In this article, I am going to share my thoughts on how to purify messages received through traditional, formal communication.
As some of you may remember, when it comes to communication at work, there are four communication types: formal verbal, formal written, informal verbal and informal written. Formal communication implies that the sender of the information chooses their words more carefully. There is more scrutiny when it comes to formal communication. Formal verbal communication includes a speech delivery or a formal business negotiation. Formal written communication could be official email correspondence, business letters, legal documents or corporate communications. Informal communication is typically used in web chats (written) or in-person or phone conversations (verbal). You can certainly come up many other examples.
That is what it is, in theory. In reality, many of us become formal, even in informal situations. Business culture in many traditional organizations created standard frameworks where it is easier to follow certain communication rules to be a good fit. The society is becoming more and more judgmental. Essential and fair ground rules – aimed to create diverse and safe environment by giving everyone equal rights and protecting against discrimination or abuse – sometimes get misunderstood, misinterpreted, or even exploited. As a result, many people limit their conversations to so-called “small talk”; they discuss “safe topics”.
When they formally ask, “how are you?”, they only expect to hear “I am doing fine”. This tradition creates business cultures where the answer to each question is either incomplete or filtered. They tend to tell you only what you want to hear. While it may be good for your mental health, when it comes to project management, you need the pure truth: true estimates, true issues, true risks and true achievements.
But how do you, as a leader, purify the communication that you receive? By creating a truly safe atmosphere, where your team members will not be criticized for telling you the truth. In other words, we need to remove the formality filter from the informal communication and create an environment where people can speak up. Does this mean that you would encourage your team members to snitch on their teammates in private informal conversations if they are doing bad work? Not really. One can still be considerate, compassionate and polite, while being open and honest.
Let’s say the task is not on track because someone (say Homunculus) is doing nothing. In simple words, he does not care about the project anymore and lets everyone down. How do you communicate this to your manager? You don’t have to say that Homunculus does not give a s*** about his work. Instead you can say that his task is behind or severely behind, and maybe he needs help (who knows, maybe he has a personal issue). It would still be the truth. But at least you mention the problem and allude to the potential root cause.
People must be motivated to speak up. What makes you say something to another person? Probably the fact that the other person is willing to hear from you. The demand triggers the supply. The demand for informal communication creates informal communication. Open these informal communication channels. Start with the small talk, but develop your relationship with team members into something more informal by being open and sincere yourself, and you will see more openness and sincerity in response.