Three ways to communicate the decisions you make.

During the course of normal business we are confronted with many opportunities in which we will need to communicate decisions to customers, vendors, and even more importantly our own internal team. How we communicate these decisions are absolutely vital to the welfare and growth of our companies. In fact I would go as far as to state that it is equally of importance, if not even more important, to that of having a strong vision and mission for your company.

Just as there are various opportunities to communicate, there are various ways to communicate. Let’s take a look at three forms of communication and where to use them best as you communicate to your internal team.

The “Grapevine”. This is named after the manner in which a “grapevine” stretches out and unpredictably moves and takes root. This is the least formal of the ways to communicate a decision. You simply tell the rumor leader of the company something and they tell 2, 3, or 20 other people and these people in turn tell others. Oh come on, you know who the rumor people are in your company are. Actually everyone in the company usually knows who they are. These are the people who have the latest information and dirt on everyone.

                Advantage of the “Grapevine”: Informally gets the team talking.

Danger of the “Grapevine”: The message you send out may get distorted through the flow.

When to use the “Grapevine”: Minor decisions such as when to have Christmas Parties or such.

How to effectively communicate the “Grapevine”: Through a casual private conversation.

The “Command”. I call it the “command” because it really is an order- not a discussion. It comes from the top down. This is a manner that I use quite a bit. I use it mostly when we need to either make quick decisions or when budgets are tight. I know that I can communicate this internally quickly and precisely. I will always communicate this in writing, or if it started in a verbal statement I quickly follow it up in writing. At the same time I do not send this to the entire team- but I communicate it directly to those who report to me. I fully expect and know that they report this down to the rest of the team.

Advantage of the “Command”: Quickly and accurately communicate to the team.

Danger of the “Command”: The message you send out may get resistance as some believe that they deserve to discuss it.

When to use the “Command”: Mid level adjustment or correction decisions such as budgets.

How to effectively communicate the “Command”: Through e-mail.

The “Change”. I call it the “change” because it is really driven off the directional objectives of the decision. I use this when I want to make a directional shift in what we are doing as a company. These are policy changes and these are decisions that will affect how others see us as well. For these types of decisions I will consult my direct reports first and see how they are affected by the potential decision. Note, the full decision has not yet taken place- we are discussing and checking all the ramifications. After my direct reports we talk about it with the full team. How do they see it, where will they be affected? What could be possible outside reaction to our decision? Some of these decisions can take several weeks, or in the case of a recent decision we recently made as in the case of our participation in certain Trade Shows, several months to a year. The communication here is much more intricate and involved.

Advantage of the “Change”: Accurately and inclusively communicate big decisions to your team and others while setting the pace and direction.

Danger of the “Change”: Not everyone will agree, you may lose employees or customers even though the decision is correct.

When to use the “Change”: Policy and directional shift decisions.

How to effectively communicate the “Change”: After many small meetings, interviews, questions, and challenges, you will finally be able to write out the decision and then rewrite it again until you get it just right. In fact we take these important decisions, these “change” decisions, a step further. We plan out how it will be communicated, when it will be communicated and to whom. We plan to communicate our decisions to our team, then those who will be affected externally followed quickly by communications to our key authors and customers. We provide talking points and assign who will call or e-mail who.

I read an interesting statistic the other day in regards to communication and the speed it travels. Fully one half of those who will hear your news will hear it in the first 36 hours. Think about that for a minute. This tell me that if you are trying to communicate something important, you better get it and do it right the first time. So here I lay before you three simple manners for communicating your decisions.

Go communicate well, and lead even better!

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