Brandon Coppernoll Internet marketing, social media, web based strategy and development in Indiana

Streamlining communication

You often hear about companies or people that don't communicate enough. This is frustrating because not enough information is flowing back and forth between key roles, and when information is needed it simply is not there. There is a point in which too much communication can be just as costly or even more costly. The question is where do you draw the line to determine there is too much communication? Joe Spolsky from Inc. magazine asks how hard could it be to streamline communication?

When was the last time you scheduled a meeting and invited eight people instead of the three people who really needed to be there simply because you didn't want anyone to feel left out? When was the last time you got into a long discussion over the color palette for the new brochure with a programmer, who has nothing to do with the brochure but sure knows that he doesn't like orange?

Joe Spolsky believes these are symptoms of a common illness: too much communication.

He describes how in most cases too many decision makers can stall a process. It can stall creativity and the ability to move forward. Adding more people to a project may not necessarily create a successful project. It may ultimately delay a project because too many people are putting in their two cents.

In diagram one there is a central decision maker. In the Web development world this could ultimately be the project manager. The other people are his contacts and information needs to be filtered to the project manager to make the decisions that best fit the project, budget and client's needs.

In diagram two everyone is talking to the others and there isn't one single point of origin for data for particular parts of the team to process. This creates confusion. It also creates the ultimate "phone game" that we all used to play as kids. We would tell someone one thing and by the time it gets back to you it's completely different.

I think this is probably one of those cases in which the old, 1950s style of management accidentally got something right. In those General Motors–style companies, they at least had an idea for how information needed to move up and down neat, regimented org charts, which showed a modicum of recognition that the right answer is not that every single person in the organization needs to pay attention to everything.

If you're finding that your process is stalled, or if you're finding that your projects are falling further and further behind perhaps it's time to simplify the communication structure. Appoint a team leader and let them go free. They can provide you a report as needed, but let them take ownership and pride in the project.