Culture Hacker

11CommunicationWhy One Size or One Way Doesn't Fit All

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.

—Plato, Greek philosopher

Communication may be our most important cultural tool, just as it may be our most important business, leadership, and managerial tool. It is everything and, really, the foundation of many of the mechanisms we have discussed so far. You must be willing to utilize multiple mediums and platforms effectively to ensure your messages are heard and understood. Author John W. Gardner suggested, “If one had to name a single, all-purpose instrument of leadership, it would be communication.”¹

Communication is how any manager or business socializes its employees to understand what is most important and how to be successful while also keeping everyone up to date with what is happening around the office and with the business.

When my team and I begin working with an organization, one of the first cultural mechanisms we test is communication. We look at the various mediums being utilized and spend time talking to front-line staff members about how they are communicated to and what information is shared with them. We also talk to the front-line supervisors who are caught between management and staff—literally between a rock and a hard place. What we often find is too much reliance on emails by managers, boring and ineffective meetings, front-line staffers who have become resigned to a lack of communication, and frustrated ...