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 begun to scratch the surface when it comes to understanding the nature of communication within them. When did you last review communication issues in your organization?

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 for us to open to really achieve full participation and optimize 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 differences in participation and output that we’re about to discuss, two-way dialog brings about levels of knowledge and understanding that we’re missing “big-time.” We’re all familiar with one-way: that’s 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 is a 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 their 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 levels in our typical, one-way communication organizations at anywhere between 15-37%. By this writer’s book that’s a pretty fair estimate. What do you think?

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 his entities are appropriately profitable, too.

He doesn’t need to borrow money because their cluster of ventures generates all the growth capital that’s 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” to actually implement the change. Most organizations don’t possess that appetite for change. They would much rather go on digging in 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 much more than today. 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 our government leaders and so many others in executive ranks aren’t really leaders. They

are more conventional 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 head-aches. 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 much everyone’s prospects are minimized owing to executive self-interest…they’re always pushing against such a 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 their 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 their thoughts don’t fully count. Numbers are more important than people!

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. Their people are worldlier 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:

• You propose an outline vision-framework for your venture.
• You encourage adjustments and additions to this framework to gain buy-in.
• Your lead team forms into “pairs” to pursue the most promising initiatives.
• These pairs enlist up to 4-5 from across their venture to join them in fleshing out priority growth initiatives. Such sub-teams create strong, identifiable team names to capture everyone’s attention.
• Named sub-teams put together detailed action initiatives to share with their entire organization.
• They keep you and colleagues informed of progress to sustain enthusiasm across the board.
• When enough progress has been made, they prudently celebrate the outcomes – and then repeat.

(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 stage-panel of experts? How often have you become bored with less than stellar speakers? How often do you feel you’re being ‘talked-at’ rather than being fully engaged in a forum; with an 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 people.
• 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 considerable enthusiasm among the audience: and the panelists are able learn a lot, too.)

There are many other scenarios where two-way communication can bring significant advances over our

traditional one-way approach. Oodles of energy and commitment are generated with the above examples. So what are you afraid of, apart from experiencing levels of engagement and commitment you may never have experienced before or feel tested to handle? Real leaders encounter such challenges all the time.

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Author, Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Founding Principal with Leadership Solutions, Inc., is based in New York, and author of Smart Decisions: Goodbye Problems, Hello Options. He has drafted a potential new publication, People Count more than Numbers: Enlightened Leadership Re-visited that offers a slew of fresh leadership concepts and practical models. Feel free to follow author at: Linkedin.com/in/peter-arthur-smith-2115722/ 

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