[00:00:00] Hi, and welcome to Less Chatter, More Matter, a podcast about all things communication without the waffle. I'm Mel Loi, and in this show, I'll give you short, punchy, practical communication tips and insights you can start using in your communication practices right away. I'm a former corporate communication executive who happily took a redundancy, started my own business, and never looked back.

[00:00:32] These days I use my 20 plus years of experience to guide organizations of all shapes and sizes in how to communicate more effectively. I'm wife to Michael, auntie to 12 nieces and nephews, a gym owner, group fitness instructor, yoga teacher, and a bunch of other things as well. I promise these episodes will always be short, sharp, and insightful, so let's get amongst it.

[00:00:56] Mel: Hi everybody and welcome back to another episode [00:01:00] of Less Chatter More Matter. It is great to have you here whether you are listening in the car, out for a walk, cleaning the house, in between meetings or wherever you prefer to tune in. I personally listen to a lot of podcasts in my car but also when I go for a walk once or twice twice a week for me that's It's time that is spent learning as well as moving.

[00:01:20] Mel: So I'd be interested to know when you listen to a podcast actually. Now speaking of learning, that's what this podcast is all about. So let's get into it. Today's episode is all about what people really mean when they say their organization or team has poor communication and what we can do about that.

[00:01:41] Mel: Now, most organizations typically hold employee engagement surveys once a year or once every couple of years. They might also do smaller pulse surveys in between to track their progress and these surveys are usually run by external organizations because we want that. [00:02:00] Independence and a sense of anonymity and confidentiality, of course.

[00:02:05] Mel: And those surveys usually focus on key elements of an employee's experience at work. And part of that experience is communication, of course. Now I've noticed over many years of not only completing these surveys, but doing the comms plans to support them, that there will sometimes be two to five questions about communication in most of those big surveys.

[00:02:30] Mel: Maybe one, if you're lucky, in the Pulse surveys. The problem I've found with these questions is they're usually very high level. Things like, rate the effectiveness of communication in your organization, or they ask people to respond to statements like, the communication I receive from my leaders is valuable, and do you strongly agree, agree, etc.

[00:02:55] Mel: And so on and so on. So The challenge is what those [00:03:00] questions don't do is give us the why behind people's responses. So if they rate the communication as poor, there's no opportunity to find out what people meant by that. And in my experience, I've found that when results come back, and there are less than stellar ratings around communication, leaders panic and think that more communication is the answer.

[00:03:25] Mel: So then they start doing things like more emails, more videos, more meetings, etc, etc. And look, the thing is, volume of communication is rarely the issue when we're talking about effective communication. If anything, volume is an issue when there's way too much. So for example, frontline teams like people in contact centres who just get bombarded by comms from all areas of the organisation.

[00:03:51] Mel: But the immediate response seems to be what is felt to be the easiest solution, which is just send more comms, which as we just said is not the answer for a lot of [00:04:00] teams. So, today we're going to unpack what employees usually mean when they're rating communication as poor and what we can do about it.

[00:04:09] Mel: And this comes from the experience of myself and my team having worked on probably dozens of these surveys over the years. You might have your own experiences as well that you'd love to share, so please do.

[00:04:22] Mel: So the first reason why people rate their company's communication as poor is because they don't know what's going on in their team. And this is usually the result of leaders not putting the time into regular communication with their team, or maybe they're just struggling to communicate in a hybrid world or with people who we call unwired. So they're not in front of a computer or able to be on their phones all day. It can also be because leaders feel a need to play their cards close to their chest.

[00:04:53] Mel: They're not being open and transparent about what's going on for whatever reason. [00:05:00] It could be they feel it's just not relevant to share particular information with their team, or they're misguided about keeping their team focused on particular things, so they don't want to distract them with this other information.

[00:05:13] Mel: So how do we fix this? If you are a leader of a team that's had this kind of rating, then you must ask for feedback, check in and find out what's working and what's not with your communication. And honestly, it could be an easy fix, but also make sure you've got regular two way communication opportunities in the mix and that you're reaching out to the entire team, not just those who are close by.

