CHICAGO — Between smartphones, social media, streaming services and a seemingly endless array of digital distractions, getting through to your team requires more intentional effort than ever before.
For a drycleaning operator, this communication challenge is particularly acute. His or her staff needs to understand complex processes, maintain consistent customer-service standards and adapt to changing demands — all the while navigating society’s information overload.
The solution isn’t necessarily more communication tools, but rather a more thoughtful approach to when, how and why you communicate.
The Modern Communication Challenge
The sheer volume of information competing for attention today is staggering, says Sean Abbas, president of Threads Inc., a performance management software company that provides HR tools focused on company culture and employee development.
“There are so many things in the world today vying for people’s attention,” he says. “People are trying to communicate messages on social media and all the other places they gather information. … It’s the music they listen to, the maps they look at, the places they go for recommendations, and so on. The biggest challenge is just being heard amidst everything that’s going on.”
Jan Barlow, who owns Jan’s Professional Dry Cleaners in Clio, Mich., has experienced this challenge firsthand as she’s worked to implement more structured communication systems in her business.
“The biggest challenge, I think, is time,” she says. “Trying to schedule when you can meet with them and discuss whatever it is that you want to discuss, because everybody is always busy. So, you want that time to be meaningful.”
The onslaught of communication options has created a paradox: While we have more ways than ever to reach people, the messages often lose their personal impact.
Abbas notes that this isn’t entirely a new phenomenon.
“If you listed a top issue with employers 50 years ago, it was communication,” he says. “Forty years ago? Communication. Thirty years ago? Communication. The environment has changed, but communication issues have been there for decades.”
What has changed, says Abbas, is the nature of the tools: “We have a lot more ways to communicate that are impersonal, and we’re often choosing to communicate personal messages via very impersonal means.”
Building Structure into Communication
One solution is to create more structured, predictable communication systems that cut through the noise by being consistent and meaningful.
Barlow has found success by implementing a systematic approach based on the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS).
“We have tried to schedule meetings on the same day at the same time every week,” she says. “They know when it’s scheduled. We also have the same agenda with every meeting, so they know exactly what to expect.”
This predictability serves a crucial purpose beyond just scheduling convenience.
“If you have meetings whenever you want to have them and then, all of a sudden, you don’t have a meeting for a while, everything falls apart because you can’t build trust,” Barlow says.
Visual elements within the systematic approach reinforce the structure.
“We have a public accountability chart so that everybody knows who they’re supposed to be reporting to,” Barlow says, “and that’s clearly documented and on the wall. Then, we have our vision statement that tells you everything about our business — our core values, our core focus, our five-year target and our marketing strategy.”
Come back Thursday for Part 2 of this series, where we’ll explore how to choose the right communications method for the message, as well as ways to measure communication success.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].
