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

“The leaders of the world aren’t a very impressive group right now…Many are young, yet so much around them feels tired.” Peggy Noonan in WSJ Review article, ‘A World in Crisis, and No Genius in Sight’ – July 2016

    Communication is the lifeblood of all dynamic and effective organizations. And yet, all the signs are that we’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to understanding the nature of communication within them.

We’ve made certain strides when it comes to connecting with the masses or selling our products or services. However, with those inside our ventures or specific audiences we wish to engage, we still have a long way to go. It’s the next big door to open for really achieving full participation and optimizing our people’s contributions.

You’re already stunned. “What’s the beef?” you’re asking. Our reality is that we’re still largely bound by a ‘one-way’ versus ‘two-way’ communication approach. “What’s the difference?” you may ask. Apart from the enormous difference in participation and output two-way dialog brings; one-way is where executives rattle-off their expectations, along with their rules and overall narrative, and then expect everything to fall into place.

Governments do it, institutions do it, companies do it, and most other types of organizations do it, too. They cannot help themselves because that’s the way it’s always been done, since time immemorial. Tell your staff what needs to be done and then expect it to happen. You already appreciate this very commonplace way of doing things; but that doesn’t mean to say that it’s right!

If only organizations realized how much they’re missing by sticking with the one-way, communication status-quo, then that would be half the battle. An astute business leader this writer is familiar with, who has developed an alternative, highly successful business model, which is being studied by many, has placed productivity in our typical, one-way communication organizations at anywhere between 15-37%. By this writer’s book that’s a pretty fair estimate.

Since this mid-western business leader’s ventures have worked extremely hard at two-way communication, all the indications are that his localized, integrated businesses achieve at least twice that amount. His ventures are full of highly engaged people, who are pretty upbeat most of the time, and all entities are appropriately profitable.

He doesn’t need to borrow money because their cluster of ventures generates all the growth capital needed. His staff doesn’t need to worry about national or international expansion, since they accomplish all their incredible growth from the local economy…and it’s not a small business enterprise either. Look up his venture, Zingerman’s, in Ann Arbor.

The other half of the battle is engendering the desire within executives and “supervisors” for change. Most organizations don’t possess that appetite for change. They would much rather go on digging the same hole, even though there’s no real gold in it anymore, rather than go and dig another hole somewhere else with far greater prospects. Starting at the very pinnacle: so many country governments need to change, to really help their people, but they persistently stick with the status-quo. (Note our opening quote: ‘The leaders of the world aren’t a very impressive group right now.’)

The reality is that those leaders and so many in executive ranks aren’t really leaders. They are more venture managers who prefer efficiency approaches, which keep their entities ticking over and their rewards intact. That way, they are more likely to remain at the helm and minimize any growth headaches. On one level you can’t blame them. On another, it makes you want to pull your hair out; when you think of the wasted opportunities and how everyone’s prospects are minimized owing to executive self-interest…they’re always pushing against this reality at Zingerman’s.

Two-way communication is one heck of a powerful tool for breaking through this conundrum. Two-way means, not only are the executives fully heard, but everyone else within the organization is fully heard, too…including the people on the frontline. Trouble is: we’re still living in times where the frontline folks are still working in a world where, “Your’s is not the reason why: your’s is just to do or die!”

Such thinking is so fallacious in this day and age, where people in advanced nations are way better educated to be exposed to such attitudes. They are more worldly through media access and are willing to contribute if given the right opportunity. Trouble is, so many executives either don’t know how to tap into this well-spring of capability or perhaps aren’t interested in doing so; because they wish to perpetuate the status-quo. Only when in deep trouble are they willing to consider alternatives, but then it’s too often, too late.

Quite off the bat, let’s take two great scenarios to consider the power of two-way communication:

» Engaging our people – An area where this writer has often been involved, is to facilitate the full-engagement of an organization’s people in its future prospects – for both non-profit and for-profit entities. Given the right opportunity and setting, people love to pitch-in on where their venture is heading. But few organizations do so because they either feel their people have nothing to contribute or they find it easier to keep them in the dark.

The concept of fully-engaging your people through two-way communication is relatively simple but powerful. Even so, executives often share complex reasons for not pursuing such ideas…including traditional thinking. Full-engagement, two-way communication basically follows 7 moves:

• Leader proposes an outline vision-framework for their enterprise.
• Leader shares and encourages adjustments and additions to this framework by his/her executive team as a way of gaining its buy-in.
• Executive team forms paired-teams among themselves to pursue the most promising initiatives.
• Paired-executive teams enlist up to 4-5 from across their enterprise, for joining each executive-pair in fleshing out practical, priority growth initiatives. Such sub-teams create strong, identifiable team names to capture the attention of the whole organization and build team camaraderie.
• Sub-teams put together detailed action initiatives, which are then shared with the entire organization. At this moment, anyone from across the venture who wishes to join the sub-teams is invited to do so.
• Sub-teams keep originating leader informed of progress, as well as other sub-teams, to sustain enthusiasm across the board.
• When enough progress has been made, the exercise is repeated through fresh strategic growth initiatives.

(NOTE: Such an approach creates enormous energy and commitment within an organization.)

»Engaging an Audience – How often have you participated in a forum audience with a panel of experts on the stage? Have you become bored with less than stellar speakers? How often do you feel you are being ‘talked-at’ rather than being fully engaged in the forum; with the opportunity to express ideas and opinions, and even seek a little advice? That’s why you’re there, after all, right?

    Instead, let the forum moderator and the expert panelists give their brief pitch. Then:

• Allow the audience to sub-divide to as many tables as there are expert panel
• Allow audience members to engage with their chosen panelist at that table.
• Where time permits, allow audience members to rotate among tables – say at least three moves.
• Toward the forum’s end, allow expert panelists to summarize the nature of their table discussions.
• Provide an opportunity at the end, for audience members to connect with other like-minded members to pursue helpful initiatives.
• Where possible, connect panelists with any ad-hoc, initiative teams that are formed – where those panelists are willing to do so – to encourage progress on the initiative at hand.

(NOTE: Such a two-way approach creates great enthusiasm among the audience: and the panelists are able learn a lot, too.)

There are many other scenarios where two-way communication will bring significant advances over our traditional one-way approach. Oodles of energy and commitment are generated at the above examples. So what are you afraid of, apart from experiencing levels of engagement and commitment you cannot handle?

To learn more about two-way communication, talk with: