Team communication is simply a constant in any well-oiled team and we, using established research, analyse your team’s communication according to the following three dimensions: focused communication, knowledge sharing and spontaneous communication. As each dimension is unique, so is the impact on your team’s communication.
In the case of focused communication, we can consider it from a “higher level”. Our current society is one full of stimulation and information (how many emails are in your inbox right now?) and this can easily lead to feeling overwhelmed. Our workplaces do not provide a safe haven here, instead of videos and messages, we find emails and meetings. As a result, we have seen a rise in the importance of employee’s being able to filter irrelevant information. However, this may be somewhat counterintuitive, as the team pays the price for an inability to communicate in a focused manner, why not reflect on and improve the team’s overall focused communication?
What do you mean by focused communication?
In this case, focused communication refers to the extent to which communication regarding tasks, time, or responsibilities of team members is timely, accurate, and results-oriented. Specifically, we mean the behavioral act of exchanging accurate information in the team.
Okay, how does focused communication impact my team?
Well, when team members communicate in a focused manner, it can result in beneficial outcomes for the team as well as the organization, especially when work is highly interdependent, uncertain and time constrained (cc: hybrid work).
Let’s take a look at an example and highlight how focused communication is important:
- Scenario: You return to the office after a week off and find 100 unread emails/messages in your inbox.
- Negative impact: Sorting through large loads of information can hamper performance for an employee.
- How focused communication helps: If content and information is communicated in a focused and timely manner, the negative impact on performance is reduced.
In other words, if each individual team member considers how best to communicate their information, every other team member benefits (and therefore the overall team too!).
What did other companies learn?
As part of the development of this assessment tool, we partnered with several companies through a series of workshops to improve and inform our approach. Being scientists, we recorded the details and some of those details include learnings we’d like to share with you. In this case, we found the following about focused communication:
- WWWWH. Is the whole team informed about 1) what to share 2) when to share it 3) who to share it with 4) why to share it and 5) how to share it?
- Quality over quantity. Instead of sending 100s of emails, taking time to consider reduces the need to filter irrelevant information for the team member on the other end.
- Ask yourself. One team member suggested always asking themselves before sending an email “is this really necessary to share and if so what is the best way to present the information for the person receiving the email”.
Related reading
Hartner-Tiefenthaler, M., Loerinc, I., Hodzic, S., & Kubicek, B. (2022). Development and validation of a scale to measure team communication behaviors. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 961732.
