Every organisation across the globe seems to struggle with communication when you hear the feedback from leaders or through the various channels they have for feedback, including staff surveys, focus groups, committees, etc.
But it’s easy, isn’t it? You just tell the people those things that you think they want to hear, in a timescale that suits the person/team sending the message, in a format that is easiest to use, such as email, a note with the payslips, or even a message on a screen, and make sure you manage the narrative — because after all, knowledge is power! Oh, and I forgot to mention you have to say that you value their feedback too.
Follow these principles and communication is easy – so what is all the fuss about?
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place”
George Bernard Shaw is quoted as saying, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” If we add the word “Effective” to the title of this short piece, then the landscape changes dramatically. We now have a whole different ball game that makes things far more difficult to achieve, but far more rewarding for organisations and people or a team delivering effective communication within an organisation. There are numerous types of communication, and I am never going to do this wide-ranging topic justice in this short piece.
In the world of effective health and safety management, communication is vital and is covered through legislation in countries around the world. Here in the UK, the HSW Act 1974 has a general duty on an employer to provide “information, instruction, training and supervision”, and consulting with employees is also picked up through the Safety Representatives and Safety Committee Regulations 1977 and the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996. But enough about the law — complying with the legislation is the bare minimum. Making consultation (communication) effective is where the benefits are to organisations. The recent emergence of Psychological Safety — around inclusion safety, learner safety, contributor safety and challenger safety — is all based on the idea that it’s OK to call things out, raise ideas or questions in an environment with the absence of interpersonal fear.
I have always remembered an example of effective communication which was shared with me many years ago. The Managing Director of an engineering firm would spend an hour on a Tuesday and a Thursday walking the plant and speaking to his workforce (we could debate whether that was sufficient, but it would detract from my point). The HR Director was tasked with ensuring personnel files were up to date about individuals and had a photograph in the file. The MD would select two files and digest the image, where they would be working that morning, and the details of their file before he went walkabout. He would say hello to everyone but make a beeline for the two he wanted to speak to, engaging in communication with them, picking out details from their personal file, asking them their views and giving them the impression that he truly cared about them. Productivity increased, absenteeism fell, turnover fell, and the number of incidents or near misses also dropped. So many business wins for the sake of effective communication.
Tailoring Communication for Impact Across Diverse Organisations
The world has changed, with communication technology advancements allowing better forms of face-to-face communication across organisations, and it is important to recognise that what is right in one organisation may not be right in another for a whole host of reasons. One key aspect I am very conscious of when communicating messages is that it is not what is being sent; it is what is being received that is critical for effective communication. Considerations when communicating with individuals, and especially groups, will include scale, the medium used, geography, language issues, or timing. The greater the footprint of an organisation, the more thought is needed for communicating messages, face-to-face always being the option that people refer to as their chosen option. I have budgeted in many of my roles for a percentage of a communications specialist’s salary and time to be allocated to support the communication I wanted to set up and share, knowing how vital getting communications right is within the field of health and safety.
Throughout history, communication has changed to adapt to the world we are living in, from mimetic, oral, literate, electric and now electronic. Some examples of communication formats include smoke signals (the first message being “Help! My blanket is on fire”), Morse code, carrier pigeon, newspapers, etc.
There are many examples of communication that have spanned history. The ones I have selected were all oral and are remembered to this day — Winston Churchill’s “We will fight them on the beaches”, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream”, and on 19th November 1863, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address saw him speak for less than three minutes using only 270 words that shaped a nation: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal……..”. There are many other examples of moments in history that were communicated, and they have all considered not only the message being sent but how it would be perceived.
Elizabeth I is a great example. When threatened by the Spanish Armada and having to deliver a speech to entire armies of men, she said, “I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England too.” She knew she had to consider how the message would be perceived. Having acknowledged this critical point in a communications approach, it proceeded to change their minds — and the rest, as they say, is history.
Building Effective Communication: Principles and Practices at Every Level
When considering the best and most effective communication tools within organisations, some frameworks can be utilised, and there is a whole industry of communication professionals and bodies in this space. The common themes seem to be around: clear, correct, complete, concrete, concise, considered, and courteous — across three distinct levels within an organisation.
Individual – looking at active listening, clear speech and non-verbal communication.
Departmental – practices within teams and departments, as well as their ability to share information and collaborate.
Organisational – the overall strategy, its approach to dealing with stakeholders and reputational management.
Communication is a two-way process. As Simon Sinek sees it, “Effective communication starts with listening.” When feedback is received, it’s important that it is reviewed and there is a mechanism to feed back. It is not always possible to please all of the people all of the time with everything that they want, but there is a need to be able to demonstrate that the feedback has been reviewed and that outcomes are fed back to those who raised the feedback. Many organisations may have something of a similar vein to a notice board or other approach that states, “This is what you told us & this is what we did about it.”
Effective communication isn’t easy, but making a fuss about attempting to get it right — being proactive, concise, and most importantly keeping the receivers in mind — will allow dialogue and information flow to move in the right direction.
About the Author
Gerry Mulholland is an award-winning HSE Director with over 35 years’ experience, specialising in high-hazard environments. A Chartered Fellow of IOSH and strategic leader in safety culture, communication, and behavioural change across global organisations, with a proven track record in performance improvement
