Team Communication: A Ladder to Success

The significance of communication from the top is resolutely adhered to corporate culture. The truth is that at most company’s senior managers are increasingly hamstrung by the demands from investors and analysts for efficient methods of communication followed by immediate results. If effective communication is going to come about at these companies, it will be because executives below the CEO (and below the whole "C suite" of CEO, COO, CFO) take the initiative and risks to approach avenues of transmission that will not only drive the company in a direction that will be successful to its enterprise but to each contributing individual as well. More importantly team communication will have to come from those leading from below, rather than relying on authority from the top (Krug, 1998)

After receiving my promotion as an Infrastructure Support Lead, Jeff Wroblewski invited myself and 20 other colleagues to dinner. Like many busy professionals, Mr. Wroblewski, who is 30 years old and is the executive of management for technology solutions at my company Channel Dynamix, does not cook. Instead, he usually relies on New York City’s plentiful food courts, takeout outlets, and even on his parents on weekends. But now, rather than having dinner with us he prepares a challenge that requires our participation: to comprise a seven-course meal that includes roast duck in crepe rolls with mango marmalade and pears with chocolate ganache baked in phyllo. I knew this was dinner, but no one warned me we would have to eat what we made ourselves, and this should be interesting!

A team communication session in disguise, Mr. Wroblewski turns our cooking class as a way to build relationships, bond as a team, and approaches for modes of successful communication. Typically, cooking class team-communication activities are interactive, not just demonstrations: Groups are split into teams of five or six and given a limited time to make a dish that will eventually be eaten by the entire group. In order to get all the dishes ready at the same time, intercommunication along with organization, delegation and negotiation between teammates and among teams are required -- it's a simulation of the way employees connect and work together. Aside from the fact that food brings people together, Mr. Wroblewski states, “The act of making a meal -- and eating it together -- can be a more effective for team-communication than an outdoor retreat, which often proves too strenuous for some or favors the physically fit.” As we sit satisfied after a surprisingly content and successful meal so begins the purpose for this assemblage. Tonight we are presented with the notion that the objective of communication is the clear transfer of information (Shonk, 1992). Something we already knew, but how do we go about achieving the most successive of methods?

We begin by implementing a mission statement and a vision for our team. Each individual contributes towards the goals of the entire company which is the ultimate team communication success (Orsburn, 1990). Generally the vision is why the organization was initially developed—to accommodate a need rationalized years ago. Periodically, a likewise problem that the organization originally tried to approach continues to return generation after generation. In that case, the affiliations intention does not alter—despite how it achieves business has feasably advanced. An admirable vision/mission statement should fittingly account for why your affiliation prevails and what it promises to enact in the future. It expresses the affiliations cardinal nature, its values, and its work.

Next we use announcements and motivational talks as a form to convey the message (Shonk, 1992). A motivational talk does just that – it motivates individuals to want to adjust their attitude – to do things differently, or better, or to achieve more. Many people have a place that is referred to as their comfort zone. It's a place that's familiar and risk free. Reaching for higher goals means leaving the comfort zone, and leaving the comfort zone means taking risks; if the risks are too big, fear will de motivate, and no action will take place (Friedman, 2002). Through proper preparation, a manager can encourage an employee to appoint targets that would take him or her out of this comfort zone. When the risks are reasonable and the goals achievable, the employee will experience feelings of accomplishment, power, and self-esteem and, subsequently, will be motivated to set more goals outside the comfort zone (Temme, 1995). With technology surfacing new heights everyday, the resources for communications are abundant. Email, cell phones, and telecommunications are the basis of our foundation