“I feel like no one in my organization knows what’s going on.”
Does this sound familiar? Finding a way to effectively communicate in any organization is a challenge. When I had my company this seemed like an insurmountable problem that never went away. A failure to communicate can wreak major havoc on your company. But, believe it or not, just three steps will solve your communication gaps.
Too Many Things to Track
Without clear processes, by the time you figure out the status of a project, it’s already changed. And with so many moving parts, how can you ensure everyone’s on the same page? How do you make sure the team in shipping knows the priorities of the company? And what actually happens in the customer service department?
Beyond the actions necessary to conduct business, how do you measure culture or share company wins? Do you know if employees enjoy coming to work? Have personnel issues caused unnecessary roadblocks? Who forgot to send the memo (again) on the new customer order to operations?
Three Steps to Solving Your Communications Gaps
The solution to this communications conundrum involves you and your leadership team. By implementing an organizational meeting pulse, you create a systematic rhythm of effective communication. And yes, this involves only three steps.
1. Share Your Company Vision Once a Quarter
Everyone in your organization needs to know who you are as a company. They need to know where the company is going and how to get there. You can’t just read your vision. You must make the conversation interactive to bring your vision to life. Tell stories, share examples, and have customers or community members share the impact of your company vision. This activity will also create engaged, “sticky” employees.
2. Once a Quarter, Every Employee Must Review Expectations with Their Supervisor
Not so much a formal quarterly review, this conversation between leader and subordinate creates clear expectations, for both parties. This conversation lets great employees know their value and helps off-track employees get back on track.
The quarterly conversation should:
- Evaluate how well an employee emulates the core values of the company
- Provide an opportunity for the supervisor to give feedback on how the employee performs job duties
- Allow the employee to give feedback on the company
- Create space for the employee to share what they need from the supervisor to be successful
This allows both to understand the expectations of the other. It also uncovers issues deep in the organization that cause bottlenecks while giving the employee an empowering voice.
3. Everyone in the Company Should Attend One Weekly Meeting
Meetings happen on the same day at the same time, start and end on time, and have the same agenda.
Successful meetings include three very important components:
- A look-back to celebrate previous period wins, and a check-in to make sure team members met commitments to the team
- A way to objectively define how to win the next week – a scorecard and a small set of priorities would do the trick
- Time allotted to talk about and solve team obstacles to having a successful week
That’s it. Share your vision, talk to everyone in the company, and get every employee in a regular meeting. In my experience, the communication puzzle you can’t seem to solve will suddenly come together in a beautiful way.
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