If communication is faulty, late, and unclear or office politics are allowed to get in the way, then the ultimate loser is the business.



There is an old adage that I have come across many times in reception areas across the country while waiting for my appointment to show. It reads something like "This person can sack everyone in the organisation right up to the chairman - It is the customer and he or she must be looked after at all costs."

The final communication to the customer initially starts from the boardroom, leading down via managers to the employees who in turn are responsible for communicating with the customer.

Thus, breaking this down further, the directors must be able to communicate effectively with each other in the boardroom so that the strategy can implemented and passed to the respective people in the organisation.

But for this to happen, there has to be an understanding of roles within the board and then an effective way of arriving at policy. This may sound obvious but some small businesses contain directors that either arrived by default or due to long service. The hard fact of the matter is that a few directors don't know how to communicate what they are doing.

Each person in the boardroom must be an effective communicator and willing to make allowances for personal traits or the communication within the boardroom itself, never mind the business as a whole will fail.

The same goes for communication of the policy decisions from the managers to their staff, as there will undoubtedly be, in my experience, resistance to any form of change.

People don't like change and will often try and opt out. Any new policy should be communicated clearly and the reason for change laid out so that they make logical sense.

Then, on the staff level, one may encounter office politics or empire building, and this again can and does handicap businesses and the communication within.

So what communicative measures are available to help against this? Again, in my experience, the uses of motivational and bridge-building techniques are invaluable.

Everybody can have a say if need be prior to the directors taking the decision and this creates a feeling of being part of a team. This is where consultation prior to any major decision being taken is invaluable.

This ultimately has the effect of producing a more efficient organisation and projects a much better corporate image within the business and ultimately to the outside world. This in turn will lead to a feeling of confidence among staff and ultimately to the customer. This may even help to increase the order level or the total amount spent.

Word of mouth in the outside world will then take its natural course and the company's market placing should be improved.

With efficient, successful communications existing in a business, this leaves the directors free to focus on the other two main areas necessary for business growth - strategy and marketing.

Focus on these two other areas will theoretically lead to more sales, greater return on capital employed, which in turn can lead to improved profitability if the marketing is carried out properly and eventually, wage increase capability.

This in turn, again hypothetically, should produce a greater feeling of togetherness and ease communication difficulties through increased trust as the people in the organisation benefit from the increased productivity.