Communication: Can you hear me now?

"He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met." - Abraham Lincoln

In more situations than I care to admit, I have sometimes been told during discussions, "Get to the point!", "Great, but my question was...," or even the rare, "I think you have a run-on sentence or two in your essay."  I suffer from what I like to call verbosititis, or, talking too much but saying too little!  With that, I would like to discuss briefly* how communication is important.

I believe that one of the most important fundamental skills anyone would need in a leadership position, or any situation for that matter, would be that of communication.  It is up to the leader of an organization to state their expectations and delegations clearly, just as it is the responsibility for followers to provide constructive feedback and communicate with the leader regarding his/her expectations.  Therefore, the first step to a successful enterprise is establishing an efficient loop of communication among the different branches of a group, from the lowest root to the apex, and everything in between.  Otherwise, one may risk a breakdown in communication and failure in goals.  An example of such a breakdown is in this short story illustrating what is known among Discordians as the SNAFU Principle (Warning: this does contain some NSFW language): http://snafu.priv.at/jargon/html/S/SNAFU-principle.html

Of course, many forget the other equally important half of communication, listening.  Just as ideas must be expressed in a clear and concise manner, one must also ensure that whoever is listening gets the full picture, with no room for misunderstandings.  Going back to the example of the SNAFU Principle, by not listening or verifying the validity of what was being said, each "leader" passed on an increasing opposite view of reality to their superiors, resulting in failure.

So in conclusion, remember, if you need to ask a person "What was your question again?," or you hear "Go for it," instead place of "Don't do it," you should probably work on those communication skills.

*Or at least briefer than if I were given the opportunity to speak in person ... and maybe given enough time too.

Chaaaange! (Part 2)

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." - Lincoln

Last blog, I'd talked about change and how it might not always be the best choice, but what happens when it can't be averted, and is even needed in a group environment?  In that case the most important element to consider is establishing the best guiding coalition to get the change started.

Without support, the idea of change, whether good or bad, lives and dies with the origin of it.  The leader may create the change, use his/her referent power to build up support for it, and use his/her legitimate power to enforce it.  However, as soon as the leader is out of their position, the organization will slowly revert back to the way it was before the change, unless the idea is firmly rooted in all aspects of the organization.  That is where the guiding coalition comes into play.  Not only are they the ones who will create ways to implement the change, they are the movers and the thinkers that will make the pill just that much more easier to swallow.