Communication Networks - why its hard to communicate at work

99% of problems in business are due to ineffective communication.

You’ve probably heard me say this a few times if you’ve listened to the podcast, or read the newsletter. It’s likely not scientifically true, but anecdotally almost every problem I've seen in business has been due to some form of communication breakdown, or ineffective use of comms. 

And it’s no surprise that most problems are communication related. Communicating effectively as an individual is hard, let alone when you add in the complexity of most organisations. 

At work we often have access to an org chart; a diagram that shows the structure of the organisation from a people perspective. Who reports to whom, who are peers, who is in which functional department etc. They're good to get a sense of where people "sit" in the organisation.

But, they're rarely helpful when understanding how work gets done. They don't show you how work moves through the organisation. Sure, some work is done in isolation by individuals, but for most of us, we need to integrate, cooperate, collaborate and intermingle to deliver value to our customers.

And it's in this mix of interactions that confusion sets in, misalignment can be rife and communication starts to become more challenging. It's likely fair to say (although not scientifically proven) that the larger the organisation, the more lines of communication there are.

When I was in a startup for 40 people it was easy to communicate. We all sat together, didn't operate just within our "job role" and we all came together to do the work that was needed.

As companies grow and scale, and we were no different, there is a need for more structure, more process, more hand-offs (work of the devil) and more divisions. Keeping these to a minimum is essential, but some of this will naturally happen as you grow.

And so it's hard to communicate.

It's hard to provide clarity to a growing number of people. And it's hard to align people as your company scales. It's therefore inevitable that miscommunication, confusion and competition creeps in.

Understanding this and guarding against it (or dealing with it if it's already happening) is key to unlocking clarity, alignment and action.

I tried to draw a communication network diagram once for a company of around 200 people. It ended up looking something like this. (I include some "fun" variations on org charts at the end of this post)

Its complicated stuff. But I'm not here to say how hard it is to communicate, nor draw silly diagrams, nor explain it's going to happen. Instead, I'm going to provide, in no particular order, nor with a deep dive into each, some ideas on how to start looking for communication problems, or examples I've seen in the past

Matrix Organisations

Let's start with a thorny subject - and one that has plenty of fans and haters - the matrix structure.

Many organisations operate in a matrix structure.

On paper it seems logical - spread the management burden and reduce the span of control that any single person has. In reality it's a little different. It adds complexity to our workplaces - and they can be pretty complex already.

There are no doubt positive communication consequences of a matrix organisation but one of the most challenging I've seen is the dual bosses.

Instead of having one "boss" you now essentially have two. And the chances are your two bosses don't talk to each other.

You have one (and I'd argue, the most important one) who is your official line manager. As an employee you really need to keep this person sweet. They do your performance review and performance management (even though they likely don't see you in action), bonuses and career advancement.

You have another boss who is responsible for your activity set, workload and business results. This person sees you in action but doesn't have the ultimate say in your career development.

You've got to keep both sweet - but when it comes down to it - which one will you choose? I'd go for the one who has the decision rights about my career progression and bonus.

I worked with one organisation where the line and activity managers never spoke to each other. The performance reviews were done using 360 feedback rather than solid observations of performance (and behaviours) and lacked any kind of decent insight.

The direct report was in turmoil having to serve two masters - neither of which aligned on anything, nor spoke to each other. They often gave conflicting information, different advice and were seemingly juggling 25 different priorities that they passed to the employee.

The employee didn't know what to focus on, where to focus or what was the right thing. He was going mad stuck between two people directing his career.

As you can tell, I'm not a fan of the matrix organisation. But, in this instance the solution was so simple I was staggered it wasn't happening.

I organised a fortnightly one to one between the two managers. Talk to each other. Align. Agree on priorities. Agree on outcomes. Agree on how to treat the employee well and do the right thing by them. Agree on how to get the best for the business too. Work together for the sake of the employee.

Simple but effective.

Different IT systems

You're maybe wondering what IT systems have to do with communication failures - a lot is the answer.

I worked in one company where there were 65 different internal IT systems, each one designed to help employees track work, align around goals, manage financials, performance manage etc

None of the systems seemed to integrate with each other. Many of them had no obvious purpose either. Some systems were duplicates of others. Some people used one system and not the other.

It’s no surprise confusion happened and misdirection was rife. Employees didn't know where to go to get insights, information, work items, updates and employee informations. Managers didn't really know either.

When trying to align around work you had to consult 3 different systems.

It's fair to say that it was very broken and people spent more time trying to understand the work, than actually doing the work.

The solution was simple, although not easy to implement. They chose one system for each purpose/solution - and brought together talented people to build and roll the systems out.

Of course, I also ran the communication workshop with as many people as I could - at the end of the day nothing beats good interpersonal communication - and systems should not be used for "communicating"

Unaware of transformations and ways of working changes

I worked with one organisation that were on an agile transformation. Well, some of the company were.

They brought in plenty of coaches who were distributed across various teams. The teams had no idea why the coaches were there, had no knowledge of the “agile transformation” and pushed back, making it hard for the coaches.

Why are we doing this? What’s in it for me? What problem are we trying to solve? Who’s said we’re doing it? I know nothing about it.

Changing ways of working (including agile transformations) is a strategic activity. As such, it needs thinking through and needs a plan. And more importantly, it needs communicating. I've done a post on strategy here.

It's not ok for leaders to make large strategic changes without ensuring every single person affected understands the reasons behind the change, the role they play and what's on the other side of the change.

Building Relationships - clients and providers

I worked with one team who built the entirely wrong software solution for an internal business client.

It seems the customer and the provider didn’t really talk to each other. A few documents exchanged hands, no critical questions asked about the outcomes, no goals agreed upon and no on-going review sessions were planned.

As such, a lot of assumptions were made by the technology team that turned out to be monumentally wrong. A lot of trust (or negligence) was assumed by the business too which was unfounded. A lot of isolated activity was happening on a project that should have been collaborative from the start.

An expensive mistake that happens all the time. 

The solution(s) seem obvious.

1. Agree the scope, requirements and definition of the work
2. Align on the problem the product solves, along with measures
3. Agree the timelines and check-in points
4. Agree roles and responsibilities
5. Agree a framework that encourages rapid and frequent feedback
6. Build relationships between client and provider - and work hard to grow that relationship
7. Implement reporting, dashboards, plans and milestones to ensure the right thing is being delivered
8. Feedback opportunities baked in to the process to ensure pivots and changes are encouraged to get the right solution

People don't appreciate what other's do, or even know

Ask people what their peers do and how they work with each other.

If they don't know you have a gap and communication breakdown. How do they know who's working on the same value they are? Who do they collaborate with? Who can they ask for help?

Is there duplicate work happening? And why are people working on pieces of value and unaware of who else is?

All opportunities to find these gaps - and fix them. When we know the value we add, and we know the value others add, we can appreciate people more, connect and come together to solve problems.

People don't know where work comes from, or where it goes

When people don't know where their work comes from (as in, who touches the work before they do), or where their work goes (as in, who touches work after they do), then you are encouraging hand-overs where people need to break down work to pass to others.

There are always breakdowns in communication at handovers. People resort to documents rather than conversations, wikis, work items moving queues and other opportunities for miscommunication in order to move/pass work around.

There is potential for an "us versus them" culture to emerge, where communication will naturally be more challenging. I've even seen teams hold back information due to poor working relationships with those before or after them in the chain of value.

People start to use tools to log errors and issues - bouncing work items back and forth creating waste and delays.

A solution is to find out where work comes from and build good relationships with those who provide the work. With good relationships you can align around problems, ask for a better delivery (if you often get sub-quality work) and build a more cooperative environment for the better of the business.

Find out who consumes your work and build relationships there too. Ask them if there's anything you could do to make their lives easier. Is the quality of what you deliver as expected? Could you do more?

This will solve many communication problems as you embark on real-time, honest and collaborative communication, rather than simply throwing things over the fence and then building a process to deal with failures in the quality of work.

Staple yourself to work as it flows through your system of work. At each logical stage list who touches the work, and then go and build positive work relationships with them

Pretty soon you’ll have a decent visual representation of who is involved in the delivery of value.

Is there a way to bring them together so they get to know each other better?

We use a single message to communicate

Remember that communication is something other people do, so double check you’re communicating in a way that they expect and resonate with. 

We’re after clarity, alignment and right action.

Repeat messages in multiple mediums. Repeat again.

If it’s not clear what we’re trying to do, what our role and responsibilities are, who does what, what the outcomes are etc etc - there’s little chance of alignment. Without alignment, there is an increased risk that action will be in the wrong direction, duplicated and misguided. 

Everyone is different, so ensure you're not trying to be efficient with communication - and instead you're aiming to be effective by understanding the purpose, audience and context.

Sending a single communication out (like an email) and expecting everyone to have read it (and understood it) is madness. Communication is not easy - but it's worth it to avoid misguided work and misalignment.

People are defensive

I’ve found that when people are under-utilised and unclear of what their role is (and others), they tend to protect the work they do. They become defensive.

There are, of course, many other reasons someone may be defensive. In my experience though, it’s usually because they’re not utilising their full capability (note I said capability here, and not capacity), or they don’t know how they fit into the wider delivery of value.

Defensive people tend not to listen very well. We all tend to hear what we want to hear, and see what we want to see. Defensive people can often come across as aggressive, or aloof, or dismissive. 

If you're a manager, a simple thing to do is to take the time to get to know people, work out what their strengths are and find ways to utilise their strengths in the organisation.

Define roles and responsibilities clearly, and who will be working with each other. Give an overriding goal or mission. Do all you can to ensure people feel included in the work.

Defensiveness is typically a response to feeling threatened in some way. Find out what you can do to help people feel included and utilised for their strengths - and reinforce to all how valuable their role is within the business.

