Soft Skills, Hard Result
Airliners go down and we business folks tend to call these "soft skills".

Lagniappe
The pit bull hardware man.

Randy Boek Founder & President ROUTE 2, Inc. 5400 Carillon Point Building 5000, 4th Floor Kirkland, Wa. 98033 425 359-8506 888 703-6076 randyb@route2results.com www.route2results.com

My, clients, colleagues, friends, family and I fly - a lot. In about five minutes on a piece of scratch paper I count for the early months of 2009, eighteen trips to China, eight to Japan, fifteen to various destinations in Europe, two to South America, six to Hawaii. And there's also a daily double digit count of these people crisscrossing the continent by air. I care about air safety.

The weather is poor. Bad enough to up the pilot's level of stress. The plane is behind schedule. The pilot has been awake twelve hours or longer. Pilot and co-pilot have never flown together before. In approximately 50% of airline flight disasters these are the common factors in play. Then a series of seven consecutive errors lead to tragedy. "The kinds of errors that cause plane crashes are invariably errors of team work and communication."¹

That said, just how risky is hopping aboard a commercial airliner? – Not very.

PlaneCrashInfo.com accident database, 1989 - 2008

Sure, we can wear the seat belt, pay attention to the pre-flight briefing, stay sober, but in reality our safety in the air is pretty much out of our hands. (See Top Ten Airline Safety tips)

Miscommunication every day in businesses where the stakes are not life and death is in our hands. I'm just guessing here but from lots of years with lots of leaders in lots of businesses, miscommunication probably takes a chunk out of your profitability. Deadlines are missed. Wrong raw materials show up to production at the wrong time. Quality problems persist. Customer expectations are missed. If it doesn't happen in your business, I'll graciously accept your rebuke (randyb@route2results.com) and be surprised.

This issue has four things that every leader at all levels can do to stop costly miscommunication.

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Best wishes,

Randy Boek
Founder & President
Route 2, Inc.
www.route2results.com

Hmm, errors of teamwork and communication cause airliners to go down, and we business folks tend to call these "soft skills!"

Our focus here is on communication between people getting the work done in businesses. Peer -peer, boss-subordinate, project teams, work groups and teams. The exchange of information and expectations that's essential to successful business.

People are tired, projects are behind schedule, people haven't worked together before - wait a minute, this is sounding like the air crash factors and they may exist in tech companies, manufacturers, consumer products companies, retailers or any type of enterprise. Faster, better, cheaper have moved from mantra to persistent expectation.

Fewer people are around to do more work. Money is tight and margins squeezed. While resources, people and otherwise to do the work have decreased, customer expectations have not. Mutually beneficial relationships both external and internal are essential to business success. Communication builds and maintains relationships and the cost of miscommunication is in both hard tangible dollars and more.

A significant issue validated by the fact that Amazon lists 692,188 titles on the subject of communication. Here are a few things to consider.

Communication is the responsibility of the sender.

• Convey what you need to convey in language that the receiver understands. East coast Ivy League MBA speak may not be well understood by the west coast game developer. You may need an interpreter.
• A caution here - If you are a subordinate leader and your boss appears to not understand this sender's responsibility, take the initiative to ensure you know what is expected and when. Get clear. Don't say you understand if you don't. Remember it's your responsibility to deliver as expected so you better make sure what "as expected" means.

We know ourselves by our intentions; others by their actions.

• Consistency between words, body language and actions is essential to avoid confusion.
• If there is big urgency around something, live it - big and demonstratively.
• If everything is an urgent top priority, nothing is an urgent top priority.

Multi-tasking and listening are incongruent

• Want to avoid miscommunication? Pay attention. Not just to the words but to the body language, the subtext and energy behind what is being said. Get tensions and observations that don't make sense clarified.

Double-check to ensure that people really do understand.

• "Do you understand?" is not the right question. Questions that cause people to play back what you want them to understand, the actions you want them to take and the deadlines expected are the questions that prevent miscommunication.
• In deference to or sometimes fear of authority the right questions don't get asked.
• Who is doing what by when? Make sure meetings don't conclude and people go on about their business without knowing this. Many meetings could benefit from less rambling, fewer, smaller slides and more time getting clear on who is doing what, when.

A Look in the Mirror:

• Do you think that the people on your team don't get it?
• Are team members not delivering what you expect when you expect it?
• Are miscommunications causing your business, department or team to miss the boat?
• Are there excuses and smokescreens that are so prevalent that they have become cultural?
• In what ways is your approach to communication helping you get what you want - or not?

1. Safety Study NTSB/SS-94-01, 1994. National Transportation Safety Board, "A Review of flight Crew-Involved Major Accidents of U.S Air Carriers.

As reported in Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Little Brown and Company, Nov. 08, pg 184. This book gets a two thumbs up recommendation!

In Cajun cooking lagniappe is a little something special or extra that makes a big difference. I rant about the general sad state of customer service and it is time that I balance the ranting by putting my money where my mouth is.

Washington's extreme 2009 winter cold froze and cracked a shower valve in the beach house causing a persistent water leak. It was old and when disassembled showed no brand name or part number to allow a replacement. Visits to specialty plumbing supply houses and several local big-box hardware retailers got no results. John was then referred to the plumbing man at Lowe's Hardware Smokey Point store, Chris Espe. Chris took on the search. The valve was not to be found in the Lowe's data base, stock or access. Like the old adage, when the going gets tough, the tough get going, Chris stayed on it for a week. He ultimately identified the brand (one that Lowe's doesn't carry) and contact information for John to follow-up with the manufacturer for lifetime warranty and replacement. After, "Sorry I can't help you," from 6 customer service posers John was fortunate to find Chris who may be a plumbing guy but in reality is a customer solution guy. And that is a little something extra service. This month's contribution goes to the Alzheimer's Association.