An important principle in communication is that you communicate directly, regardless of the hierarchy.
Communication should go through the shortest route necessary to get the job done, not through the ‘command structure’.
Any manager who tries to enforce communication in the chain of command limits involvement, ownership and creativity. So yes, it’s all about communication.
Communication within teams quickly goes wrong
Communication between departments
A major source of problems is poor communication between departments. The way to solve this is to allow free flow of information between all levels. If, in order to get something done between departments, an individual employee has to talk to his manager, who talks to a director, who talks to a vice president, who talks to another vice president, who talks to a director, who talks to a manager, who talks to someone who does the actual work, then super stupid things happen. It should be okay for people to talk directly and just let the right thing happen.
Follow logic, not rules
In general, always choose common sense as your guide.
If following a “business rule” in a given situation is obviously ridiculous so that it would make for a great Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change.
Meetings
Leave a meeting if you don’t contribute
Leave a meeting as soon as it’s clear that you’re not adding value.
It’s not rude to leave, it’s rude to let someone stay and waste their time.
Standing meetings
In Scrum, this has been a good habit for some time, standing meetings.
Good for body and mind and the discomfort of standing for a long time is meant to keep the meetings short.
When you start from the following 3 questions you have a good focus and the chairman ensures that everyone speaks.
- What did I do yesterday?
- What am I going to do today?
- What bumps do I encounter?
Rules for standing meetings
15 minutes is really 15 minutes
The leader of the meeting really has to make sure that everyone only gets limited speaking time.
Stick to signaling, instead of discussing
The purpose of the stand up meeting is to inform your team of the state of affairs (answering questions and 1 and 2) – and to plan to solve possible bumps (question 3).
Stand up meeting is not micromanagement
The stand up meeting really stands for teamwork.
That is, sharing your work with your team.
Do not interfere or micromanage the work of your team members.
A nice article about communication: 5 secrets becoming a communication expert
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