by Jim Sutton

Created on: November 21, 2009   Last Updated: November 22, 2009

Why is communication valuable to an organization? Paul Meyer summarized it best: "Pleasure. Pride. Profit. Protection." Your goal is profit. To earn a profit, you need good people: pleasure and pride are key pieces that you use to build an environment, which outstanding people want to work in. Protection is contingency planning, flexibility with process, people and good will: all vital to business survival.

Think of communication as a toolbox with many related tools in it. Think of one hour during your business day and remove communication tools from it. Be sure to remove all communication: talking, body language, memos, email, IM, books, spreadsheets and so on. What problems do you notice? Do you see how powerful communication is?

As a manager, you need to troubleshoot and communication is your bridge to the people in your organization with the information you need. Without adequate communication skills, troubleshooting is stalled and that stalls productivity and profits. Even if a consultant hands you the solution, development, design and implementation of that solution requires communication. Visualize miscommunications as speed bumps slowing progress. Most root cause analysis will find poor communication sprinkled through the result if not the prime root cause, so improving communication reduces the scope and depth of problems a business faces.

Communication "oils" the gears of progress. Visualize a superhighway with no entrance or exit ramps. This is like your organization's knowledge and skills without communication: isolated and useless. Communication connects you with your boss, clients, customers and peers. Adding communication skills is like adding entrance and exit ramps. This allows connection with others and improves everyone's success. If all the people in your organization have many well-built entrance and exit ramps then you will see problems solved, solutions implemented, change managed and profits growing. If not, problems fester, solutions become the flavor-of-the-month and profits vanish.

Communication is a critical part of the foundation that your business processes rest on. When your staff brings a process diagram to you, make sure you splash a lot of communication "oil" on it. Communication "oil" keeps the process steps and the people from grinding against each other and the work flowing.

Look around. Review your communications in the last 24 hours. What communications do you expect in the next 24 hours? Find something you want to improve. Commit to making that change in the next 24 hours. Help your people add on and off ramps to their communication superhighway and enjoy the career boost you will enjoy as they become more productive.

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