Avoiding communication breakdown

[Music] thank you good morning Mr Whitehead's office is Bailey speaking is Mr Waldo Dorothy how's everything in the southern region I got troubles can I talk to the boss I'm sorry Mr Waldo Mr Whitehead is in conference while they're trying to meet the noon deadline on a report to the president could I have him call you back later this afternoon oh you're sending up the danger signal loud and clear but it's the Allied Machinery account and it can't wait um well okay I'll see if he can bring away thanks Dorothy now how about this report here that one Mr Whitehead yes Dorothy Mr Waldo's on line five well I told him what you were doing but he said it was urgent what's happening you better be quick Don I know you're busy but this is urgent Allied has a problem and if we can't solve it they're going to take their business someplace else well that's one of our oldest accounts Allied has an order up there for special Parts they need them right away but if the parts are shipped out by truck it'll take four days for them to get down here can't we fly them the order well why didn't you call Doug Oliver in shipping and have him fly it down down this needs a push from the top the last time I asked Oliver to fly an order he said there was a clampdown on airshipments claims we're always asking for special favors okay I'll push we don't want to lose a client like Allied I'll sit tight we'll get them their parts by tomorrow thanks Don I wouldn't have asked for your help but there's a new company down here that can furnish the same parts and they've just love to get the Allied account away from us we'll get Allied their parts don't worry Dorothy yes Mr right here I can't break away from here and walla's in trouble I want you to call Oliver and ask him if he can ship that Allied order Air Freight today tell them that uh Allied has got to have those special parts right away or will lose the account yes Mr okay got these uh foreign Jane this is Miss Bailey Mr Waldo just called and we need a special shipment let me speak to Mr Oliver Mr Oliver is not in the office but he'll be back soon may I take a message well if you think you can take care of it I can handle it I take care of all special shipment orders anyway all right tell Mr Oliver that Allied Machinery one of our oldest accounts needs the shipment of special Parts tomorrow I hope you're taking notes on this because this is urgent isn't everything with sales what's that nothing I'm taking notes go ahead we want that order shipped out by Air Freight today are you sure you understand because this is very important of course I understand all right Miss Bailey is the new vice president for sales I gather what's the matter Jane well Mr Whitehead secretary called he wants an order for Allied Machine we shipped out immediately the Allied order a it was on a list of orders completed by production this morning send them a wire that will be on the way tomorrow Miss Bailey's throwing her weight around again she wants to fly the order down I'd like to tell her to go fly a kite gave you a hard time eh don't let it bother you sales thinks the whole company will fall a part of a single shipment gets delayed don't send that wire I'll call the shipping Dock and have Joe Rush the order oh yes sir Mr Oliver yeah it's in the warehouse or you want it rushed okay well yes I understand you you want a chip today it's shipped today Rush what do you mean by rushed we can't ship anything by air I guess he wants me to send out a special truck that'll cost more than air but the rules a rule foreign what happened in this obvious communication failure we saw we can agree that this kind of distortion occurs all too often in our own organizations but what went wrong and why as we talk about this it's not very useful to ask whose fault it is in one sense it wasn't anybody's fault each of us looks at the world from his own point of view and we change what we see to fit what we expect or want it to be that's the way the world is the kind of breakdown we've seen was the result of faulty communication everybody from the regional sales manager to the general sales manager at the home office down to the shipping Foreman had his own meanings for what he said and what he heard and these meanings were different for each person in the chain that's always the case the things each of us say don't have any meanings by themselves meanings aren't people people are different and therefore their meanings are different but it doesn't do much good just to say that's the way the world is this kind of failure causes serious breakdowns in managerial Effectiveness and efficiency it causes a breakdown in productivity or sales and that means serious dollar loss to the company not only does the company get hurt people get hurt too oh fine thanks a lot I don't know what good is it for me to knock myself out if the home office can't even handle a simple request for a special shipment it produces a significant loss in employee morale bet Dorothy Bailey who does she think she is blaming me for the cancellation Mr Oliver may have to take a pushing around from her but I don't you just wait errors like this produce judgments of a man's competence and often inaccurate judgments or they take a memo to the president I don't want him to forget that Oliver can't take a simple order and get it straight to BG finally employees at any level may lose the self-confidence they need to do a good job I don't know how I goofed that up I did what I thought was best but I was wrong maybe I'm not good enough to hold down this job maybe I can't make decisions we lost the account we lost some of Waldo's Future Energy the relations between Dorothy and Jane got worse Oliver's in trouble with the company president and the shipping form and doubts his own ability as a manager and all this was a result of faulty communication as managers we must be able to analyze work situations in such a way that we can predict the chances of a communication breakdown anticipate the problem and take the steps necessary to correct it there are an infinite number of reasons why human communication breaks down and it's impossible to ever anticipate all of them some faulty communication is inevitable however we can prevent many serious breakdowns if we understand some of the principal causes in the loss of the Allied order we could have predicted trouble four major predictors of faulty communication were present the amount of competition messages have a threat to status and ego which is involved uncertainty and error in what is expected the number of links there are in the communication chain let's look at each of these in turn in the handling of the Allied order and see what people might have done to avoid a breakdown first we know from communication research that faulty communication occurs when a message has to compete for attention the more competition a message has the more likely that communication will break down when Mr Waldo's message came in Mr Whitehead obviously was deeply involved in other things he didn't give all his attention to Waldo one thing at a time that's an old saying but still a pretty good rule to follow Whitehead should have known that the time he saved for the moment would cause more wasted time later too bad that Waldo's message hit Whitehead when Whitehead's mind was elsewhere but Waldo should have known better you'll remember that Dorothy gave Waldo the cue that Whitehead was very busy Waldo should have taken that into account and planned his communication to make sure he captured Whitehead's full attention for example John I know you're all tied up but I knew you wouldn't want this to wait the company's in trouble I need you for three minutes okay Alan but make it quick come on down you're not with me I need you bad okay Alan two minutes shoot Dodd Allied has a problem and if we can't solve it they're going to count away from us we'll get Allied those parts don't worry if Allied calls me back what can I tell them you're going to do I'm going to get Oliver and have shipping fly those parts to Allied today that's better Waldo did everything he could to avoid faulty communication he recognized that Whitehead was busy and that the Allied problem would be competing for Whitehead's attention he started off by letting Whitehead know that he had a problem then he listened to see if Whitehead was really paying attention and guests from his tone of voice that he wasn't so he stopped and tried again to get his attention there is no point in talking if you don't have the other man's attention finally he got Whitehead to play back what they'd agreed on this feedback let Waldo know that the message had gotten through to Whitehead good work but we're not out of trouble yet Whitehead didn't call Oliver he asked his secretary to take care of it and he ran head on into a status problem Jane this is Miss Bailey Mr Waldo just called and we need a special shipment let me speak to Mr Oliver Mr Oliver is not in the office but it'll be back soon may I take a message well if you think you can take care of it I can take care of it Miss Bailey wanted to get the Allied message to Oliver but she wanted to get another message to Jane she wanted it clear that her status was higher than James but it's obvious that Jane wasn't having any of that her ego was attacked and her own status was threatened Jane reacted and the message to Oliver about the Allied problem became relatively unimportant we want that order shipped out by Air Freight today are you sure you understand this is very important of course I understand Miss Bailey's the new vice president for sales I gather she reacted all right didn't she ego and Status how important how vital to us all whenever someone's ego or status is threatened friction follows it's unpleasant to be around this kind of friction and tension what's worse we know that friction inevitably produces Distortion of the message and a breakdown within the system listen to how Jane's anger caused the serious error in transmitting Mr Whitehead's instructions Miss Bailey's throwing her weight around again she wants to fly the order down I'd like to tell her to go fly a kite that did it at that point flying the order became less important Jane was much more interested in flying Miss Bailey somewhere one way Whitehead should have avoided that problem as a manager he should have known that there was a feud going on between his secretary and Oliver secretary a manager must know his staff must be able to read their attitudes and be aware of their problems knowing about the feud Whitehead could have predicted that it would cause his message to get distorted let's go back to the point where he and Waldo finish their conversation and give Whitehead another chance I'm going to get Oliver and have shipping fly those parts to Allied today thanks Don thank you well what do I do I have to get back to this report I'll have Dorothy call Oliver and tell him no wait a minute what if Oliver is not in Dorothy and Jane are each other's throats they handle this something will get screwed up damn I better do something about that situation well I'll call Oliver myself Dorothy get Oliver on the phone for me Whitehead took a reading and correctly decided that the Dorothy Jane problem demanded that he bypassed both women to get his instructions through to Oliver he avoided a breakdown this time but if he doesn't get rid of the status and ego threats that Dorothy and Jane feel he'll have other breakdowns in the future or else he'll be doing everything himself well Oliver now has the message straight but we still have to get it to Joe the shipping Foreman let's see what caused the faulty communication between Oliver and Joe do you have the Allied order yes sir Mr Oliver it's in the warehouse good I know it's scheduled to be shipped tomorrow but it's important that we rush it can you do it you want it rushed okay it's important Joe you're sure you understand oh yeah I understand you want to chip today it's shipped today Rush what do you mean by Rush there's the problem Joe said he understood but he didn't understand the Allied order was to be flown out but Joe sent a special truck it's clear that Oliver and Joe aren't looking at the world the same way Oliver expects Joe to ask about things he doesn't understand Joe thinks he's expected not to ask questions but to use his own judgment they're working under quite different expectations and that causes faulty communication I'm new on this job and I want to keep it when I got the promotion they told me now I was part of the management team a manager shouldn't have to ask questions about a very little order he gets I'm supposed to know what to do anyway you don't get any place with Oliver by asking questions he expects me to know what to do and to do what I'm told I get the workout I don't bother the boss with a lot of silly questions know what to do and do what you're told it's clear what Joe thinks Oliver expects of him Joe's view is clear but let's check with Oliver why didn't Oliver make sure that Joe understood I asked him if he understood and he said he did why should I push it any further my Foreigner free to ask questions this office is always open of course I don't want people running in here with trivial things but if they're undoubted or something they should let me know ask when you should but not when you shouldn't thanks a lot most people do what they think is expected of them when their expectations are an error or when they're ambiguous communication breaks down Oliver could have protected against this breakdown if he had asked Joe what he understood rather than just whether he understood if you ask somebody whether he understands all the pressures on him to say yes when you ask what he understands you make it easy to find out where the trouble is Oliver also could have used this situation to help get Joe's expectations more in line with his own and it would only have taken an extra few seconds wouldn't it have been better if Oliver's conversation with Joe had gone like this it's important Joe you're sure you understand yeah I understand you want to chip today it's shipped today Rush how are you going to ship it well I'll send a special truck no Joe I wanted to go by air well gee Mr Oliver I was told we're not allowed to fly anything anymore well that's General policy Joe but we can make exceptions if we don't get this order out today Allied will cancel their account I see oh I'll get the order on the four o'clock plane I'm sorry I didn't understand that's okay Joe what's important is that we got it straight it's easy to get things confused that's why it's so important to ask questions whenever you're not sure the company's in trouble whenever we don't have good communication anytime you're not sure sing out that wasn't bad Joe's expectation should be a little more accurate now we've looked at three predictors of faulty communication there's another one and it's the hardest of all to combat we've seen that messages can get distorted Whenever two people are involved if you add more people you add more distortion to say it another way the more links there are in the communication chain the more likely we are to get faulty communication whenever you have multiple links the message will change in our example we had to get a message from Waldo in the southern region all the way to Joe the shipping Foreman when you have multiple links in the chain of communication the message will change details will drop out new ones will come in some things are made more important and some things less important people put their own interpretations on the message they distort the original intention and the message seldom if ever comes out the way it went in that's the way communication works as information flows through channels it's contaminated by the ideas attitudes and beliefs of all who carry it the manager needn't asked whether a message will get distorted he should assume it will and he'll seldom be wrong in the Allied situation there was considerable Distortion of a relatively simple instruction think how much worse the Distortion would have been If the message had been ambiguous in the first place or if it had been more complicated like a major policy statement are the ways in which automation was going to be introduced into the system we can never eliminate Communication Breakdown completely however we can reduce the chances if we become sensitive to its causes and protect against them faulty communication is caused by many things we have looked at four of the principal causes too much competition for a particular message distortions because of threat to status or ego faulty or ambiguous expectations too many links in the communication Channel the effective manager needs to take these four predictors into account in planning his communication strategy when any of these factors is present the chances of breakdown are high and the manager must pay special attention to his communication this takes time and talent but it takes more time later if we Overlook good communication and the professional manager must have the talent that is needed after all the manager is in the people business he needs to know about people and why they think feel and behave as they do he needs to be able to predict them to affect them he needs to understand and predict faulty communication and correct for it above all he needs to remember that meanings are in people that they differ from person to person and that effective communication always starts by looking at the world from the other guy's point of view Mr Whitehead is a good example of what happens when you forget to do that his company spent all time today helping out Allied machinery and yet in spite of all that work and all the improvements they made in their internal communication Waldo and Whitehead neglected one important communication link Fred Harrington the purchasing director at Allied I call Waldo first things and told him we were desperate for that special order if his outfit cared about my company we'd have had some word by now it's five o'clock I'm canceling we'll give our orders to the local supplier foreign