Have you ever played the telephone game? It is a common exercise utilized by some corporate trainers and consultants as an icebreaker to demonstrate the importance of active listening. If you are unfamiliar with the game, here is how it works:
Employees arrange themselves in a circle or a straight line. The game begins with someone whispering a phrase into the ear of the person to their right. This continues as the whispered phrase works through the players until it reaches the last person in the circle or line. The last player then says the phrase out loud, to the entire group. During the game, the phrase can only be whispered once, so each person must pay close attention. Not surprisingly, the last player typically shares a phrase that is significantly changed compared to the original phrase. The exercise is fun and provides participants a quick lesson on how easily information can be miscommunicated and misinterpreted.
Interestingly, a real telephone game gets played out daily at the workplace. Every day, tons of information is communicated within organizations. Information is shared across, up and down organizations with the assumption that messages are clear, concise and understood. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. In addition, even if the original communications are “clear as a bell,” there are no guarantees that information will be shared and disseminated in a way that the original messages stay intact.
If you are finding that your organization’s communications are poorly communicated consider these ideas:
→ Choose your words wisely: Ensure that your words are clear, simple and understandable.
→ Answer the six W’s: Your communications should always address the “who, what, when, where, why and how.”
→ Overcommunicate: Most corporate messaging benefits from repetition.
→ Choose the right communication tools: Consider the audience when disseminating information within your organization. This will often dictate which tools will be most effective. Don’t shy away from using multiple media channels to communicate information.
→ It starts at the top: If you are an organizational leader, have you created an environment of trust and respect in your workplace? If you genuinely listen to employees, you will soon see people opening up to you like never before. You will be leading by example, and your management team will follow suit.
→ Staff Meetings: Encourage people to speak up at staff meetings. If they do, don’t blow their ideas out of the water. If you squash ideas, there is little likelihood those employees will ever offer suggestions or feedback again.
→ Eliminate anonymity: If you need to have employees provide feedback anonymously, then you probably have a heck of a lot of work to do relative to opening up communication lines and reducing the “fear factor.” Whether it is a suggestion box or an employee opinion/engagement survey, your goal should be to have employees participate enthusiastically without the need for confidentiality.
→ Performance Reviews: Companies that have an environment of open communications provide ongoing feedback to employees, throughout the year, rather than waiting for the traditional once a year formal performance review.
→ Give credit where credit is due: Ensure that you are publicly praising and rewarding employees who provide great ideas that benefit the company. It sends a wonderful, powerful and positive message to the staff that ideas are welcome and encouraged.
→ It starts with interviews: Make sure that candidates for open positions understand that employees are encouraged and expected to be active participants in the success of the organization.
→ Hire and keep the right people: Work hard at identifying the best people for open positions and focusing on retaining the employees that drive 100 percent of your organization’s results. Keeping employees with poor attitudes about themselves and their work will hold you back, negatively affect open communications and discourage the type of positive workplace you seek.
Hopefully some of these ideas will be helpful to you and your team. Whether it is communicating tasks, objectives, goals, news, policies, procedures or your company’s missions and values, it is vital that your team attempt to minimize the distortion that naturally occurs when employees communicate with one another.
There are many more ways to support open communications with your entire staff. It takes a lot of work and happens over time. In an era where so many people hide behind electronic communications and social media to communicate, it can be challenging to maintain a high level of interpersonal communications at your organization. Yet, if you are successful, you will find that you will no longer have to ask employees their ideas anonymously and not wonder what your people are thinking.
Incidentally, it might be humorous to hear the results of a distorted message in a telephone game simulation, but hurting your business because of poor internal communications is not a laughing matter.