imagine being asked if you preferred an overview of generalized concept, or details of what was needed for the project to be successful.  Add to this that you may never have completed a project similar to the task being given you.  If given the overview or general concept, you may be able to complete the project - but are you giving your company what was truly needed? You may be able to do what was needed, but it may also take you several attempts of and reviews for your work to complete the project.  Instead of knowing what was needed in the original request, you are now using valuable time making changes.

If given details of what was needed, you may be able to complete the project in a much more successful manner with items discussed being included.  Time spent making revisions decrease, and the information can be presented to your client or company in a more timely manner.  If asked to complete this task again, you would be able to learn from either method, and not require full details as you had originally.  But the difference between both scenarios is time.  Time, our most valuable commodity in any aspect of our lives.

Group instruction and communication
Communication should not be delivered in an unreliable medium.  These unreliable mediums may include use of group instant messaging meetings, or email to deliver new processes staff should follow without use of a prior meeting with your team.

Hosting a group meeting via instant messaging may allow your team to revisit what was discussed while in the meeting, but only if they were invited to the group meeting.  This, of course, is taking for granted your staff also save conversation history within the instant messaging products being used.  Often times this can be an issue where what is being said is understood differently than intended.  The time it takes for team members to reply to or respond to your comments may also be a drain on your resources.  Instant messaging is typically used for and should reside with quick responses,  not a method to deliver instructions to a team on new processes.

Email may be more reliable, but you also suffer the risk of the Reply All...The Reply All is where you may receive several emails from different people, each of which shares their own thoughts.  And for each person's thoughts you run the risk of duplication.  The time it took each person to write their response is now lost as every team member must now read each individual email, possibly have questions related to the content, and reply again...and the circle continues...and valuable time may be lost. 

Rather than expecting your staff to understand information in an instant message group meeting or email for important detail, the better option would be conducting a meeting the old fashioned way - face to face group meeting.  The 5 minutes you may spend trying to explain something in an IM or email could also be used in this other option.  If follow up is needed with the group you are meeting with, that is the time and place to allow this communication to be provided through IM or email.

These options may not work for all companies, or all situations within a company. There are scenarios that can not be thought of by those outside your company. The suggestions do, however, offer a better method for establishing inter-office communication which will lead to a happier staff knowing what is needed, and how you would like them to accomplish this.