At the heart of every business one factor continuously calls for our attention – improving communication with a view to unlocking business growth and success.
Over the years many a consultant has advised and implemented varying communication scenarios for their clients; the Total Quality Management (TQM) business management approach enjoyed widespread attention during the late 1980s and early 1990s before being overshadowed by the standards specification of ISO 9000 and the improvement methodologies of Lean manufacturing, and Six Sigma. The common thread of all these procedures is communication.
How do these approaches differ?
TMQ consists of organization-wide efforts to install and make a permanent climate where employees continuously improve their ability to provide on demand products and services that customers will find of particular value.
The ISO 9000 family of quality management systems standards is designed to help organizations ensure that they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders while meeting statutory and regulatory requirements related to a product or service.
Lean manufacturing or lean production is a systematic method originating in the Japanese manufacturing industry for the minimization of waste within a manufacturing system without sacrificing productivity, which can cause problems. Similar principles can be applied to services.
Six Sigma is a method that provides organizations tools to improve the capability of their business processes. This increase in performance and decrease in process variation helps lead to defect reduction and improvement in profits, employee morale, and quality of products or services.
Whatever procedure you use, a focus on better communicating your business methodologies will always secure dividends.
Top tips for improving communication
- Good communication is essential across ALL employee, contractor and partner interactions. Don’t’ just assume it’s all about your internal people.
- You may wish to consider who has most client contact in your organisation. Perhaps you first response may be sales or customer service, but you may be surprised to learn that it is your accounts receivable clerk in the accounts department who regularly calls your clients to chase payment and sustain the all-important cash flow. It is very important that they understand the service level agreement with clients (SLAs) and feedback immediately if a payment is delayed due to client perception of a shortcoming.
- Acronyms and jargon are all very fine, giving perpetrators a feeling of grandeur, but common sense will always prevail via clear and simple communication.
- Make sure that all your employees are kept up to date with key business objectives and progress. Strategy may start in executive suite, but it cannot be delivered effectively if not clearly communicated to all concerned.
Honing your internal business communications is one of the areas we cover in our TwentyTwenty Insight business review process, where we provide a snapshot of the health of your business with suggestions on what you might do next to grow your business.
If this is of interest, why not speak to Mike Pill on 01276 684 007 or email him at mike.pill@hcbusinessadvisors.co.uk
About the Author
Mike Pill is an Executive Search and Selection specialist with in depth experience placing worldclass executives, managers and staff into Engineering, Finance, Sales & Marketing and Technology roles.