Dealing with complex challenges -Survival skills

A recent NY Times article titled: "Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss." reports on a study Mr. Bock and his group from Google undertook to find out what makes a boss most successful.

They found what employees valued most were "even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers."

It should not surprise us that a focus on and return to the "basics" of effective business communication and human relationship is the secret, not only of being a successful leader, but also to dealing with complexity.

People talk about business challenges becoming so complex that nobody can understand them or do anything about them. What organizations and businesses need most is to know how to create effective communication cultures that can collaboratively deal with complexity.

Let’s review high-impact communication strategies that will create robust and resilient organizations. Organizations that can not only adapt to the new complex challenges, but which can also thrive.

Listen

Listening may be the single most powerful skill of effective communication for it is an act of respect. It is also a gift that shows we value and care for others. When we listen and seek to understand first, we also create more receptivity for other to hear us.

Listening helps create a secure environment, where people are willing to take risks and new learning can occur. Complex challenges can only be resolved by those who feel they can share their thoughts and are continually learning.

Listening includes eye contact, listening without thinking of one’s rebuttals or preparing for what to say next, listening for emotional content as well as information, and asking questions to clarify meaning.

Test judgments and suspend assumptions

We tend to make judgments, both positive and negative. Whether we are judging ourselves or others, judgment shuts down creativity, imagination and learning. Judgments will limit your ability to listen and learn something new.

Assumptions act as filters for our perceptions. Because each of us has a unique life experience, we each carry a unique set of assumptions. We also have shared assumptions which tend to glue us together.

Strive to first be aware of your judgments and assumptions. In so doing, you can become clear that this is your reaction. You can then more objectively bring it into the conversation as an interpretation, not as “the truth.”

Express yourself

Effective business communication require that you share your thoughts and feelings. Embrace uncertainties and differences of opinion. Don’t shy away from tension and disagreement. Nevertheless, share in a way that helps open, not close, communication.

Inquire

Inquiry is about asking questions and holding an attitude of curiosity. Questions create new levels of understanding and learning. Inquiry can deepen your ability to think systemically because questions often reveal the relationships among the parts that make up the whole. Complex issues need systemic thinking.

You need to View your organization as a system of human interactions rather than as a machine or a detention facility with rigid rules. Be flexible. Be curious. Ask questions.

Seek balance

Balance data and intuition. Data alone shouldn’t dictate what you do. Combine measurement, standards, and controls (the rational) with trial and error, risk taking, and autonomy (experiments and intuition). Diversity of people and thoughts can help bring this balance.

Take positive action

Let your direction arise from what works. Don’t try to be “sure” before you proceed with anything. There is no single path to solve complex challenges. But in the multitude of collaborative action, things can get done usually in a best practice way.

Effective business communication is the main secret for dealing with complex challenges. It will also decrease individual and organizational conflict, speeding up innovation, and increasing productivity and profit.

What do you think?

How can you encourage more effective business communication in your organization? Share your comments with us.

Photo: AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker