Introduction
Each organisation has its own unique communication system. With the development of modern technology, communication is changing. The process of globalization and universal access to the Internet is not without significance – once the whole company was in the conference room and the CEO could personally convey the vision – now companies have offices all over the world and also realize a coherent vision that has been delivered via e-mail. E-mail to several thousand employees at the same time. The importance of this system is enormous because it provides the organization of information flow between team members and between teams and departments.
While communication between team leaders and team members is in many cases correct, it is often in the team itself that communication is erratic and communication between some teams is characterized by conflicts.
How to improve communication process in organization?
It is difficult to determine what are the most important causes of communication problems, because it concerns the people in the organization. Those people are the individuality of the data being transported into the data. There are units that adapt quickly, others – on the contrary. This is not related to lack of goodwill or dislike, but most often with another conceptual apparatus that has developed in them. For example: the engine is the element of both: the car and the element of the website.
The most common communication disorders described in literature include:
- Perceptual handicap
- Selectivity of attention
- Accept the perspective of the interlocutor
- Cultural differences
- Stereotypes (we prefer to listen people with high social status)
- Frame of mind
The statement – lack of active listening skills, can summarize all of these elements. Always you have to make sure that the message you built on the basis of the received information is consistent with the intention of the sender. And remember: each part of the project team is equally responsible for whether the communication is correct or not.
How to improve communication processes in your organization?
The first element of the communication diagnosis processes should be describing them, how they are going through, both ways: formal and non-formal.
Second step is to search for places where messages are distorted – where there is a change in message, meaning or misunderstanding.
The next step is communication training. You should show to all stakeholders how this process should proceed. Try to teach employees to ask themselves very important thing: what I understood from what someone wanted to say or to ask the person who communicated the message – how did you understand. It is all to make sure that it is understood properly. The fact that it looks simple does not mean that it is in fact. 99% of the problems that exist in organizations start from improper communication.
The are three questions to answer:
Am I well understood ? How did you understand me? What can I do to better communicate? It will make communication more effective and minimize the risk of misunderstanding, which could make project fails.
Communication and company structure – Deaf phone
The structure of the company, which greatly influences the communication process, is also important. Very often, communication in the organization resembles a game known from childhood – a deaf phone. At the meeting the board members make important decisions. Those decisions are passed on to the directors. The directors pass them on to the department heads at the next meeting. Then, department heads reach out to their team members. Already at this stage the information is likely to be severely distorted. Then the members of the various teams compare what information they have received and it turns out that the vision of the management board is understood by the gray workers not as a chance for the company’s development, but as the expense cut.
Organizational changes and communication processes in organizations
It is particularly important from the point of view of communication to have effective and correct information about all organizational changes in companies. It doesn’t matter what the changes concern if they applicable the project you are involved in.
Summary
Not only communication in project management is very important for the stakeholders. Communications in organization, at global, cause make your project successful or fail.
