The Art of Effective Communication

 

Let’s imagine a scenario.  You are currently working on a project team with one of your co-workers Mark. Mark seems like he is a nice person, but he also is running behind in meeting project deadlines. This has not been that big of a deal up until now when his delays in completing are now impacting your ability to meet your deadlines. You need the data he is working on to complete your part of the project and fear that you may be in jeopardy of missing your own deadlines. You need to present your concerns to Mark. How should you approach him?

Email

You decide to send Mark a matter-of-fact email, explaining what the problem is and how it is impacting you. You explain potential solutions and thank him for his help. You hit send and wait for Mark’s response.

Mark receives your email and goes immediately into defense mode. He was out for a week to take care of his sick elderly mother and has come back to a desk with piles of backlogged work. Everything is a priority, and this will just have to wait until he can get to it. He is already stressed out and your email has now agitated him and made him feel like you are putting the success or failure of the entire project on his shoulders. He fires an email back to you curtly advising he has been out and will get to your request when he has a chance. You become infuriated at his lack of concern over the situation and reach out to your project manager for help.

Phone

You haven’t chatted with Mark in a while and decide to pick up the phone and to give him a call. You explain the situation and ask Mark if there is any way he could give you a copy of his report or at least email you the data that you need to do your part of the project.

Mark hears the concern in your voice and is apologetic for the delay. He advises that he has been out of the office for the past week but will pull the data together and get it emailed to you in the next couple of hours. After hanging up with you, Mark feels guilty for putting you in a situation where you are now behind and tries to pull together the information as quickly as possible.

Face-to-Face

You decide that it would be best to stop by Mark’s cubicle for a quick chat. When you get there, Mark appears to be sorting through some stacks of work on his desk. In discussing the situation Mark can see your obvious concern in your facial expressions and demeanor. He apologizes and explains he has been out of the office for the past week. He feels relieved that you appear to be willing to accept the data in lieu of the entire report as this will give him some extra time to get caught up and get the report done, but not hold your part of the project up. He is thankful that you stopped by and made him aware of the issue and will get the data to you in the next couple of hours. 

Why Verbal and Face-to-Face Interactions are Important

In situations where a problem or conflict needs to be addressed, email is not the best medium to use (Hochwald, 2014). Situations that require working through and finding a solution to an issue, can significantly benefit from verbal and face-to-face contact.

Verbal interaction allows individuals to develop a depiction of the mental and emotional state of the other party to the interaction. Inflection and tone heavily influence the delivery, perception, and reception of the intended message.

Face-to-face interaction adds an additional element of being able to confirm the emotional and mental states of other parties by looking at facial expressions and body language.  This type of interaction also helps individuals to connect on a more personal level and to view other individuals as human beings rather than just a voice or a person who is receiving information.

Resources

Hochwald, L. (2014). The personal touch. Entrepreneur, 42(12), 96.