Improving Communications
How can you improve communication that is controlled by another department?
I can help admissions by going to them and letting them know what is going on with each student.
That's an excellent idea Krista. Oftentimes sharing of this type of information is a real point of difference for a school/college. It really demonstrates collaboration and a feeling of "belonging".
Communication has many different approaches.
1. Become familiar with and build a relationship with a specific contact person.
2. Be sure the lines of communication are open and that you have all necessary information, telephone numbers, fax numbers and email for the outside department and that they also have the same for you.
3. Respond timely to all requests and discussions.
4. If however it is not working out with the contact person, then you need to proceed to another level of the department to look for a resolve.
Excellent thoughts, Jeannette! You certainly have covered a number of tactics to improve communication including one of the most important - build relationships. Have you ever had to escalate to another person in a department when communication wasn't working out?
Yes, in a previous position in the banking industry. I worked for seven Business Bankers with many different personalities. It is best
to work thru the channels of hierachy verbally and then written if necessary, depending on the situation.
Jeannette
Wow that had to be a challenging position! Based on your earlier response, it sounds as if you learned a lot about superior communication.
My experience and training in the positions I have held in my career have given me many opportunities to work with and serve people at an administrative level. I have been fortunate to learn from those highly skilled people.
Jeannette Letizia
My guess is they learned a lot from you too, Jeannette!
I believe that is best if you build a relationship with the department, that way you are familiar with the way the department is run. That makes it easier to communicate any questions or concerns.
Good idea, Elaine. And how do you go about building that relationship to learn more about the other department?
Good communication always begins with an introduction. We tend to get caught up within our own department tasks that at times we may not know the people in a different department than ours. The first step is to introduce yourself and make an effort to get to know the people within your company.
Great idea, Elaine. It is so true that we tend to get comfortable in our own "social circles" and by default exclude others. Communication and seamlessness can be improved by simply making the effort to do so.
I feel to build better communication both party's have to be able to trust each other when it comes to their business. Three things that are very important to help build communication are:
1, When being verbal communication both sides must be very clear with there instructions and also understand the instructions.
2, Written instructions must be clear to understand.
3, To have good communication one must be meet their dead lines in a timely fashon.
Your three steps are very insightful and important yet difficult to implement for many departments. How does this work for you Benny?
In my experience, the best way to start is to be familiar with that department, especially with how things usually work within it and the personalities of the people that work in it. My experience in higher education marketing gave me some hard lessons in this because academic departments operate (and “thinkâ€) very differently from administrative ones. Also, each academic department had its own dynamic to navigate. In addition, things change fast and frequently in higher education so staying on top of how things work in different areas offered its own challenges. I found it was more effective to refine my approach to that department, which would vary depending on the one involved, than to try to improve the communication they control.
Awesome Kate! It sounds like through the experiences you've had in Higher Ed, you've seen how it might be beneficial to adapt the way you communicate to accomodate others. I'm willing to bet that when you did this your communication was more effective and successful with various departments.
I personally am not sure how to improve interdepartmental communication in a concrete way. I can only offer up experience and advice. My communications have been interpreted incorrectly before. Recently I was speaking to someone on the phone and they found my tone rude. I didn't think I was being rude but there was no fighting what someone else thought. Communication unfortunately is always up for interpretation and when you communicate with different departments that tends to happen. All I could do was apologize in that situation. I have gone as far as asking how someone would like me to communicate with them in hopes to make better communication. While it really didn't help the misinterpretations, it did show that I cared about the other party's opinion.
I get the feeling that you work hard to make sure the other person you're communicating with feels valued, even if you don't necessarily agree with their point of view. It's great that you're willing to try to see things from a different perspective. How have you found this approach has worked for you, Ashleigh?
Following rules an d procedures.
