Communication Must be Progressive and Ceaseless

By: Sean Gerard Angel Pijuan

Overcommunicate. Overcommunicate. That’s what my manager used to tell me to do. Sometimes our co-workers don’t get the message the first time you give it to them. We have to email, instant message, email again, and go tell them about it verbally… and don’t forget to loop in their supervisor and manager.

I was lucky to be part of a very proactive team when I started as a Quality Assurance Specialist. As I discussed in my other articles, Quality is about conformity to the company’s standards. The department’s objective is to ensure that operations abide by the rules and procedures, and developing projects to improve operations.

Most of the time, employees focus on their main job or just busy finishing their daily tasks. They will do what they are paid to do and act on other things based on their prerogative. However, it is necessary for the company to require its employees to undergo training, create projects, conduct coaching and do other activities that will improve future performance. These are essential to progress and will require a halt it an employee’s daily routine.

Communication is not that simple as writing or verbally telling someone about what needs to be done. Either employees forget or they just depend on you to remind them, we don’t know. We can be sure, however, that people will do what they can in situations they are invested in.

 

Recognition

Praise and recognition are the strongest motivators. In a company, praise is the most important thing you have got because we can’t as easily use money. Recognition is very critical because most people go into work and they want to be praised for that. If we recognize employee’s efforts, their efforts in cooperating and doing the projects will be recognized.

 

Leadership

Another issue is that we haven’t selected the right kind of person to oversee the deployment of a project of process. The person would likely have the skills and experience widely acknowledged as an expert in his/her area, however, he/she may lack similar expertise in the art of leadership and unable to wield influence.

 

Perception

Not preparing the organization to be receptive to and supportive of major changes. Timing is critical. You have a short window of opportunity to proactively shape people’s perceptions.  If you leave communication up to word-of-mouth, you lose a once-and-for-all opportunity to shape the perception of the project. It could be the company’s culture that is hindering progress and communication or that there was little communication with or training of others not directly involved in the projects. Everybody should have information on what is going on in the company. They should feel involved and ready to participate in new projects or change.

 

Key Influencers

Key Influencer is the people that already have the attention of your target employees. They are the people who can actually drive action and awareness. Knowing who your key influencers is a good first step, but how can you leverage their influence to build support? You can start building key influencers’ engagement from the first interviews or other contacts you have with them if you make it clear by deed and word that the project is being used to support their business goals.

 

Involvement from Seniors Management

For senior management and other key influencers to use the new process, they must be familiar with its basic precepts, tools, and requirements. Only then will they be able to effectively guide the project’s efforts and allocate sufficient resources to guarantee a reasonable chance of success.

Hearing a presentation is a good first step if the presenter is seen as credible, but a deeper understanding is essential. Every member or, at least, the manager should participate in training courses. And participate in preparing a project. Such an approach immerses these key influencers in project discovery and selection and creates an emotional connection.

 

Finding the “Why?”

One reason that people often resist change is they can’t envision how they will operate under a new set of rules. The key influencers in an organization can help overcome this obstacle by demonstrating the new way of thinking and acting in their own professional lives. One of the commonalities in the organizations is the clarity on “why?”, achieving that clarity on why we are adopting new strategies and creating projects.

As human beings, we tend not to change patterns of behavior unless we see that where we are standing right now is going to get a lot more uncomfortable than where we’ll be if we change. The purpose of engagement is to help make it easier for people to change than to stay the same.

 

Conclusion

Communication is part of everyone’s job, especially of a manager. It is the medium that ties altogether and creates the movement necessary for the company’s progress. It requires skill and tons of effort. Not everyone is equipped, but everyone has the opportunity to use it, repeatedly if necessary.

Sean Gerard Angel Z. Pijuan is the Senior Quality Management Officer of Invictus Prime Holdings Corporation, a corporation that manages the consolidation and integration of operations within its companies:  Complete Logistic Control Inc., ZKO Group Distributors Inc., Philfast Global Forwarding Inc., Satellite GPS Tracking and Asset Management System Corp., and SCMIX Builders Inc.