1   Introduction

How many ways do you receive communications in a normal day? Face-to-face, no doubt, but also phone calls, text messages, faxes and emails? Television, radio, Internet, public address? There are more ways – or media – of communicating information available now than ever before.

This should be an advantage, but there are problems in it for senders and receivers. Too much information can be as much of a problem as too little.

The American Marshall McLuhan said famously that ‘the medium is the message’ – how you say something matters more than what you say. Sometimes you may feel this is true, but ultimately the GIGO factor will catch up with those who send messages that are worthless.		Because no matter how sophisticated the delivery medium and how great its capacity to deliver 24/7, there are still only 168 hours in a week – and most people need to sleep for at least 25% of them.
		So, both at work and at home, people need to make informed choices about which medium to use and when to say ‘no’.
		The communication cycle (see Session A) applies to all media. Information is received, decoded, processed, encoded and transmitted. Some media, such as broadcasting, telephone networks and the Internet, effectively have infinite capacity to transmit data, but the people who do the processing – the makers of a feature film, for instance – do not.

The GIGO principle – garbage in, garbage out – applies to every medium used, including email, text messaging and the intranets which many organizations use. The more information is fed into them, the more its quality and relevance needs to be controlled.

This session will help you to select the correct medium for the information you need to communicate – from face-to-face interviews to sending a message throughout the organization and beyond.

2   Choosing the right method of communication

We are spoilt for choice when it comes to media. How do we choose the right medium for our message?

2.1	Looking at the medium’s effectiveness and efficiency

‘Effectiveness’ and ‘efficiency’ are often used as though they mean more or less the same thing. But, in management terms, they have very different meanings.

Activity 14

I’m going to use the following definitions throughout this session; see how they compare with yours.

Efficiency is getting the greatest amount of output for the effort and resources being used.

Effectiveness is producing a desired result. It is a matter of quality as well as quantity. A desired result may not be quite the same thing as sheer amount of output, as the example below shows.

Activity 15

Let’s work out the arguments for and against each option.

Option 1

YES –  This will use the money more efficiently, because we’ll reach many more people per £1 spent.

NO –    It’s too expensive and many of the viewers won’t be our potential customers – that would be ineffective.

Option 2

YES –  This will save us a lot of money. We could have twice as much advertising for the same price and that’s efficient.

NO –    What’s the point of advertising when most of our potential customers are asleep? – that would not be effective.

Option 3

YES –  We could use the money in other ways, like persuading existing customers to take a second holiday at a discount price. That could be more effective use of the money, because we know those customers already buy.

NO –    Because we want to reach as many people as possible with advertising. That’s more efficient per £1 spent.

In 2002, a national recruitment campaign featuring high profile personalities and extensive TV coverage cost the Police Force £12 million. It recruited just 400 people at a cost of £30,000 each. Using local publicity the police reckon to spend usually around £250 per recruit.		Probably, Option 3 would be the most effective use of the money, no matter how efficient TV advertising might be at reaching much larger numbers. If it didn’t persuade them to buy, then it wouldn’t matter how many of them had seen the ad.
		For all managers, the ideal world is one in which you combine effectiveness with efficiency, that is:
		you do the RIGHT thing in the BEST POSSIBLE way.

Activity 16

Have a look at the other factors I came up with on page 61.

I hope you can see that there is more than one way to do the job. Sometimes a combination of methods may be needed to achieve effectiveness. In this case, for simplicity, you were offered only three options, though many others would have been available, such as a letter to all employees with their next salary advice.

How did your final recommendation agree with the following approach?

2.2	How to choose

Your completed grid will show some of the factors which we need to take into account when choosing the most effective channel for communication.

Ask yourself these key questions.

		Key question		The answer affects the communication’s:
		1	Do we need to communicate at all?	Effectiveness
		2	Will we reach all the people who need to know?	Effectiveness
		3	Can people deny having been told?	effectiveness
		4	How long will it last?	effectiveness
The Internet makes it possible, in principle, for every person on earth to communicate with every other person. But there is no control over what is fed into the system, so the GIGO principle warns you to beware what you may obtain from it. And browsing the Internet can use vast amounts of time by comparison with using more focused reference sources, and be more expensive		5	Can we obtain feedback?	effectiveness
		6	How much will it cost?	efficiency
		7	How simple is it to use?	efficiency
		8	How quickly can it be done?	efficiency
		Ideally, you are looking for a method of communication which:
			reaches everyone who needs to know	=effective
			is acknowledged by them	=effective
			has a reasonable shelf life	=effective
			provides confirmation of understanding	=effective
			is cheap, simple and quick to use	=efficient
		The eight questions will help make a decision about any communication choice, from the very simplest – perhaps informing a team that a new colleague will be arriving next Monday – to the most complex, perhaps deciding how next year’s advertising budget should be spent.

The first question – do we need to communicate at all? – is the most important of all. If the answer is ‘no’, then there is no point in going any further and spending anything (money or time) doing something which is unnecessary.

2.3	Who to choose

Next we need to ask ourselves ‘Will we reach all the people who need to know?’

A normal person will read at between 200 and 250 words per minute, assuming a familiar subject and clearly expressed content. So a 1,000 word memo will probably take four to five minutes, assuming no distractions. That doesn’t sound so long – but what if there are the equivalent of 20 per day to be read?		This is tricky. We might make the judgement that Mr X doesn’t need to know, and not communicate. If, in fact, he did need to know, we have failed in our objective of communicating effectively.
		But if indeed he didn’t need to know, then we have gone a small way towards saving the enormous sums that are spent each year on needless communications and the effects of information overload. This is especially true of emails, which take up so much of our time.
		As a manager, you have a duty to make the most effective use of all the resources which you have been given responsibility for, including communication resources.

Next we need to make the big decision – which channel of communication to use.

2.4	What to choose from

The choice open to us is huge, from long-standing systems to newer and more powerful electronic ones.

Activity 17

On page 62 you will find a grid completed with a large organization in mind, such as a supplier of products to multiple retailers with many sites around the country.

In fact, all or most of them are available to an organization of any size without excessive cost, though some of them may be unnecessary, and many are misused frequently.

Activity 18

You will find a completed grid in the Answers to activities section on page 62.

2.5	The perfect communication solution

Ideally, you would be looking for a channel which rated high in every category, one which was certain to get through, permanent, provided feedback to check understanding, and was economical, simple and quick to use.

In real life, there is no such perfect channel, so you will be looking for a workable compromise in all but the simplest situations.

The completed grid is not therefore a model which you can apply to any situation, nor does your version have to correspond to it to be right, for there is no right answer applicable to all situations.

But what you do need to do is choose the right communication channel objectively for a particular purpose, weighing the pros and cons of each before automatically picking up the phone, sending an email, calling a team briefing – whatever your instinctive preference may be.

Activity 19

You will find a series of suggestions on page 63, with a short explanation of why they were chosen.

No doubt your own recommendations range widely, as mine do, across the available channels, to suit the needs of the situation you are in.

Though your answers may differ to some extent, what really matters is the decision-making process which you have gone through, based on the activities in this session, your own experience and the resources available to you.

3   Face-to-face communication

There is one kind of communication which does come naturally to virtually everyone, almost like breathing, so why does anyone need to think about how they do it?

It is perhaps because people often don’t recognize the difference between:

In journalism, the standard rule used is: tell them what you are going to tell them (Introduction) tell them in as few words as you can (Content) tell them what you’ve told them (Summary) You will find that all news broadcasts follow this simple, effective plan.		Friendly conversations are essential to getting to know more about your team and building good relationships within it, but there are many occasions for which a more formal structure is required. You will earn respect from your team if they know that you will create a businesslike, purposeful atmosphere when the object of the communication is to get things done as a result of it.
		Many people – and you may be one of them – actually resent having their time wasted going down ‘blind alleys’, with irrelevant subjects or the constant repetition of things which they know about already.
		People also forget, or ignore, the basic principle of communication, which is that it is a cycle, with information flowing in more than one direction – or at least needing to flow in more than one direction.

3.1	A structure for effective face-to-face communication

The following approach has been tried and tested in many circumstances and over many generations.

Stage	Comments
1 Decide what you want to achieve.	Is this a briefing meeting, a counselling session, a disciplinary hearing? The facts required will differ widely.
2 Gather your materials.	These must relate directly to your objective.
3 Arrange them into a logical flow – with a clear beginning, middle and end. Decide how you can persuade your listeners to do what you require willingly.	Think it through carefully from the listeners’ perspective – if they already know the content, why are you talking to them?
4 Tailor the pitch of your language to suit your listeners.	This will be different as between, say, new recruits and experienced employees who know any jargon you may use as shorthand.
5 Anticipate objections and counter-arguments which may arise. If you tell people why you need them to do something they are far more likely to co-operate.	Forewarned is forearmed – if you are dealing with a tricky subject, like poor performance, you need to think through the defensive reactions you may receive.
6 Decide what advice and/or feedback you are looking for.	You don’t have to be the fount of all wisdom – teams should contribute to their own self-improvement, and communication is most effective when it works two ways.
7 Plan a summary or conclusion which will leave your listener knowing what they need to know – and committed to whatever actions may be required.	On the basis of ‘if you go away knowing nothing else – be sure to remember this’. If you are looking for improved performance, your audience must want to do it for you.
8 If possible, practise beforehand with a friendly listener.	Try not to go through your learning curve at the expense of your audience, whatever its size.

