Is Your Team Hearing Two Voices?

May 31, 2008 12:00 PM

Why is Communication Challenging? Is Your Team Hearing two voices?

We're not all crazy, but many people immersed in corporate cultures hear two voices - they hear what their colleagues are telling them, and then a little voice inside their head attaches all sorts of meaning to it.. meaning which is inaccurate 50% of the time! 

I'm a pretty practical person most of the time; I believe in the power of human potential, and I'm keen to see people and groups perform at their peak.. but don't normally attend seminars with the Anthony Robbins crowd, it's a little too far-out for me sometimes. About a year ago, I was dragged out to one of these types of seminars, and some lady is at the front explaining to us that we all hear two voices.. "huh?" I thought to myself, "two voices.. this lady is nuts, I can't believe I signed up for this?" then I listened again, and this voice told me, "the guy next to me must go to these things all the time, like he has too much time on his hands." Wow! this second voice of ours is pretty harsh!

The next day, in the boardroom, I watched someone ask a colleague a simple question, and it turned into a cordial version of world war two! That one question could have been answered directly and in five seconds, and we could move on, instead we spent an hour completely immersed in office politics! So now that we realize how much politics has a real cost to the organization, as well as the welfare of our team, what can we do?

A Few Ways to Open Up Communication & Understanding in your Organization:

• Start all meetings with a light-hearted opener
• Use a moderator who has control of the meeting
• Celebrate victories together
• Use failures as learning opportunities
• Actively discourage politics by acknowledging that it exists and agreeing that nobody likes it!
• Encourage full event participation
• Create opportunities to develop camaraderie with the entire team
• Run great events that aren't all business
• Do fundraising events together

 

Posted by James Carter at May 31, 2008 12:00 PM

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