It's Your Fault. Nuh Uh, It's Your Fault...
Back in high school, I was driving fork lift in a factory. My department was the receiving warehouse where we had and endless stream of 18-Wheelers docking at our six dock doors. Not only did we not have the manpower to keep up, we ran out of room to put the freight.
Adjacent to the receiving warehouse was the stock warehouse of about the same size, so when we ran out of room, we tried to run the freight directly to the stock warehouse. Pretty soon, both warehouses were chock full, new freight was blocking aisles, and the two warehouse bosses were at each other's throats until they both came to the conclusion that at fault was the system created by the next level of management. "There's no communication around here. There's no room to put anything, and when we try to find extra space, we get yelled at," was a common conversation.
My factory was a classic case of (well, a lot of bad management and corners being cut to save on labor and space) interdepartmental miscommunication. The warehouses didn't communicate with one another; the big bosses didn't relay expectations to account for overflow; we petty fork lift operators didn't know how to ask where to put endless pallets of stock - and pretty soon, everyone is bitching and blaming.
I bet you experience the same problems in your office. Marketing blames R & D; Accounting blames Customer Service; Sales blames everyone else. Why? Communication! Communication! Communication! Nobody teaches the importance of, and how to execute, interdepartmental communication. That's why every department manager should study The Voice of Authority: 10 Communication Strategies Every Leader Needs to Know.
Dianna Booher has heard it all. In her training and consulting for top executives in various industries, she's always hearing about "a lack of communication." She's sifted through the corporate blame game; she's listened to all the excuses. Now she wants to tell how to make it all stop.
What Dianna tells leaders is that they have to know "exactly what to say, how to say it, when to say it, and even how to present yourself credibly." Each department has a different agenda; each has its own structure and ways of doing things. So when working with other departments, it often seems like the outsiders are infringing upon your ability to get things done. That's because there was no communication until something went awry, making it inevitable that the communication will be strained and counter-productive. But if you know how to communicate with authority and credibility before hand, office life will become a shared experience rather than a battle for supremacy.
"Be Complete. Be Consistent. Be Concerned." These are three of Booher's 10 Strategies. It may sound simple, but if you've ever worked - well, anywhere - you know that these rules are rarely, if ever, followed. You simply have to know how to approach others, remain credible, and understand all the problems that exist instead of simply pushing your agenda.
Seriously, how much profit is your company losing because departments can't communicate properly? The only way to find out is to do it better, then watch the profits shoot upwards over the mountains. Dianna Booher's book is one tool that will help you do it right.
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