Communicate and Prosper!
How much has poor communication cost your company in the past
twelve months? Chances are, you have no idea. Chances are even
better it’s a lot more than you can afford.
But you won’t find the numbers in the financial statements or year-end
departmental reports. Nothing shows up saying “lost productivity due to
miserable meetings” or “missed business opportunities through sorry
selling skills” or “employee quit because there’s no communication
around here.”
Why? Because most people aren’t sure what communication really is.
Consider this: When companies conduct internal needs assessments,
communication virtually always surfaces near the top of the list. But if
you ask ten people who put it on the list exactly what they meant, you’ll
get ten different answers. People often can’t pinpoint the problemthey
just have a vague feeling communication isn’t happening.
Unfortunately, this vagueness relegates communication to the bottom of
the action list.
Truth is, communication isn’t some warm and fuzzy “nice to have” it is
nothing less than the lifeblood of your organization. If blood doesn’t
circulate at just the right pressure and speed to all parts and extremities
of the human body, that body sickens and eventually dies. So, too, does
an organization where communication doesn’t flow freely.
Communication isn’t limited to vision and mission statements from the
top; it’s not just news releases publicizing financial results or new
product announcements; it’s not just internal or client newsletters,
annual reports or videotaped messages to the troops. These are all
important, but they form just a fraction of the communicationand
miscommunicationthat takes place every day in the workplace.
What I call applied communication is written, spoken and non-verbal
interaction among people in order to get things done. It takes co-
operation to create a product. It takes collaboration to approach a new
market. It takes teamwork to implement a strategy. It takes this applied
communication to oil and run the machinery of business. And if that
machinery breaks downas it often doesa great deal of money is lost.
It’s in this area, applied communication, that we need to look for the
financial drain.
Loss of time
What does your time cost the company for each hour you are at work? A
good rule of thumb in calculating hourly cost is: annual salary divided by
2000 (based on 50 40-hour weeks). When you know this figure for your
own time as well as that of your staff, you can begin to calculate the cost
of applied communication at work.
Meetings
Regardless of its purpose, a meeting is an exercise in applied
communication: you speak, you listen, you interact. I’ve never met
anyone in business who has not complained about meetings: too many,
too long, too boring. I would add to that: too expensive.
Consider meetings that are supposed to last an hour but somehow
expand to use up most of the afternoon. Calculate the hourly cost of total
participant time and multiply by the length of the meetingand keep in
mind that the higher level the participants the more expensive the time.
The result may not sound too alarming, until you consider how many of
those meetings take place in your organization every day, every week,
every year. Do the arithmetic.
Correspondence
Letters, reports, memos, and now the ubiquitous e-mailwritten
communication is an integral part of doing business. Unfortunately,
statistics show that corporate employees spend altogether too much
time writing it, and badly at that, so that those on the receiving end
spend too much time reading it!
If a $40,000-a-year employee spends just two hours a day reading,
writing and managing e-mail, that’s a $9,000 annual cost. Judging from
what people tell me about their work habits, two hours a day is a
conservative estimate. And what about those at much higher salary
levels who spend much longer writing every day? Do the arithmetic.
Presentations
People at all levels present information in a variety of settings in the
workplace every day. These presentations not only consume many
hours in the creation and preparation, but also the expensive time of
those who must listen to them. Unfortunately, poor presentation skills
often result in a futile exercise that communicates less than a simple
written report. How many useless presentations take place in a major
corporation every day? Do the arithmetic.
Loss of business
Sometimes salespeople know their “pitch” so well that they totally ignore
any input a prospective customer might give them. They barely shake
hands and sit down before they start talking. They blithely prescribe their
product or service as the cure for a problem, without even finding out if
such a problem even exists.
But an effective sales process is, in fact, a conversation, a two-way
exercise in applied communication. Done poorly, it can result in lost
sales and missed opportunity for ongoing business relationships.
Customer loss doesn’t happen only in the sales process, but can also
be spurred by an inept “customer service” exchange. When someone
calls to complain, the client relationship is at a fragile point. It can be
repaired through the right message well delivered, or broken beyond
repair by poor communication. When we consider the total lifetime value
of a customer relationship, we can truly appreciate the real dollar cost of
poor communication.
Loss of people
Whatever people tell their bosses about their reasons for leaving the
company, exit interviews often tell a different story. One of the most
common reasons cited is that they don’t feel anyone listened to them.
Day after day in the workplace, millions of people go through the
motions of talking with each other in person and on the phone,
constantly connected through technology, and never truly
communicating with one another. Study after study tells us that
recognition and respect are more motivating than money, and one of the
best ways to show people they are valued is to listen to them. Sadly,
listening is probably the most underused of all the communication skills.
So people leave. How much then does it cost to replace them? Studies
give a wide range, from a low of 25% of salary, plus benefits, to a
whopping 150%. Employee replacement represents yet another huge
cost that can at least sometimes be charged to poor communication.
By improving the way people (and I mean people at all levels) interact in
order to get things done, we can increase productivitywith its
attendant positive impact on the bottom line.
Helen Wilkie is a professional keynote speaker, workshop facilitator and
author, helping business save money and people save their sanity
through better communication. For more articles and other information,
http://www.mhwcom.com. While you’re there, sign up for
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