Effective Communication Starts with You

I tossed and turned last night and tried to think of new and fantabulous ways to communicate at work. There had to be something I was missing. Something I hadn't tried yet!

So when I got to work today I was on high alert. I was going to change SOMETHING!!!

In our morning meeting I suggested an every day morning meeting where we could communicate what we were doing every day.

But that kinda felt like an old idea we'd already discussed, so it didn't really feel like "something."

It didn't really hit me what could be changed until my coworker was once again was having issues with his Microsoft Office. 

Sigh ...

Again?

Can't he just restart the computer again?

There MUST be something he's doing wrong!

It's gotta be a 'him' problem!

But then I remembered what I had heard in the book I'm currently listening to. In this book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, they state, "What looks like a person problem is often a situation problem (Heath, C. and Heath, D., 2010. p. 184)." 

I needed to stop being so daft and speak with my coworker to find out more about this issue he was having.

Indeed it did turn out to be a situation problem. When he opens up MS Word or Excel his program reads that he doesn't have a user license (even though he totally does!). So what I thought was just a one time issue, a computer problem, or the illustrious 'user error' issue people so often have wasn't anything of the sort.

Let's be honest though, the real problem going on here was ME!

I was so busy making assumptions and failing to investigate and/or communicate with my coworker due to my own busyness that his (hopefully *knock on wood*) fixable problem was going unfixed.

So today I helped improve communication at my workplace by improving me. 

I listened and took a look at what the problem was. 

I heard his frustrations and let him communicate his annoyances without feeling like he was annoyed directly with me. 

And although I validated his concerns and frustrations, I didn't pretend I had all the answers. 

But I did pick up the phone and start looking into how we could solve the problem.

Surprisingly I couldn't find much research on this subject. I found a ton on "effective communication starts with listening," which yes, that's kind of what I'm saying. But what I'm really saying is that Effective Communication starts with me, my coworkers, my boss, with YOU!

If someone isn't willing to begin the dialogue or be the one to start listening nothing is ever going to get done.

Seems like it should be obvious, right?

It's like ...

Well maybe not that obvious ...

But seriously! We all need to take part in effective communication. Communication is two-sided. Unfortunately, my coworker was having a highly ineffective one-sided conversation with me this past week. I was too busy worrying about my own things that I forgot to listen. Like REALLY listen. And I also forgot to ask questions that would actually help me solve the problem. 

It was like I wasn't even there.

My poor coworker!

So hopefully this can be a reference to others. 

Start Listening!

Start Talking!

Start Effectively Communicating!

References:

Heath, Chip and Heath, Dan. (2010). Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard. Broadway Books. New York