When Does Poor Communication Cost Us Time & Money?

Today I want to talk about how we use words and how words can create a problem around miscommunication. Miscommunication leads to an ineffective use of time, whether it is related to assumption of knowledge, unclear expectations or misunderstanding. For example, the same word can have different meanings, leading to miscommunication. Just the other night, my husband was on the phone discussing a possible restaurant to visit with others. While on the phone, both parties were looking at the restaurant’s website menu as one member of the group has dairy allergies. We wanted to make sure that this restaurant would have dairy free options and accommodate every member of the party for food preferences. My husband stated that the menu was really difficult to look at and it didn’t look good. The person on the other end of the phone said, “Oh, I thought the menu looked really good”. As it turned out, both of them were not talking about the same menu! My husband was talking about navigating around the website’s “menu”, that is, the Homepage, About Us, Get Directions, etc., while who he was speaking with was talking about the food menu and the different foods available at the restaurant. They were having a single conversation but about two entirely different things based around the one same word. This kind of miscommunication happens a lot in the business world, especially with project management. We make assumptions on what each person is talking about, what they understand, how much detail and knowledge they already have, and how they have interpreted what we have requested. Not realizing until later on that there has been some kind of miscommunication, we don’t recognize that things have gone wrong or haven’t been done the way it was supposed to until it is too late. This creates a reactionary situation. When we are in a reactionary mode, it can lead to not just costing more time but more money and resources, and of course, cause unnecessary bad feelings. Please take a moment to look at communication and see what you can put together with regards to checks and balances to have a good conversation all the way down the line. Here are 3 tips to implement to help with improving communication: 1. Make sure you are on the same page with regard to topic and conversation by being clear with written and verbal instructions. Ask the other party to explain back to you what needs to be implemented or done. 2. Have someone else read the instructions who hasn’t been a part of the conversation, and see if they can understand the instructions or task. 3. Ask questions along the way that shows that they understand.