5 Tips For Effective Group Communication
September 16, 2007
In the past several years, I have trained organizations from the Fortune 500 to SMEs. Even some "Mom and Pop" shops. I’ve found that although companies succeed or fail for countles reasons, there is one issue that applies across the board and is therefore worthy of closer examination — the breakdown of group communication.
While people these days can communicate in more ways than ever before, organizations seems to be suffering more and more misinterpretation and breakdowns in their group communication. Fortunately, there are solutions for this problem. Here are five tips that can help you to commence the process:
- Select a group of between 5 and 12 people. In this way, no one person can dominate the group long-term and no one can hide in the crowd. Also, this group size will allow for a healthy mix of advocacy and inquiry.
- Use effective profiling techniques to obtain an equal representation of "Mental Diversity." This may vary depending on industry.
- Set the agenda in advance and assign responsibilities that are appropriate for each member.
- Understand the style of communication in the culture that you are involved with. For example, is the community formal or informal? Are schedules composed on rigid time or fluid time? In Asia, these standards can be very country specific.
- Select the right agents to develop and implement the standards of communication for your organization. It is important that they have had "hands-on" experience and are capable of providing practical solutions.
For more information, see our other articles about organizational development.