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Lack of communication
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Lack of communication
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Hello,
My office has a baffling culture. Every meeting that is held, no one participates in communicating either an opinion or provide a statement. The only individual(s) who do communicate are the o
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Forums » Topic Forums » General Forum » Lack of communication
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Lack of communication
posted at 2/25/2009 8:19 AM EST
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Posts: 24
First: 5/19/2000 Last: 2/9/2010 |
Hello,
My office has a baffling culture. Every meeting that is held, no one participates in communicating either an opinion or provide a statement. The only individual(s) who do communicate are the ones holding the meeting. Unusual the opposite occurs in companies, where people cannot keep quiet. Any suggestions on how I can encourage communication? |
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Lack of communication
posted at 2/25/2009 8:56 AM EST
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Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006 Last: 9/14/2011 |
How often are you holding meetings? What is the atmosphere (conference room vs lunch in the kitchen etc)? Are they too often, not often enough? Are the right people in the right meetings? There is nothing worse than a meeting that drones on and on.
Are employees communicating on the first level(to or from their manager/supervisor)? Is it flowing downward? Do you have any system where they can skip the first level if they are uncomfortable with that person? Have you thought of having a method where they can submit issues anonymously? And where those issues get addressed? If there is a culture of ignoring issues that are brought to the forefront, then eventually you will lose the ability to get questions/issues. Look at what issues have been brought up in the past. What happened to them? Are there things that can't be solved? Has the employer admitted that they can't. To me, communication comes from the top/managers. How about a weekly email to all employees with a situation/issue/idea and ask for feedback? But make sure to follow through and continue for a long enough period of time that it isn't just one more "tried and failed". |
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Lack of communication
posted at 2/25/2009 6:36 PM EST
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Posts: 108
First: 4/15/2007 Last: 8/17/2009 |
For any proposed solution to lack of contributions to work, you need to know the root cause of the problem. Employees may not communicate at meetings because:
-they are too busy and want to get back to the real work -they dont want to look to conscientious in front of their peers -they dont want to look silly -they have been ridiculed in the past -they get cut short -nothing ever happens with their suggestions -they feel the meeting isnt relevant to them -they dont trust the meeting organizers -they hate their job and cant wait to get home You will need to look at the structural aspects of the meeting: agenda, minutes distributed, start and finish time, duration, speaking and decision making protocols, etc. You will also need to look at the interpersonal dynamics between the meeting participants. If you are the meeting holder, you may need someone else (skilled in observing human behavior) to sit in on the meeting to observe dispassionately and report their findings back to you. Les Allan Author: Managing Change in the Workplace www.businessperform.com/html/managing_change.html |
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Lack of communication
posted at 4/21/2009 5:26 AM EDT
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Posts: 3
First: 12/19/2006 Last: 4/27/2010 |
Usually, this kind of behavior is a reflection of the organizational culture. I suspect that it may be very authoritarian and the employees involved in the meeting do not feel powerful enough to survive any contribution they may offer. |
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Lack of communication
posted at 4/21/2009 6:53 AM EDT
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Posts: 1
First: 4/21/2009 Last: 4/21/2009 |
When I have a meeting where people do not want to participate, I generally ask the group as a whole to be prepared to answer two questions - 1. What is currently missing in our process (that is very different from focusing on what is wrong. 2. What would successful meetings include? When everyone is together, you have a dialogue in which each person is asked to respond to the questions. For the ensuing participants, each person needs to restate what was said by the person prior to them, and it they wish, they can also synthesize several items. This process ensures that everyone must fully listen to at least the person who is coming prior to their turn. Most of the time, the real story comes out fairly quickly and more creativity of ideas begin to be generated.
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Lack of communication
posted at 4/21/2009 8:13 AM EDT
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Posts: 1
First: 4/21/2009 Last: 4/21/2009 |
Simple solution - read Death by Meeting, by Patrick Lencioni. I have had similar problems at my company and have had good results with the book's recommendations once I explained to everyone what I'm doing. It takes some buy-in and a good facilitator to accomplish, though. |
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Lack of communication
posted at 4/22/2009 5:35 AM EDT
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Posts: 1
First: 4/22/2009 Last: 4/22/2009 |
Our team watched the video 5 Dysfunctions of a team by Patrick Lencioni. We also strated to go through the accompanying workbook and found our main problems were lack of trust amongst our group. Eye opening stuff, many things can lead to no participation in a meeting such as:
- Lack of Trust - No folow through on suggestions - Fear - The person holding the meeting already says everything Try passing around the chair position and note taker and have each respective department talk about their issues not just the chair. |
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