By Heather Campbell >>
Watching Charlie Brooker’s 2014 Wipe (BBC2) at the end of last year, I enjoyed this short film by Adam Curtis, the controversial documentary filmmaker.
In his film, Curtis suggests that politicians disempower voters by disseminating confusing and contradictory information.
Whatever you think of his perspective, mistrust is certainly increased as a result of all this confusion.
I find much the same in business too.
Business is complex. And the communications that are shared in organisations about already complex matters often confuse people further.
And this confusion drives mistrust.
Too often this mistrust is unwarranted – but it is still damaging.
Front-line staff think that senior leaders know more than they actually do and are more powerful to change things than they actually are.
Senior leaders think that front-line staff are making trouble for the sake of it rather than recognizing that they trying to share an important message.
And everybody believes that middle managers are setting up barriers to progress, hiding information and generally screwing up.
But when I meet with people at these different levels and listen to their stories, the reality is that most people at every level in business are doing their best to make sense of a complex world and to communicate clearly in the midst of all the confusion.
The challenge to everyone else involved is to have the patience to understand the complexity within which others are operating, rather than blaming or turning away in disgust.
CommsMasters are specialists in enabling individuals, teams and organisations have the difficult conversations and tackle the sensitive topics that are too often left to fester – at the expense of individual, team and organisational performance. Find out more here or call Tor on +44 (0)141 419 0183.