Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Bad Communication Equals Failure

Is there any employee who hasn’t witnessed his or her employer about to make a big mistake before it is made?

Probably not.

Companies make mistakes because they rush a product to market, fail to adequately discuss the impact of a particular program, or because they just don’t consider the opinions of everyone around them, including their employees.

A new study shows that 86 percent of people blame lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The study also reports that while 90 percent think company decision-makers should consider opinions of others before making their decisions, only 40 percent do.

The findings come from a study of 1,400 corporate executives, employees, and educators from a diverse group of industries by Fierce Inc., a Seattle-based leadership development and training company.

Fierce subscribes to the theory that the better and more effective it communicates, the better its bottom line will be. And, it isn’t just interested in making sure that executive suite-decisions are adequately relayed down through layers of management and workers.

Holly Bock, chief executive of Fierce, believes business executives and employees need to have the skills necessary to have effective, candid and goal-oriented conversations that encourage collaboration, create engagement, and drive business results.

“Learning to communicate effectively takes time and practice,” she says. “Like any skill, communication must be carefully honed.”

Yet, Fierce’s study finds that 70 percent of those surveyed believe that a lack of candor impacts the ability of the company to perform at its best.

Many people are familiar with companies – and some very successful companies – that have one, two, or three people at the top of the company who make nearly all the company’s decisions on their own.

But for every company that succeeds like that, there are dozens of others that fail or struggle because they either don’t know how or don’t want to open up the decision-making process to include others in their work forces.

Many times, companies don’t even realize that they have shut out employees from being able to contribute. Companies say they want everyone’s input on projects, but because of time constraints, organizational obstacles or simply lack of effort, they don’t give others the chance to participate.

It is extremely difficult for any executive to be aware of every nuance of a corporate project. Those executives need to lean on those around them – as well as anyone else in the company that has first-hand knowledge of the how projects works or will be received by clients.

Good communication flow seems to be a no-brainer inside healthy companies. But many either haven’t made the effort or have been succeeding despite not communicating well. That has a tendency to undermine long-term success.

And, one of the most important components of communication is the ability to listen to what others are saying and process those remarks as part of the decision-making process.

Workplace communications are integral to building a company that will be able to develop products their customers need and want, and to refining those products when they are found to have flaws. But you can’t discover those things unless you have an open channel for communications that reach each of a company’s workers.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Syrian treat maker Hakmi Sweets makes Dubai chocolate bars

Look for the counter shop inside a Mediterranean grill in El Cajon

Is there any employee who hasn’t witnessed his or her employer about to make a big mistake before it is made?

Probably not.

Companies make mistakes because they rush a product to market, fail to adequately discuss the impact of a particular program, or because they just don’t consider the opinions of everyone around them, including their employees.

A new study shows that 86 percent of people blame lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The study also reports that while 90 percent think company decision-makers should consider opinions of others before making their decisions, only 40 percent do.

The findings come from a study of 1,400 corporate executives, employees, and educators from a diverse group of industries by Fierce Inc., a Seattle-based leadership development and training company.

Fierce subscribes to the theory that the better and more effective it communicates, the better its bottom line will be. And, it isn’t just interested in making sure that executive suite-decisions are adequately relayed down through layers of management and workers.

Holly Bock, chief executive of Fierce, believes business executives and employees need to have the skills necessary to have effective, candid and goal-oriented conversations that encourage collaboration, create engagement, and drive business results.

“Learning to communicate effectively takes time and practice,” she says. “Like any skill, communication must be carefully honed.”

Yet, Fierce’s study finds that 70 percent of those surveyed believe that a lack of candor impacts the ability of the company to perform at its best.

Many people are familiar with companies – and some very successful companies – that have one, two, or three people at the top of the company who make nearly all the company’s decisions on their own.

But for every company that succeeds like that, there are dozens of others that fail or struggle because they either don’t know how or don’t want to open up the decision-making process to include others in their work forces.

Many times, companies don’t even realize that they have shut out employees from being able to contribute. Companies say they want everyone’s input on projects, but because of time constraints, organizational obstacles or simply lack of effort, they don’t give others the chance to participate.

It is extremely difficult for any executive to be aware of every nuance of a corporate project. Those executives need to lean on those around them – as well as anyone else in the company that has first-hand knowledge of the how projects works or will be received by clients.

Good communication flow seems to be a no-brainer inside healthy companies. But many either haven’t made the effort or have been succeeding despite not communicating well. That has a tendency to undermine long-term success.

And, one of the most important components of communication is the ability to listen to what others are saying and process those remarks as part of the decision-making process.

Workplace communications are integral to building a company that will be able to develop products their customers need and want, and to refining those products when they are found to have flaws. But you can’t discover those things unless you have an open channel for communications that reach each of a company’s workers.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

In-n-Out alters iconic symbol to reflect “modern-day California”

Keep Palm and Carry On?
Next Article

Undocumented workers break for Trump in 2024

Illegals Vote for Felon
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader