Long Before the Internet

21st Century Business Ideas 

by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc.®

Dovecot-Junel2015   

 Have you seen a dovecot before? This is a French 17th-century one, which housed pigeons that carried messages to and from the city of Bordeaux. Pigeons were carried on ships, by armies, and by merchants to send vital messages back to home base.

 

You are probably chuckling by now and, if you’re of the millennial generation or younger, you’re even laughing. But four hundred years ago pigeons were a key communication lifeline: hence they had such fancy buildings for housing them. Carrier pigeons were used as message-critters for many generations before this dovecot was built.

 

Pigeon-fanciers then were as important as today’s computer programmers or software engineers. There are still many amateur fanciers in the world today, who are in love with pigeons and their uncanny ability to carry messages over thousands of miles. It took people like Morse and Bell to discover other ways to send signals or conversations over wires to change all that.  

 

Our social media generations have likely not stopped giggling at the thought. A review of carrier-pigeons would seem like a total waste of time to them. And yet, at one point, it was the only communication game in town. Prior to that, messaging depended upon long distance runners: hence the marathon race at the Olympics.

 

Communication, in all its forms, has long been essential to a functioning society or organization. A lot of ambitious executives often don’t appreciate the wisdom of  how their organizations can only grow as far and fast as their communication lines remain strong. Once those lines begin to weaken, so expansion begins to falter.         

 

  “…executives often don’t appreciate the wisdom of how their organizations  can only grow as far and fast as their commun-ication lines remain strong.”     

 

Such realities also hold true within an office, operating plant, or academic campus. Effective communication is what inspires people to give of their best; to cooperate with each other; to move forward against the odds. Even then, there are so many different styles and preferences in communication that, in many instances, interpersonal messaging becomes confused by misunderstandings and misconceptions.

 

Suppose, then, we had a much more explicit and modern code of practice for communicating with each other. So that, not only did we understand our own style-preferences, but we understood each other’s style-preferences, too?

 

This writer has come to understand  four primary styles in personal communication: The Producer, Analyzer, Innovator and Diplomat – or PAID as an acronym. We can take it as given there are numerous other styles, but it is important to put a stake in the ground somewhere. These are probably the most common and pretty self-explanatory.

 

Of course, we can immediately speculate about numerous combinations of PAID. Take an executive, whose first two style-preferences are Producer-1st and Diplomat-2nd. Combined they could indicate an executive who primarily prefers discussions about results and progress,  but in a reasonably diplomatic and people-oriented way. Whereas, if that executive were a Producer-1st and an Analyzer-2nd, (s)he would be seen discussing results in a highly rational, analytical and detail-oriented fashion.

 

It’s not appropriate, within these parameters, to discuss which mode is right or wrong, because people are who they are. Their communication style has been shaped by their fundamental personality; as well as their parents, schooling, friends, role models and work experiences to date. They’ve probably even chosen a career based upon their preferred communication style; e.g. a scientist as an Analyzer-1st, or a Salesperson – as a Diplomat-1st, and so on: although, not exclusively.

 

Even so, just think of the advantages of understanding your boss’s preferred communication style –  in terms of PAID – and (s)he understanding yours; for better or worse. It would open the possibility of closing communication gaps, or at least allow for making appropriate adjustments, so as to overcome misunderstandings or misperceptions.

“Oh sorry, Joe (Producer), I overlooked to reorder my presentation, so as to give you the key result headlines first, before offering you the detail (Analyzer).” OR

“I thought you might like to look at some of our latest ideas, Beth (Innovator), before talking about the more mundane(Analyzer) issues.”

 

Equally, an executive-leader , with a better understanding of his/her team members’ communication styles, could close the gap in briefing or debriefing them. For example:

“Michael (Diplomat), how can we better dialog with our customers in a way that will inspire them to buy our products?” OR

“Sarah (Analyzer), I intend giving you enough time to explain all your rationale for pursuing these particular markets.”

 

So, returning full circle on the issue of communication, executives have to take bigger leaps  in the way they communicate with those around them, if they are going to tap into their people’s full potential. In the same way that we have moved from the dovecot to the Internet over the past four hundred years, we have to adopt modern communication strategies that will inspire the social-media-loving GenCs and Millennials to step-up to their full potential.

 

It’s better than complaining about the younger generations’ lack of motivation, when the problem probably lies within ourselves and our out-of-date mode of communicating.

 

Even GenCs and Millennials are at risk of adopting our outdated modes because they don’t know any better. But, at the same time, they are confused because they instinctively know there is a more productive way to discuss things relative to their own generation’s culture.

 

Interpersonal communication is a major area for advancement to complement our virtual communication world. If we knew the person’s communication preferences at the other end of an email, text, Twitter, Instagram, and so forth, we could position our words and propositions more favorably to engage them …see the earlier examples.

 

By communicating more effectively with our team members, customers, executives, students, board members, colleagues; there’s every reason to expect generating greater goodwill that will increase our organization’s performance by 20-30% over time.  

 

To learn more about Leadership Solutions’ Communication Style-Preference Survey, please contact: