Guidelines
It is of course very easy to have a situation gone bad and afterwards examine them and see what should have gone different. The only problem is that you want to prevent these things from happening.
So I wrote down some guidelines which I hope will help improve communication.
Communication between companies and/or departments (because sometimes it's almost the same thing)
How could the situations in examples 1 and 2 be partly prevented.
Protocol:
In case of actions that involve other departments make sure you have a protocol that has to be followed. In case of the website (example 2): If department A had followed a protocol this would probably have stated that they should inform department B that a new website is developed. Department B could then immediately have told them there are guidelines.
A protocol can be some work, but it helps to have a guideline on what to do when.
If you don't have a protocol, everybody is going to do things the way they please which might be different for everyone.
Hold a person responsible
If you want to make sure something gets done the right way, make one or two people responsible for it. They are the ones that have to make sure it gets done right. Make sure they know that they will be held accountable if things go wrong.
If nobody is responsible, nobody will take responsibility.
If somebody is responsible, you have a contact point. You could have them keep you up to date about the status of the actions and overview these actions performed by other employees.
Of course, if you do make someone responsible, you will have to inform the other employees who's responsible, otherwise it won't have any effect. Maybe the next tip will help with that.
Create an operation overview
If you have a large company, it might help to have an overview of the actions and responsibilities each department and/or other companies/departments have.
In smaller companies, you might want to do this for each employee.
Also, while creating this, have the departments/employees write down what they think their actions/responsibilities are. Also have them write down what they think other companies/departments/employees do.
This might create insight in what companies/departments/employees need more explanation.
Communication inside departments
So how about communication inside departments, can we improve that? I think so.
Notes (dictionary calls it minutes, but that's just too weird a word for me)
Of course the easiest way to improve not remembering what a meeting was about or what was decided, would be to make notes.
But in order to make these notes have any effect at all, you have to do more.
First assign one secretary, make sure they make a document in which they extensively describe the key-points and decisions of the meeting.
During the meeting make sure the secretary understands what has been discussed and has had time to write it down.
If you have a meeting with a lot of participants, it would be best to have the secretary not be part of the conversation. This way they can keep writing while the others are talking, so you'll minimize the risk of having to wait for the secretary often during the meeting. Another thing you can do is record the meeting, in which case the secretary doesn't have to write too much down.
Also, at the end of the meeting, agree on the location the document will be placed at. Make this an easy to find location, and give the document an easy name. Using the name of the meeting and the date and time of the meeting would be best.
Why go through all this trouble?
One person needs to be responsible for the notes (see previous chapters) and this persons needs to understand what has been discussed in order to be able to write a document that makes any sense whatsoever.
If you only write keywords nobody will remember what the conversation was about if they read it after a week. Better write too much than too less.
As for the location and naming: notes that can't be found, won't be read.
Also, if you like, you can have the secretary make a list of all the actions that were discussed. For instance “Hank will e-mail Sandra to inform her of the impact”.
They can be e-mailed to every member of the meeting, or be managed in a task list. Actions can be easily forgotten and people usually don't want to read the entire document to find what actions they need to perform.
Even if you just have a 10 minute conversation in which you discuss even just a tiny thing that is important or relevant I'd advise to make notes of it.
Define terms
The easiest way to make sure you are all talking about the same thing is to make a list of terms. In conversations use these terms, and in case of doubt you can ask which term they are referring to.
This will help solve and prevent a lot of misunderstandings.
Speak their language
When explaining something to a co-worker, manager or client, try to phrase your sentences in their words. This helps in understanding their point of view.
Often people in different work environments (co-worker vs. manager) have a very different view on things.
Trying to place yourself in their view will make communication easier.
Do not assume anything
While in conversation, do not assume too much.
Do not assume that when you use a term which is very common, the other person will know exactly what you mean. Unless of course you have a term definition and are using those.
Do not assume that when you say things like “easy” and “simple” that means the same to the other person as it does to you.
Do not assume they know the context of your question. In which situation a certain action should be enabled or disabled for instance.
It's better to be specific and sometimes make a full sentence with context instead of half a sentence without context.
Give an intro
When you're working on something and run into something that you have a question about, it is best to not start you conversation directly with the question.
The case usually is that your co-worker is also working on something (completely different), and has no idea what you are talking about.
So start with a short intro on what you're working on and then proceed to your question. I assure you this will help get an answer a lot quicker.
Codeword
This is a solution me and my co-worker thought of, in case we forget to “give an intro”. If we have absolutely no idea what the other person is talking about, we say “context”.
This means the other person should first tell us where he's at with his head.
Conclusion
There are still a lot of failures of communication out there, but hopefully with these guidelines we can fight them !
I hope you found this as informative as I found it boring to write (just kiddin').
PS. As English is not my native language, I sincerely apologize if any of the words in this document have not been translated correctly. I compared the amount of search results in Google, and as we all know “Google knows best”. Maybe your dictionary is just old fashioned.
