here is an ad running on television which is based on a game I am sure we are all familiar with. The ad depicts a fellow in the gym working out and a femal member of the gym is five people over from him on another piece of equipment. He is attracted to her   so he starts to converse with her.
The people in between them pass the message down the line by  whispering in the next person’s ear, distorting it completely. In real life this happens all the time. Leaders need to be aware of this factor when we communicate with our team, suppliers, partners and customers. The message often gets distorted as it passes through various hands. This is why we always recommend a quarterly meeting wherein all staff are brought together and hear the same message at the same time from the same source. Why is this so important? I believe that many of the failings we see in businesses are due to poor communication. Either the customers do not understand the value contained within the product/service offering or the suppliers misunderstand messages about needs of the business or, most frequently, the work team is not clear on what they are doing. I know it is not an easy thing to face the team and develop a calm, clear and concise message. If it is not done because the leader feels the task too tough and refuses to work on the skill set necessary to conduct positive, effective meetings and other communication avenues, then the company is at risk. Perhaps the message is stated properly to one individual within your company.

 Remember that everyone has their ‘filter’ working when they listen. What this does is help them integrate what they are hearing into their own belief system. So there is the possibility of misunderstanding even at the first layer of this structure. Amplify this misunderstanding or misinterpretation by four or five layers and you can start to see the potential disaster taking form. What you tell one of your managers is passed onto a supervisor then it is relayed to a senior tech who in turn speaks to his apprentice which then dictates to the porter “exactly what the boss said.”  Not likely, right?  Constant communication, direct, frequent and in a variety of styles is what is recommended. Start with daily bite-sized pieces of information. You can move up to weekly reviews  when you develop the comfort required to hold a formal meeting. The point is to start slowly and work up. One thing that brings out fear in people  is the thought that the meeting would degenerate into a crabbing session. My advice to this inevitable problem is to have an agenda and stick to it. When a new issue comes up, make a note of  it, acknowledge the validity of the  comment, schedule it onto a future agenda, then get back on track. You must address these issues that will come up. So research the subject and then let everyone know at which meeting you will talk about that subject. We have found that the fear of meetings is so much more intense than the reality of meetings. The benefits to meetings outweigh the costs by a landslide. It is something we teach and something that helps keep our leaders as the one who’s driving!