Communication
A bear eats shoots and leaves…
“Good communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity.”
My three favourite things are eating my family and not using commas.
That’s one example of how easily a miscommunication can occur, and how dramatically a message can change as a result of that miscommunication.
According to one recent study, improved internal communication can improve organisational productivity by as much as 25%. So how can we improve our communication skills in the workplace?
One exercise is something that we call The Loop. Next time you’re receiving an instruction, try this out:
Listen to the instruction
Repeat the instruction back
Ask “did I get everything?”
Listen again.
This can sound like a painful experience, and it is certainly unusual. But if we can get past this anxiety that something will go wrong, or that the person giving the instruction might disapprove in some way, this practice can completely revolutionise our productivity at work.
In any communication, there are opportunities for gaps in understanding. Not only might the receiver miss a crucial piece of information, or misinterpret it, sometimes the instructor can miss out an important facet of the instruction. Repeating the instruction back allows us to make sure we’ve heard everything that was said, but it also gives the instructor a chance to catch anything they didn’t say, and add it in. Then we can repeat back, and ask “did I get everything?” again. The loop can go as many times around as we need until the answer to “did I get everything?” is “Yes.”
If we can become someone who always understands the assignment, it dramatically improves our chances of becoming someone who fulfils the assignment accurately and reliably. Accuracy and reliability are two of the most favourable attributes for becoming employable, and the loop can bring them both into your grasp.
Try this today, and see how much clearer your instructions become.
Our brains love certainty. By clarifying your instructions, you can create energy to motivate your work and fire up your days. What would you do with a clear head and an appetite for the day? Listen to our podcast on living with purpose here.
