John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Brilliant Communication

PART FIVE: Communicating in Organizations

The major mistake in communication is to believe that it happens of its own accord.

Anonymous

Organizations are essentially communication systems. In the old days organizations were staffed by two classes: the communicators (managers) and the communicated-to (the workers), with a third class, the ‘white-collar workers’ in the office, somewhere in between.

The immense impact of unprecedented change has completely altered that picture. Now everyone who works for an organization is responsible for good communication: upwards, downwards and sideways. Part Five profiles these essential directions or flows of information.

Completely integrated into this internal system are the two other key flows of information: ...