The Myth of Communication

When surveyed, employees often indicate that they want more communication. The response to this is often short-lived, involving a flurry of newsletters, executive addresses, and an increase in email traffic, yet it inevitably misses the point. This is because the very notion of communication is misunderstood.

A default concept of communication seems to depend on a picture of information as a substance that moves from one person to another, like water poured from a pitcher into a glass. (Which suddenly makes those teacher admonitions to "sit still!" so much more comprehensible.) But communication doesn't work like that.

Instead, communication is a process of remote control, pushing buttons from afar, and hoping that you get it right. When I say "freedom" to you, I actually push your "freedom" word button. For one person that sounds like tiresome 4th of July speeches, to another it means complete lack of accountability, and to a third it conjures an invigorating concept. Depending on what interpretation the word freedom launches in your brain, what I say has very different meanings.

To compound this problem of communication, almost invariably organizations are made up of a variety of functions. Each function - accounting, legal, engineering, advertising, production - has a different worldview and is inclined to interpret any communication differently from the other. Hence, a large stream of communication that flows through any organization inevitably shows up as chatter, as static, rather than a meaningful signal or message.

When employees say that they need more communication, they aren't asking for more static. They are asking to be heard. Until you hear their story, understand their frustrations, goals, and experiences, you don't even know how to talk to them. Worse, as long as a person goes unheard, he or she gradually grows disengaged from your enterprise.

It is no myth that your organization needs more communication. It is a myth that such communication should begin with even more management pronouncements.