Communication challenges will melt away once people know what they are doing - and feel utilised for their own unique skills and experiences.

Drive out assumptions

It’s typical to find a breakdown in communication when evidence, facts, data and insights are not used, or shared, with those involved.

We tend to fill in gaps when we don't have details, and this is usually done with assumptions. Assumptions are likely different amongst people in the team. This leads to confusion, misinterpretation and action on the wrong things.

Take the time to make sure your plans are solid, evidence based and any holes in them should be filled by listening to people, taking in inputs and encouraging a culture where speaking up is NOT a bad thing (if they do it professionally).

When people don't have all of the information they need to get the job done, they often improvise and assume. This is initiative - but sometimes it's wrong. Help people by providing all of the information they need. If you don't have it - find it out!

Not rippling comms

It’s not uncommon for leaders and managers to expect comms to reach everyone through osmosis. Rumours and hearsay might work that way, but it’s unlikely that strategy, direction and important information will. 

As such, it’s a good idea to ensure that all communication (that is required to be shared) is rippled down through the organisation - through your existing hierarchy.

This means Leaders and Managers ensuring those one level below them in the organisation get a clear, tailored and useful set of comms. These people then ripple into their teams - and so on. 

And repeat it. Keep repeating it until you’re sure everyone understood the comms….by asking them. 

Use Simple Clear Language and Visuals

A picture tells a thousands words - well, kind of.

Use simple language and visuals to communicate. Try to avoid jargon and long crazy words. Using long complicated words is NOT a sign of intelligence and intellectual prowess, it’s instead, the hallmark of an ass. 

Never use jargon words like 'reconceptualize', 'demassification', 'attitudinally', 'judgmentally'. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

David Ogilvy

Use simple words, enough to articulate the message and no fluff. Visuals that support the words are essential, so people have the content AND the context of the visuals.

Infographics are great but hard to get right. Whatever you do though, be sure to use the most accessible language you can. 

Use metaphors and stories - as they go where facts and words often cannot. And be sure at all times to consider the purpose of your communication, and the audience - and tailor the communication as fit.

Communicating is hard. It’s not about efficient communication - it’s about effective communication. And effective communication takes consideration and care. 

Follow the confusion

In environments where clarity, alignment and action are not in sync (ineffective communication), it results in confusion. And there’s often plenty of confusion in an organisation. So follow it.

Find the confusion and understand why it’s happening. From here you will get deep insights as to what is causing the confusion - then fix it.

There will be lots of reasons for confusion but follow the communication trails to find out where the confusion is coming from (many of the items on this list will be present).

By doing this you can work out how to prevent it from happening again, fix any root issues and ensure the current confusion is clear. The chances are it will stem from leaders and managers 😄

Make all work visible

I’m a big fan of making all work visible in a single tool. Pick one and make everyone use it. There is no single tool that does everything 100% well. But using one single tool far outweighs the costs of trying to piece sporadic tools together, or even worse, pay people to connect them so they tell the whole story. 

By making work visible and visual you are giving people an opportunity to see how everyone’s work is part of a bigger picture. You will see bottlenecks and gaps and duplications. The outcome of this is that people will be able to communicate objectively about work - and when they see it all together, it helps to reduce the confusion over who is doing what. 

Productivity and work visualisation tools are merely containers of work with rules on how that work moves. Don’t overcomplicate things.

A simple Kanban tool like Trello can be better than a million pound SAS "productivity guru tool" if it takes months to roll out the SAS tool, pay for people to integrate it, send people on countless training courses and comes with so many features that people don’t even use the tool.

A container of work and some rules that make sense for your company - this is all it takes sometimes to bring clarity, alignment and the right action.

You get the idea - all of these are communication challenges - and it's a long way from being an exhaustive list.

Yes, we can develop our own personal communication behaviours and this will make a massive difference, but a lot of these are systemic also. To solve systemic issues really means leaning into studying - and then pulling the most appropriate levers.

And this is why I always identify the communication breakdowns as part of my work. Once you understand and see where communication problems exists, you get a rich set of levers to pull to make the business better.

It's essential that people have all of the information they need to get their jobs done - and that they are aligned up, down, across and through the organisation. When we don't get this right we see problems - lots of them. 99% if my made up stats are anything to believe.

There isn't a single problem I've seen generated from within the business (i.e. not external like a recent lockdown or global IT meltdown) that was not caused by ineffective communication.

Learning to develop our own effective communication skills is essential but we most also overcome the systemic issues that make communication so hard.

Follow the problems and find out what's happening. Sometimes its simply down to people - and we can coach and teach and learn. Sometimes its due to a system - we can fix these too if we really want to.

And don't try to draw a communication network chart of the workplace, it’s a fools game - I should know, I’ve tried to do it a few times. 

Alternatives to Org Charts

Bibliography

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Po-An Hsieh, J.J., Wang, W., 2007. Explaining employees’ Extended Use of complex information systems. European Journal of Information Systems 16, 216–227. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000663

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