3.2	Passive listening

Now, let’s look at the other aspect of face-to-face communication: listening.

Did you know that human beings speak at around 125 words per minute, but can think at 600 words per minute or more?

That’s four times as fast – so there should be no problem. But frequently, there is.

Activity 20

I expect your list looks something like mine:

Lip reading has been used in mills, factories and other noisy environments over many years. Many hearing people have become proficient lip readers – proving the value of looking at the speaker to improve their listening.		7    picking fights – latching onto a word like ‘poor’ (as in performance) or ‘unacceptable’ (as in standards) in the ‘what do you mean by that’ aggressive mode;
		8    listening selectively – usually to only what is of interest, like a specialist subject, or represents good news, like bonus payments.
		Do you recognize any of the symptoms in yourself? If you do, then you are in very good company – for while listening comes naturally to human beings and requires no effort, hearing requires positive effort.

3.3	Active hearing

If you can recognize the symptoms, you should be in with a good chance of finding a cure.

Activity 21

You will find some suggestions in the ‘Answers to activities’ section on page 63.

Of them all, the single most important for most poor listeners is simply to look at the speaker, cutting out any visual distractions.

4   Gathering and using feedback

When you are the sender of the information, you need to know that you have been understood. This is especially important with verbal communication when the receiver has nothing to refer to when you have finished.

You do this by asking questions and being an active hearer of answers to the questions you have asked. Because if you don’t listen, it doesn’t really make any difference how polished your questioning techniques are.

But there are some other things you can do as well to get the feedback you need.

4.1	Observation

In face-to-face communication you can see the person or people you are addressing. Just as they should focus on you to improve their active hearing, so should you observe their reactions to what you are saying.

Activity 22

Did your thoughts run along the same lines as mine?

Marita was evidently giving unwelcome news, perhaps because her staff (other than the new recruit) simply don’t like change – or they fear the new arrangements will alter the service they give to customers. If Marita was looking around her team as she spoke, she would have picked up the signals of doubt and disagreement without anything being said.

Sean had very good news to impart – except to the work-shy lad. New, good horses are a boost for morale, and would only be placed with them because they are thought to be a good operation. Also, there is a chance of more prize money and improved job security. No wonder that most of the team looked so happy about it – something that Sean would see if he looked around them as he spoke.

These are examples of feedback coming from interpreting body language and non-verbal communication, which we will look at fully in Session C.

4.2	Knowing your people

In both the scenes pictured above it was implied that the managers knew their people as individuals – who was work-shy, who loved the job, who was a new starter, who needed more money.

This is important when interpreting their reactions because:

If you don’t know them as people, you won’t be able to allow for these idiosyncrasies and may misinterpret what you see.

4.3	Asking questions

You will get more precise feedback by asking questions, as Mick is trying to do here.

Activity 23

You probably answered ‘none’ or ‘very little’ – or words to that effect. The question he asked was a closed one – inviting a yes/no answer. In fact questions in that form – the ‘Everyone happy so far?’ kind – do not invite feedback of any sort, even an honest ‘no!’

Closed questions cut short discussion and are not helpful if you want to check people’s understanding, or reactions, either emotional or reasoned, to what you have said.

But they are useful for confirming what has been heard and for keeping control of the length of a discussion, as in:

‘Have we covered everything you needed to know about the new arrangements?’

Mick would have found out much more by asking open questions, for example as follows, where he has briefed the staff on working arrangements which are both complicated and unwelcome, at least to some staff.

All these open questions invite people to talk and say what they think.

Mick may not always like what he hears, but at least he will find out what problems and misgivings there are. Then he will have the chance to do something about them in the immediate future.

4.4	Using feedback

What do you do with feedback once you’ve got it? It depends.

4.5	Telephone and other ‘remote’ verbal communication

EXTENSION 1 This is the standard phonetic alphabet, especially useful over telephones, walkie talkies and radio – or where the quality of line is often poor. The standard phonetic alphabet is recognized internationally.

