Communication Between Functions is Vital
Businesses small and large have people in their workforce dedicated to the many aspects involved in their company’s daily operations. Depending on how large your organisation is, your team can be partitioned into large, tiered departments or small, more centralised functions.
Dividing up your company structure into functions such as Human Resources, Finance, Marketing and so on, will help co-ordinate each department’s aim and contribute to the overall success of the company. Companies have been structured like this for years but over time, the communication between different departments has lessen.
The introduction of modern technology provided us with shareable calendars and collective spreadsheets which state all the information and data we assume we need to know the “ins and outs” of other departments. We should never assume, and despite the support that modern IT brings, it shouldn’t replace what wasn’t broken in the first place, and that’s good old-fashioned communication.
What I mean specifically is, picking up the phone and talking, a face-to-face meeting, travelling a floor up or down to visit another department, and seeing their operations first-hand.
This is essential. Not occasional… essential.
The problem lies in, convenience. It’s convenient to look at a spreadsheet, to email a colleague and to do your role as you understand it. It’s convenient to remain in one department and focus on just your goals without consideration for the rest of the company. This isn’t what communicating effectively means.
Communicating effectively requires, alignment, transparency a shared vision, an overall understanding of how all aspects of the business works. It’s doing whatever is necessary to understand the company as a working unit.
Businesses that communicate effectively, have an already established and actively maintained and enforced healthy company culture. They do not solely rely on technology but rather empower their staff to work with their departmental team as well as those who are outside of it.
I usher everyone in whatever role, to expand on your communication in a new way.
Written By Leyla Hussein