Reacting to Change

Reacting to Change

What can we do to counter things we might not see coming? Having a crisis management plan never hurts. 

What if change had already sown its seeds? 

Whether it be change for the good or bad, the outcome depends on the way we react, especially in the communications industry. Structured and intelligent communication strategies are needed to guide and to direct the way that the change will result. 

Some go with the flow and some try to stop it in its tracks, though the latter may be difficult to achieve.

What is the best possible way to react to change?

What do you think?

Read below to learn “How To Improve Your Communication To Counter Uncertainty” to see some great perspectives on reacting to change.

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How To Improve Your Communication To Counter Uncertainty

Change comes by choice. Or by force. 

Take this year, which has taken us by force. More than likely, you’ve experienced disruptions in your life related to the extreme uncertainty swirling around us from the pandemic.

While we humans may prefer predictability over uncertainty, we’re equipped both to navigate uncertainty and make changes by choice, thanks to our brain’s executive function. Plus, we naturally band together with other humans to collaborate to survive and thrive. As a result, we can counter the many surprising curves that uncertainty sends our way.

Our superpower is our ability to communicate with each other. We humans share our thoughts, concerns, wants and needs with each other and then discuss, question and decide what to do.    

Yet herein lies a big problem — or opportunity, for us humans who prefer the positive. Even with this extreme uncertainty, many of us get stuck using old, sloppy communication habits.

We still believe that others receive our messages as we intended them. As the famous playwright George Bernard Shaw observed more than 70 years ago, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

Most of us pay so little attention to the fundamentals and nuances of how we send and receive messages that our communication is more likely to turn into miscommunication than clear, actionable messages. And worse, we tend to shirk any responsibility for the consequences of the poor communication.

How many times during 2020 have you asked or heard someone say one of the following?: “Did you get ___?” “Are you sure you sent that to me?” “It’s not clear what am I supposed to do.”  

How do we break these patterns so we reduce the ambiguity, friction and errors we experience and improve how we use our communication superpowers?

Let’s commit to these five principles:   

1. Recognize that communication is both a process and a goal. The goal is to reach a common understanding through a process of conveying and exchanging meanings. (Note that the words “common” and “communication” share the same root source.) If we don’t reach the goal, the meanings will be different, which produces the illusion, not the reality of communication taking place. 

2. Make a deliberate and disciplined effort to reach our goals. We tend to take our communication ability for granted and fall short of achieving shared meaning and understanding.

For example, when sending messages, we make too many assumptions, favor taking lazy shortcuts, and use the go-to communication channels we like best. For example, if we prefer email, we tend to send emails to everyone, even to those individuals who respond better to phone calls, texts, instant messaging or whatever. Oh, and do you sometimes use acronyms, assuming everyone knows their meaning?

When receiving messages, we may not give them our full attention because we’re multitasking. Or even if we think we’re focused, we may be preoccupied with something else and therefore may not listen or read carefully or ask clarifying questions. Or, we may not have a foolproof system for tracking all the messages we receive and therefore let deadlines fall through the cracks.

3. Show more respect when sending and receiving messages. Let’s rename the roles to emphasize the importance of each. If the “supplier” sends the message and the “customer” receives it, we may act more responsibly. For example, do you ever call your customer and hang up on them? Or when a supplier is providing a solution to your problem, do you stick your fingers in your ears? By adopting a customer-supplier metaphor, we might pay more careful attention to our communication and work smarter to reach a common understanding.

4. Take time to map your process before you communicate. For instance, when you’re acting as the “supplier,” sketch out what you want your “customer” to do after receiving your communication. Think cause and effect.

As a result, you’ll improve your ability to “see” what steps are needed to enlist others to help you get something done. This may be to provide an instruction, make a request, relay details or interpret information coming from someone else. (And don’t forget to include check-in steps to make sure everything is on track.)  

Take into account how well you know the individuals (that is, your customers), what else they’re doing, where they are and how familiar they’ll be with what you’re asking them to do.

Also, consider how all the different communication channels, such as email, text, online conferencing, phone calls, drawings, specifications, contracts and signs, affect your process. These channels help you make connections and convey information, but they cannot ensure shared understanding.

By conceptualizing communication as a dynamic process rather than considering it a casual act, you’ll be better equipped to deal with all the uncertainty in the environment.

5. Acknowledge that communication is a human process prone to messiness and joint responsibility. Even with these actions, communication is never going to be foolproof. We interpret messages based on our brains’ work, our backgrounds and our life experiences, which may not match the intended meaning. Everyone needs to consider communication as a joint responsibility, which reduces the chances of uncertainty derailing outcomes. Hopefully, you’ll notice your role in the process and stop blaming miscommunication on technology or other human beings.

Communication is a type of dance, with back-and-forth dialogue that helps create a common understanding, and then commits to act. Done well, it can take us places we could never get to on our own.

And by communicating more intentionally and deliberately, we can better cope with the adverse effects of uncertainty, as well as innovate better together.

Article link:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/10/26/how-to-improve-your-communication-to-counter-uncertainty/?sh=698b5f717c01