Many misunderstandings arise because speakers and receivers don’t check that they both have the same message. You can easily check that you have, by asking the other person to repeat back anything which could be misheard. Many words and names sound similar, which can lead to serious mistakes. Numbers particularly need to be carefully checked, ideally by reading as a series of digits: ‘19’ becomes ‘one nine’, and ‘90’ becomes ‘nine zero’ to avoid confusion between them. One standard way of avoiding errors is to use the standard phonetic alphabet, which assigns a word to each letter of the alphabet. A becomes ‘Alpha’, B is ‘Bravo’, C is ‘Charlie’, and so on. This avoids the listener mistaking ‘M’ for ‘N’, for example.

5   Non-verbal communication

Let’s go back now to a subject that we saw briefly in Session A – communication which takes place without language, i.e. ‘body language’ or ‘non-verbal communication’. When should a manager pay attention to this?

The short answer is: always. We all register and interpret such behaviour all the time, it comes naturally. But acting on it is another matter.

5.1	Receiving non-verbal communication

Sometimes a straightforward instruction must be issued. The only feedback required is to see evidence that the instruction has been carried out.

A very good example of this is an emergency situation, such as an evacuation for fire or an accident about to happen in a warehouse.

Say a person is about to drive a forklift into someone whom they cannot see from their cab.

As a manager, you have to develop enough trust in your team members so that they know to react appropriately, that you are not just throwing your weight around. And a good tip is to use an ‘order’ tone only when circumstances justify it.

5.2	Giving information in non-verbal form

We covered how you receive non-verbal communication in section 4.1 Observation. What about using it to give information to members of your team, or to other people affected by what they are doing?

Activity 24

I found it harder to find examples of using smell and taste, but these are the ones I came up with.

Touch – Taking someone’s arm to prevent their walking into some danger where there was no time to shout a warning. If you have team members with poor vision, you may need to use such tactile signals for various purposes, especially where safety is concerned.

Sight – Hand signals are used in many situations where noise or distance make a verbal communication inaudible, or too slow to interpret. Signals are used for directing vehicles, showing how a heavy load is to be manoeuvred safely, showing approval or the reverse with the well known ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ signals. Colours are introduced sometimes as warnings. For example, food not fit for human consumption is often marked blue – a rare colour to find in human food.

Smell – A distinctive smell was introduced into odourless gas supplies to warn householders and gas fitters of the presence of gas – a safer way of finding out than by lighting a match.

Taste – A poisonous but innocuous-tasting substance could be given a nasty flavour to deter consumption (by animals as well as people).

5.3	Interpreting the signals

For communication to be effective, both the sender and receiver need to interpret them in the same way. For example, crane drivers use a simple code which everyone working on a dock is trained to use, leaving no room for misunderstanding.

Otherwise, you are in the same position as two speakers, one of them using

Japanese and the other responding in Gaelic. For example:

We will look further at the strengths, subtleties and shortcomings of non-verbal communication and body language in the next session.

Remember always that non-verbal forms of communication can be just as open to misinterpretation as verbal ones. Be aware of their pitfalls as well as their power and immediacy.

Activity 25

Self-assessment 2

Answers to these questions can be found on pages 60–1.

6

Summary

    The first question to ask is ‘Do I need to communicate at all?’ If the answer is ‘no’, then why not stop there?

    Applying the ‘need to know’ principle sensibly can save people being flooded with information they do not need – such as emails, memos, adverts for products they never buy or briefing information which is irrelevant to them.

    The means of communication available to you can make use of all the senses which people possess, i.e. sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell.

    In practice, people rely rather too heavily on the spoken word, which is often unreliable and prone to misinterpretation.

    Non-verbal communication and body language often give a far more accurate picture of the real messages being transmitted and received than what is actually said.

    There are any number of delivery systems, ranging from direct, face-to-face interviews through to tannoys, telephones, faxes and the Internet or intranet.

    There is no one means of communication which is right for all purposes, ‘fastest’ does not always mean ‘best’ – it depends on the need.

    For every communication need identified, decide what the most effective means will be to put the message across – there’s no point using the cheapest if the message won’t get through.

    Do we need to communicate at all?

    Will we reach all the people who need to know?

    Can people deny having been told?

    How long will it last?

    Can we obtain feedback?

    How much will it cost?

    How simple is it to use?

    How quickly can it be done?

    Plan what you intend to communicate beforehand, just as you plan every other business activity.

    Assess the feedback you receive for any communication, both verbal and non-verbal, and take any appropriate actions arising from it – including any improvements you need to make to your own skills as a communicator.