Mostly our world seems geared to receive mode. The amount of information we’re deluged with daily is testament to how little we have to do to get information. Or is it?
We face a number of challenges here. With so much data coming at us we may become a little lazier, try less to access information of value. Over time we perhaps become less curious, less likely to question and to reason.
The need to question, to go deeper, is imperative when the information coming our way is often lacking any substance we can think through and make wise choices on. We might think here about how much of social media content owes more to style than substance. Likewise, how deep do we dig to understand what our politicians really stand for and are planning when it comes to casting our vote in elections?
We can see this happening in many organisations too. That isn’t necessarily a leadership play to withhold or water down information (underestimating what the ‘troops’ can handle). It may, instead, be the relentless drive for results draining reserves of time to really think about and enact deeper communication.
Yet receive mode is akin to organisational stasis and decline. We know an organisation is infected when, despite a wealth of communication activity, there’s a constant narrative that ‘no one ever tells us anything.’ Communication may be happening but it isn’t landing. It may be lack of substance and/or a lack of embedding into the daily conversations between managers and colleagues – those places where questions can be asked and meaning made.
For leaders the challenge, then, is threefold…to ensure communication has the substance that matters to their people. To move communication style from tell/broadcast to dialogue. To foster a culture of curiosity, challenge and listening where questioning is valued above mute compliance.
Such dialogue builds connection, relationship and trust. It helps people feel heard, feel that they have a genuine say in the organisation and are able to take action to aid its progression. And it unlocks new perspectives and ideas for change.
If it feels like there’s no time or space to shift the dial on this we might consider the amount of time we spend communicating each day – for leaders and managers that’s typically said to be about 80 per cent of their time. If we’re making such a whopping investment surely we want to make it count?