Communication is the Foundation of Leadership, of Business Performance and of High Quality Productive Processes

No single area of focus affects organizational performance as does COMMUNICATIONS.   It affects the effectiveness of HOW things are done, the efficiency of Who's doing What and how well you focus on your goals and on the underlying determinants of performance.

In 2008, undoubtedly the promise of the technologies often call web 2.0 or social networking offer incredible promise for improving the performance of all organizations with minimal investments.

• By using blogs, wikis and /or forums, even the smallest organizations can dramatically improve the understanding and decision-making of their teams leading to better planning and greatly improved execution.
• Using the ability to create online presentations, organizations can better align and focus their people on their key goals greatly increasing their success.
• Bringing people together with online conferences and other collaborative environments allows for the creation of more effective teams and the ability to speed execution and improve effectiveness.
• …

There are many other examples. 

With any group of people, success is largely tied to transferring knowledge and getting that knowledge turned into new habits and lasting capabilities. The "Knowledge to Capability" yield as we call it is very low most of the time and often times darn close to zero.   Some examples:

• A vision with key goals and some strategies is laid out, discussed, enthusiastically received, people go back to their jobs and little is done differently.
• You implement a new system and your people use it but only partially resulting in a low ROI on that investment
• Many organizations have great ideas and even implement satisfactorily but still don't see the results.  

The effectiveness of an implementation of, for example, a new way of doing things, a new management system or a planning system, is directly dependent on the type of, the amount of and the effectiveness of communications from leaders, experts, managers… It is true that there is no substitute for direct communication but now with low cost digital tools this direct communication can be redeployed, available 24x7 for reinforcement, integrated with visual aids for additional uses and used to multiply the effect of highly effective people. Of course, the converse is true, communicaitons can multiply the negative effect of highly ineffective people/leaders….

AGILEdge Recommendation:   If you are not actively integrating new digital tools to improve communications inside your organization and inter-organizationally, you are missing one of the most valuable opportunities to reduce costs and increase growth opportunities. Contact us to prove it to you