When you have communication barriers or silos within your AEC & M organization, productivity, teamwork, and employee satisfaction can all suffer.
But solving a communication issue isn’t as simple as troubleshooting a piece of technology or solving a problem on a project. With different employee personalities, communication preferences, and even work locations in today’s world of hybrid and remote teams, there are a lot of factors that play in to communication barriers.
Thankfully there are a few straightforward ways you can foster open communication and help overcome these barriers within your AEC & M team!
You can start small with suggestions including:
- Keep communication channels open
- Understand your team’s preferred communication styles
- Practice active listening
- Schedule weekly team check-ins
- Invest in collaboration technology
Let’s break down each of these ways of overcoming communication barriers!
Keep communication channels open
There may be a pretty simple reason your team is having communication issues: they don’t feel like they have an opportunity to communicate effectively and have their ideas heard. Keep your communication channels open and encourage employees to use them. Some ideas for this include:
- Implementing an open-door policy in the office or virtually through instant messaging
- Striving for transparency in all work-related communications
- Letting your team know they can provide feedback to you at any time
If employees are given multiple ways to make their voices heard, regardless of whether they’re working in the office or from home, they’re more likely to communicate openly across your organization.
Understand your team’s preferred communication styles
Every employee is a bit different when it comes to how they like to communicate. In-person meetings might be great for one team member, while another would prefer everything be done over email.
Talk with your team about their preferences and do what you can to accommodate them while still being able to communicate effectively as a team.
Practice active listening
When you talk with your employees, are you truly listening? Make a conscious effort to not just hear what your team is saying in meetings and one-on-ones, but acknowledge their feedback, challenges, and concerns. Even if an idea isn’t something your organization can put into practice, letting the person who thought of it know you appreciate their input can go a long way in making an employee feel heard.
Schedule weekly team check-ins
In today’s world of hybrid and remote teams, it’s not as easy as it once was to catch up with employees on a regular basis. It may take some effort to schedule, but make sure your team has weekly or even daily check-ins where you can debrief on what everyone’s working on, the challenges they’re facing, and how they’re doing overall.
By consciously making time to speak with and listen to your team, you’ll help connect your employees and help avoid the information silos that can often lead to communication issues.
Invest in collaboration technology
Another way to bridge the gap between remote, hybrid, and even in-office employees is with technology that can help promote communication and collaboration. For starters, a simple instant messaging program can help speed up communication and keep your team more readily available than email or phone should.
For knowledge sharing and project-related collaboration, an e-learning platform like Pinnacle Series can help break through silos and make sure your team has all of the information they need to work efficiently, get caught up on projects, and know your company standards and best practices like the back of their hand.
Giving your team a robust knowledge sharing solution, along with implementing these communication best practices, are two of the best ways of overcoming communication barriers at your AEC & M organization.
If you’re a current Pinnacle Series subscriber, log in now to try out some of our knowledge sharing and collaboration tools that can help improve communication within your teams, like work groups and our social features.
If you aren’t a current subscriber but are interested in seeing how Pinnacle Series can help overcome communication barriers at your organization, contact our team about setting up a free trial or demo of the platform today!
