I attended a fantastic training
on effective communications last week. Below are the Top 3 Take-Aways
from that session:
- It takes 20 minutes to get back
"in the zone" after an interruption. Those of you looking
for an excuse to work from home, this fact is a good one! I
truly believe there are a number of positions where folks could work more
effectively from home a couple days a week. Programmers, for
instance, could go to the office M/W/F to attend meetings, obtain
requirements, perform testing, collaborate with the system users, etc.
Then on T/Th they could find a private closet in the house where
phones don't ring, cell phones don't work and co-workers don't interrupt
their creative flow and simply code. The speaker shared a story of a new
CEO coming in to a company that was floundering. While a number of changes
were made to save the organization, the change with the most profound
effect was this, "Across the organization employees were not able to
access their e-mail until 3 pm. From 3:00 - 5:00 e-mails could be
received and responded to. E-mails could be drafted and sent prior to that
point, but with the exception of Customer Service, IT had configured the
e-mail system to not receive until 3:00 pm." I think this is a
great idea.
- It is impossible for your brain to
focus on two tasks simultaneously. When you are talking to somebody or in
a meeting, put the phone down! If the person you are attempting to
communicate with is focused on something else, as for their attention or
schedule a better time to talk.
- "Your brain just can’t take in
and process two simultaneous, separate streams of information and encode
them fully into short-term memory." www.Forbes.com
3.
Treat communication as a
two-way street. If somebody is talking to you, acknowledge their
statements. "Yes, I can do that," or even, "Duly noted,"
works. Likewise, be sure to obtain an acknowledgement. If you ask
your son to take out the garbage while he's engrossed in a video game, be sure
he at least gives you a thumbs up in acknowledgement of the chore. Since
the brain can't focus simultaneously on you and the game, odds are he just
wrecked and can now take out the garbage!
