Audit Your Team Communications

Purpose

With this short activity you will be able to assess the competence of your team's communication, and identify an action plan. Included is a communication planner to use when planning important team communications.

Introduction

How do you score in relation to other organisations?

Royal Mail - In a bi-annual employee survey in Royal Mail, almost 50% of managers and non-managers were dissatisfied with the communications within Royal Mail. The most common causes of their dissatisfaction were:

• insufficient info
• late receipt of info
• inconsistent info

US Survey - In a survey of some 10,000 US workers, just 38% thought their managers were at keeping people informed, and still less (28%) said managers do a good job of explaining the rationale of decisions.

Instructions

This activity will help you to consider the quality of communication within your team, reflect and draw up an action plan for positive improvement and plan important pieces of team communication.

Complete Activity 1, an assessment of the effectiveness of communication within your team.

Next assess your scores, and compare your results with the table provided.

When you have done this, you should look in more detail at the scores you awarded for each dimension.

The final step in ensuring effective communication is to identify the actions you and your team need to take if you are to achieve success.

First read Checklist 1, then think about actions under two headings:

• Actions you can take to improve communication
• Actions your team members can take to improve communication

Finally, complete Activity 2.

Activity 1

Think about the quality of communication within your team by completing the questionnaire below. To complete the score column use a scale from 1 (very poor) to 10 (very good).

	Because?	Score
1.Understanding
I know everyone in my team understands the vision and direction of the team
I know everyone in my team understands the team objectives
I know everyone in my team understands their personal objectives
I know everyone in my team understands their role and responsibilities
2.Communication Skill
I know everyone communicates effectively with each other about task issues
I know everyone communicates effectively with each other about interpersonal issues
I know everyone communicates effectively with each other when communicating news which is NOT good
I know everyone communicates effectively with each other when communicating good news
3.External Communication
I know everyone communicates effectively with senior people outside the team
I know everyone communicates effectively with our customers
I know everyone communicates effectively with our suppliers
I know everyone communicates effectively with other teams in the organisation

Assess your scores

The total score is important as an indicator of your team's overall effectiveness at communication, however, it does not tell the whole story. Using only the overall score can provide a false picture. It is possible to imagine a result in which the overall score is high, but in which there are low scores in other areas.

In assessing this questionnaire it is suggested that you take the following two part approach.

1. Assessing your overall score

You should total the scores you have awarded yourself.

120 is the maximum score available
12 is the minimum score available

Look at your scores and compare them with the following table:

Scores above 96 are in the top 20% of scores available	Communication in your team looks pretty good, look at those areas where you still have room for improvement and make plans for change. For example, is your task communication better than your personal communication?
Scores between 72-95 are in top 40% of scores available	Communication in your team appears to be happening but you still have some way to go. Look carefully at those areas where you have scored low and identify what you and your team need to do to change. Ask yourself is one to one communication better than communication within the team?
Scores between 48-71 are in the middle range of scores available	Communication in your team is not good. You need to review carefully what you are doing and identify those areas you and your team need to build skills in. Identify where the problems may lie. For instance, is communication within the team better than external communication?
Scores below 48 are in the bottom 40% of scores available	Communication in your team is poor. You need to make sure that you and your team make a clear plan for improvement and ensure you keep to it.

Why not ask the members of your team to complete the same questionnaire independently and compare the results at a team meeting?

2.Reviewing the score on each dimension

The second and arguably, the more important part, of this activity is for you to review the score you awarded for each dimension. You should identify those areas where you have scored the highest and resolve to do more of these things. Secondly you should identify those areas where you have scored low and make an action plan for change.

In making a plan for change you should prioritise those areas you plan to work on. It is important not to promise too much as the more you promise the more difficult it is to deliver.

Using Activity 2, select no more than four or five areas to include in your short-term action plan and make a note of the others to be considered only when you are happy you have achieved those with greater priority.

Activity 2

The action I plan to take	By when?	How will I know when I have succeeded
Short term actions:
Long term actions:
Actions I would like my team to take	By when?	How will I know when they have succeeded?
Short term actions:
Long term actions:

First read Checklist 1, which provides you with current examples of different styles and ideas for team communication. Consider using the Communication Planner, Checklist 2, when planning to present to or brief your team.

Checklist 1

Bodyshop - As well as access to Ms Anita Roddick's personal fax number, Body Shop staff have a series of coloured envelopes for urgent messages to directors: green for (no surprises) green issues, red for concerns to which the designated director must respond within two days.

IBM - The art of storytelling is emerging as a key communications tool with a twofold purpose:

• To convey messages about the organisation, and so to reinforce culture
• To tap employee knowledge

Asda - Asda CEO Allan Leighton stresses his availability to all his 'colleagues' (as all staff are called): if anyone wants to talk to him direct, they can pick up the phone or e-mail him for, where possible, a same day response.

US HR Execs - In a survey of US HR executives, though face-to-face was the preferred communications method, e-mail was the most used: 36% vs 15% face-to-face. This from the department meant to talk to people!

BT -  BT CEO Sir Peter Bonfield now browses the intranet for good ideas, bypassing middle management entirely to occasionally pass on his congratulations directly to staff whose ideas he has seen on the 'net'. By the end of 1997 38% of EU companies were using the intranet vs 59% of US companies.

 Checklist 2

A Communication Planner

Why are you communicating?
Who is the target? (so what is the style?)
What are you trying to say? (No more than two lines)
When will you communicate? (Timing is everything. Too late and it's a fait accompli; too early and you can build resistance)
How will you communicate? (Remember the medium is the message)
How will you get feedback on the effect of this communication?

Reproduced with the kind permission of www.learningmatters.com

Echelon Learningmatters.com