Improving Communications

In order to improve communication we need to identify information needs and explore the many formats and possibilities available in order to facilitate the best way to share information among individuals for the particular circumstances that are most applicable to the current situation. Some common elements to consider include:

Common Formats - Adopt a common data interchange format to help ensure consistent accessibility

Consistency - Formalize what communication tools and mechanisms will be used under specific criteria

User Participation - Involving all concerned as early as possible in any communications initiatives will greatly assist in establishing communications channels and aide in overcoming problems before the rapid exchange of information becomes mission critical.

Habit - Remember humans are creatures of habit and suspect communications methods must be removed before any team members become entrenched in undesirable habits in this area

Face-to-Face Communications - In general we humans tend to find face-to-face communications the most productive and user friendly. In situations requiring communications among individuals geographically dispersed the possibilities and feasibility of live conferencing (video if possible) should be explored

Responsibility – All involved should take on a larger share of responsibility for participating in the various communications forums, bulletin boards, online meeting places etc as well as for being heard and understood. No mumbling or speaking with something in your mouth. This is especially important when we are trying to communicate over a distance.

Formal Agreements - It is essential that all parties to the communications make some sort of formal commitment to how, when, and in what format any given set of communications will take place. This is even more important when individuals are in geographically different locations.

Time Zones - Time zones must be carefully considered as they will have no small impact on decisions concerning communications scheduling. It is unfair for the same individuals to be getting up at 3:00 AM so that we can all have a 9:00 AM (for some) on-line video conference. We must all share the inconvenience when our colleagues and peers are all separated by distance.

Isolation - With geographically dispersed teams this becomes ever more important as the option to tell so-and-so when I get to the office on Monday just won’t be possible because so-and-so may live in another country and you will therefore not be meeting with them in person.

Scheduling - Becomes ever more important when we are part of a dispersed team. This will also include a plan detailing the format and any other additional details of specific requirements; such as completion of a document or manual necessary to a forth-coming conference.

Coordination - Meetings and other communications channels and systems must be coordinated as we will generally need to deal with a multitude of topics that need to be addressed in a specific sequence

Flexibility - All communications plans must make provision for the unforeseen. A cyclone for example may prevent some team members from participating in a given scheduled meeting.

Communications Contingency Plans - Be prepared and have a plan ready to be put into action should a natural disaster or act of God scenario eventuate.

Plasticity – All concerned and the plans put into place will need to be inherently more adaptable when individuals are geographically dispersed.

Distance Inhibits Communication

Research conducted by Allen in 1977 showed that people sitting 40 meters apart had o­nly a 5% probability of communicating at least o­nce a week and that this percentage did not increase until the distance between the parties decreased to eight meters, at which point team members were found to be more likely to communicate and collaborate.

With geographically separated teams this needs to be overcome and the best ways to do this are through planning, scheduling, mutual cooperation, video-conferencing if possible, contiguous communication processes. This later point is probably the one that is most effective as we humans tend to chose “the devil we know” rather than the unknown.

Nonverbal Communication

The impact of nonverbal communication clues is something else that needs to be addressed when virtual teams are in effect. Because of reduced personal access and our natural tendency to rely o­n nonverbal communication clues, which are not readily available in the virtual environment, any communications inadequacies in the virtual team scenario are far more deleterious than one would otherwise expect (Guss, 1977).

Video Conferencing

Meharabian’s 1968 study found that words o­nly comprise 7% of the total impact of a message, while vocal tones represented 38% and facial expressions comprised a massive 55%. These findings clearly illustrate the need for video conferencing to be taken into consideration as a viable option for all communications planning and management.

Regional Idiosyncrasies

Differences in cultural and local language variations between virtual team members will need to be addressed. Here the adoption of a standard of practice would be of great assistance. We can all agree upon a primary format such as using the international English vocabulary dictionary; which contains approximately 4,000 words, as it will assist in clarification of the idiomatic idiosyncratic nature of language. The same phrase can have a different meaning when taken in the context of local inference. This "cloudiness" needs to be eliminated as it can create unintended misunderstandings.

Feedback

One of the most important facets of human communications is the reinforcing adaptive intuitiveness that the communicating party(s) gain via feedback, much of which under ‘normal` circumstances is nonverbal in nature. It is quite possible that some degree of formal regimentation may be beneficial in ensuring all concerned are provided with ample feedback and ample opportunity to provide and/or request feedback.

For example communications will need to be formally acknowledged in terms of being received. Feedback can be formally requested using a predefined Reply By plan as this will place a time frame upon the communications to ensure that the flow of traffic is not entirely one way and permanently overdue (at least from some quarters).

Remote Communications Options

Some of the options available for remote communications over large distances include text messages, SMS, on-line chat, informal bulletin boards, discussion forums, blogs and other social media. Magnolia groups work well as a centralized point by which individuals can independently and/or collectively access and update from this shared on-line service. A point of warning though; if you do not want the rest of the world to be privy to this information then make sure that the group you create is private and not publically accessible (publically accessible is the default option).

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