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7 Methods to Improve Team Communication · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: How to improve team communication remains a top challenge for pretty much every business, small or large.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Being able to communicate well within a business is massively important.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, firstly, everyone understands the direction of travel at different levels for the company, function, and team.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, activities are better coordinated within the business, leading to less wasted effort and more bang for your buck.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And third, each person is better able to do their job and know where what they are doing fits in.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Businesses that have improved their team communication, in my view, are also much more enjoyable places to work, more rewarding and are often going places, which means more opportunity.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: To help you improve the communication in and around your team, I am sharing these seven methods to improve team communication.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: First, encourage engagement from all team members.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, be open and honest.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Third, seek to over-communicate.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, resolve conflicts quickly.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, use weekly one-on-one meetings to cascade information.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: 6.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Create a clear purpose and agenda for each meeting.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And seventh, provide consistent useful feedback.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: There is a lot you can do as a manager to foster and improve team communication, which in turn usually leads to a better place to work and helps the team produce improved results.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Towards the end of this podcast, I share eight agenda items that will make your meetings a lot more useful to everyone attending them.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles and I've had a 25-year management career in corporates and household names through to SMEs.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: I've won multiple best team prizes at national and company level, and effective team communication has played a key role in the team's success.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to this podcast, Enhanced.training shares business and people management expertise to help you improve your performance and that of your team and business.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And do visit us at enhanced.training and take a look at the courses and resources for you to improve your management skills and the outcome your team delivers.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: The first method to improve team communication is to encourage engagement from all team members.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: There is a lot you can do to improve the engagement of all team members.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: To encourage team members to communicate and work more closely together, create opportunities for interaction with workshops, brainstorming sessions, planning meetings, etc.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Touching on each of these in a little more detail.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, workshops for problem solving.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Ask a small group to solve a specific problem.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Facilitate the workshop so that you can encourage everyone to contribute.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Don't allow the more experienced or more confident members of the team to dominate.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Bring junior or quieter members into the conversations by asking questions, by asking their opinion or by asking them to share their expertise.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Set ground rules such as no talking over others and no interrupting, and as a facilitator, enforce these ground rules.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, brainstorming sessions.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: These sessions can be great to create a range of options for new processes, for new products, for pretty much any business challenge.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Get everyone involved in contributing ideas by asking each person questions.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ensure that all ideas are captured and considered properly.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the third example is planning meetings.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: All businesses and teams need to plan, so this creates an ideal opportunity to involve all team members or a cross-section of team members that don't normally work together.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Planning is a great for involving junior or shy team members as everyone is an expert in their areas, so everyone can contribute.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: There are always opportunities to facilitate team members getting to know each other better and improving team communication.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: As a manager, put the effort in to make these happen.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: The second method to improve team communication is to be open and honest.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: As a manager of a team, you set the tone and behaviours of that team.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you are open and honest in your dealings with a team, chances are a lot higher that they will behave in a similar way within the team.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Examples of behaviours to improve team communication include, firstly, keep the team updated on what is happening around the company that may impact the team.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, share as much information as sensible in team meetings.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Third, demonstrate that you trust the team by sharing important company information where appropriate.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Ask your team to be realistic when they are updating you and others.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: The focus on realism reduces expectation games or stating unrealistic goals.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Neither approach helps the team plan and deliver effectively.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: To foster realism within the team, it helps to challenge the assumptions being made, not the results being described.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Demonstrate that you are open and honest and ask your team to behave in the same way.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: The third method to improve team communications is to over-communicate.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Managers of teams are usually in the middle of all the action.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: They know what is going on, who is working on what, and what the time frames for everything are.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: This gives managers a great opportunity to improve communication by passing on useful information to various team members, thus making sure everyone is informed of what they need to know to do their jobs even better.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: To improve team communication further, when you spot communication gaps, get team members speaking to each other rather than you filling these gaps.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Create reasons for your team members to communicate directly with each other.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And over-communicating also means holding regular information sharing meetings and ensuring that all team members know what is going on.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Work to reduce surprises within the team.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: The fourth method to improve team communication is to resolve conflicts quickly.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Classic conflicts arise through both parties needing to use limited resources or with objectives that aren't aligned.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Keep an eye out for these situations that may lead to a conflict and try and address it with each team member before the conflict arises.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Solve current conflicts by firstly listening to each side in private, first so you understand both sides.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then second, bring each party together and facilitate them solving the issue.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: As manager, it is crucial you don't take sides or get drawn into offering an opinion or a decision if at all possible.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Ask questions to help each side understand the other person's position.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Get both parties to agree a solution.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Try very hard to ensure the solution is their solution and not yours.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: The reason this is so important is that they are much more likely to stick to their solution compared to sticking to yours.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Conflicts quickly block team communication, so as soon as you spot a current or a potential conflict, take action.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: These are important steps to improve team communication, so don't delay finding a resolution.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: The fifth method to improve team communication is to use weekly one-on-one meetings to cascade information.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Employees at all levels rate weekly one-on-one meetings with their manager as their most important meeting of the week.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Make the time to have a 30-60 minute one-on-one meeting each week with each of your direct reports.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: And insist that your direct reports book a weekly one-on-one meeting with each of their direct reports.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: You can then use these meetings to communicate and discuss key messages and information with your direct reports and ask that they do the same with their direct reports.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: This method is very useful for sensitive information or to use discussion to ensure the other person takes in all the information.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Having weekly one-on-one meetings are a great method to improve team communication.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about how to run one-on-one meetings, listen to our podcast on running effective one-on-one meetings.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Use one-on-one meetings to cascade information throughout the team.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: The sixth method to improve team communication is to create a clear purpose and agenda for each meeting.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Pointless or unclear meetings waste a lot of people's time and waste an opportunity to improve team communication.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Decide up front what the meeting is about and communicate this in advance clearly with everyone attending.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Nearly all meetings should have one or more of these purposes.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, to build relationships, secondly, sharing information, third, setting direction, fourth, solving problems, fifth decision making, sixth mentoring and coaching, seventh giving and receiving feedback, and then eighth idea generation.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sending out pre-reads prior to holding the meeting means more time in the meeting for high value ad activities such as problem solving.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Try to limit the attendees to those that need to directly contribute.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Capture meeting minutes and the key actions and send these out to the team.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is a great method to improve team communication without having lots of observers in each meeting.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Be clear about what you're trying to achieve before holding each meeting and communicate this clearly to the attendees.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: The seventh method to improve team communication is to provide consistent, useful feedback.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Feedback is super useful to everyone.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Without feedback, it is really hard to know what to improve and how to improve it.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Research shows that 65% of employees want more feedback and 83% appreciate receiving it even if it's negative.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Managers worry about giving feedback in case they offend or upset team members.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Per Gallup, employees are 20 times more engaged after receiving negative feedback compared to receiving no feedback.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Give feedback.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Make your feedback specific, give it as soon after the feedback event occurs, and give feedback with the purpose of helping the other person.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And do ask for feedback from your team members too.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: In summary, there are lots of methods to improve team communication.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: As a manager, you are in a great position to start using all seven methods we have gone through and encourage your team to do likewise.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: You will enjoy being at work a lot more, and so will your team, and together you are a lot more likely to improve team performance, which helps everyone.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: These sorts of improvements get noticed and rewarded.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: To recap, the seven methods to improve team communication are firstly encourage engagement from all team members.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, be open and honest.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Third, seek to overcommunicate.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, resolve conflicts quickly, fifth, use weekly one-on-one meetings to cascade information.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: 6.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Create a clear purpose and agenda for each meeting.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then seventh, provide consistent, useful feedback.training and I'll get back to you.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.