[00:05:37] Mel: It's what we call proximity bias. It does happen in hybrid workplaces, so just keep an eye on that as well. The second reason people say communication isn't working is because they don't know what other teams are working on, which is indicative of a silo mentality, and it's very common in workplaces where that silo mentality is left [00:06:00] unchecked.

[00:06:00] Mel: Silos happen because it's easier for leaders to focus on their own patch and in the process they kind of forget that team members need to see how their work connects with others - and that they just might be interested in what else is going on in the organization. Silos can also happen when senior leaders are not aligned with each other and that kind of politics trickles down.

[00:06:25] Mel: When you share what else is going on in other teams, you help to build connections and relationships across an organization, and you foster more of that one team culture. Especially when other teams are working on things that might actually impact your team. So how do we fix this one? Well, leaders, listen up.

[00:06:44] Mel: I mean, If you are in meetings with other leaders, listen to what they're working on. Take notes, take that back to your team and share it. If you don't have those opportunities, you will need to be more proactive and reach out to leaders and find out what [00:07:00] their team is working on. You could even invite them to speak at a team meeting.

[00:07:03] Mel: So maybe that's something you add to the agenda once a month, for example. But it is up to you to make sure that information is being shared, particularly if it can't be found by any other channel, like an intranet or a newsletter. One other thing that I have done in the past when we were part of a more well resourced communications team, was each quarter we would actually pull together a summary of the key priorities for each area of the business for that next quarter and a summary of what they had achieved in the previous quarter and we would share that with the senior leaders so they could then share that with their teams.

[00:07:39] Mel: I'm not sure, to be honest, how much of that actually cascaded down, but at least we were giving them the tools to be able to do that. So if you are in a comms role, that may be something that you want to consider. The third reason why communication can be rated poorly is a big one. It's when people don't know what the organization's strategy is and what [00:08:00] it means to their team.

[00:08:02] Mel: All the research shows that when people see a line of sight between what they do every day and the bigger picture, engagement and performance improve. But, other research has found that even senior managers, the next level down from the C suite - they often can't recall what the organization's strategic goals are, which is concerning.

[00:08:24] Mel: So not being able to articulate the strategy and what it means to our team or our roles individually is often a sign that at the organizational level, communication and change management hasn't been effective. Maybe they tried to do that cascade approach where information was given to leaders to share and they were meant to then share it down the chain.

[00:08:44] Mel: But we know this doesn't work all the time and we need to find other ways to work around this. If you go back to episode 12 of the podcast, that's all about ways to avoid the broken communication cascade. So I recommend you have a listen to that one. [00:09:00] So whatever the reason, without an understanding of strategy, employees can feel a bit lost and left wondering why it is they're turning up every day, why they're doing what they're doing.

[00:09:10] Mel: Or there may be some concern that they don't know where... The organization is heading. So how do we fix this one? Again, it's up to leaders to get a good grasp of the strategy and what it means for their team. And then make sure they're sharing that with their team and checking for understanding. But you don't just do that once.

[00:09:31] Mel: You need to reinforce the strategic alignment in your team regularly where it makes sense. Sharing the wins and how other teams are helping to achieve goals can also help demonstrate the strategy in action. And again, reinforce why they're doing what they're doing. Another reason we get poor communication ratings in engagement surveys is because leaders aren't communicating in ways that meet their team's needs.

[00:09:56] Mel: And this happens when leaders don't ask for [00:10:00] feedback and communicate in the way that suits them, not the diverse needs of their team. We've spoken about this a lot on this podcast, the need to adapt your communication style to suit your audience. That is a key skill of leadership communication. So if leaders are only communicating through text or email, for example, when their team actually really values teams meetings or one on ones and the opportunity to ask questions, then of course communication will be rated poorly.

[00:10:30] Mel: Another example might be if leaders don't share an agenda before a meeting or don't have regularly scheduled meetings and just spontaneously book them in last minute. That doesn't suit the needs of people who need time to prepare and process, for example. So the fix here is for leaders to again, ask for feedback, but also check in with team members about their preferred communication methods and how they learn and think.

[00:10:56] Mel: If you're not sure how to do this, you can take our free [00:11:00] communication personality type quiz, which is available on our website and I'll link to it in the show notes. Now, once you're armed with this knowledge, you can then tailor your communication much more effectively, both individually and at the team level.

[00:11:13] Mel: So do yourself a favor and find out what they need. The last reason I'll share today is when people hear what's happening from other teams or outside sources. before they hear it from their leader. It is never a good look when a team member hears something important about their role or their team from someone else in the organization, or even through a friend or social media, for example.

[00:11:40] Mel: It really erodes trust and it makes it look like the leader either isn't well informed or was hiding information from them. Either way. Doesn't look good. It can also make people feel like their leader just doesn't care and it contributes to that silo culture we were talking about earlier. So how do we fix this one?

[00:11:59] Mel: [00:12:00] Well, leaders have to be ahead of the game and get connected with the people in your organizations who make decisions that influence your team. That way you can be in a position to share that vital information. Also, commit to being the person who shares the news first and quickly. Even if you don't have all the information or all the answers yet, being transparent is part of what builds trust.

[00:12:26] Mel: Okay, let's do a quick recap of what we've discussed today. The reasons why people are rating your organization's or your team's communication as ineffective include number one, people don't know what's going on in their team, so their leader needs to share more information. Number two, people don't know what other teams are working on, so they're feeling disconnected and wondering why everyone is there.

[00:12:49] Mel: And again, leaders need to take responsibility for sharing this information, but so does the organization at a broader level. Number three, people [00:13:00] don't know what the organization's strategy is and what it means to their team. And as we've mentioned, when people can't align their work to the strategy, productivity and engagement suffer.

[00:13:10] Mel: So leaders need to make a concerted effort to understand the strategy themselves and then share that in a way that's really meaningful for their team. Number four leaders aren't communicating in a way that suits their teams. So leaders need to really master the skill of adapting their communication style to meet the styles of their team members, which takes getting feedback and getting to know your team.

[00:13:36] Mel: And finally, people hear more about what's happening. In their team or in the organization from other teams or outside sources before they hear it from their own leader. So leaders need to commit to being the first people to share the news and be on the front foot. Ultimately, a lot of this is about people not just feeling well informed and not [00:14:00] feeling connected to the strategy or each other or teams.

[00:14:03] Mel: We can work on those and we can deliver that in ways that meets the communication needs of our audiences. And if we do those things, we can improve those communication scores. If we don't, we lose trust in leadership, which leads to a whole raft of other issues, right? Things like high turnover, poor reputation as an employer, making it harder to attract new talent.

[00:14:29] Mel: So, if you do have an employee engagement survey coming up, what can you do? Firstly, if you have the opportunity to see the questions before the survey goes out, and you have the opportunity to influence them, absolutely take it. See if you can get some other questions in there that speak more to the why behind a rating.

[00:14:48] Mel: So, for example, ask really simply, what's working well with communication and what could be improved, rather than asking for a rating. Secondly, prepare for the [00:15:00] potential results. Knowing that there's always going to be the possibility of a poor communication rating, what could you do once the results come out to get more insights?

[00:15:10] Mel: Things like focus groups are great for these. Uh, an additional pulse survey with some of those why questions, polls on your intranets, just picking up the phone and getting some feedback from around the organization. Getting that level of detail will arm you with the facts you need to address any pain points, but also will help you elevate the things that are working well.

[00:15:31] Mel: And we really want to do that. So that's all for today's episode. Thank you for listening in from wherever you are. As always, if you have any questions or any topics you'd like me to cover, please get in touch. And if you could take a minute or two to write podcast app of choice, I'd love you forever.

[00:15:50] Mel: I'll be back next week with a fresh episode of Less Chatter, More Matter, and keep doing amazing things. Bye for now.