The world is aware of the “Seven forms of waste” introduced by Toyota Production System (TPS) and it has helped save billions of dollars in production worldwide. Since it is a known concept practice over many decades, we will not get into the details of each of these seven forms of wastes. But a core element that could have helped save an almost equal or more amount of money for the manufacturing world was grossly ignored.
Look closely, there is one thing that gets transacted the most in every organization. And no, it is not money; money comes a close second to it. You might wonder what is it? It is human interaction. Yes, millions and billions of conversations take place daily in every organization oral and written. After all we studied that humans are social animals and our desire to interact with each other makes us stand out among all other species. Unfortunately, research has shown that these interactions are failing dramatically. There are many reasons why these interactions are failing in the corporate world and are the primary reason for waste generation in the organizations.
So, should we just go back to the communication cycle that we all studied in B-school. Yes, the same old sender, receiver, communicate, receive feedback. Take that and train everyone on it again. Very easy right. Well, I am sure all have tried that already. In fact, communication is one of “The most popular” programs across the world. Yet we see that organizations fail in driving impactful and meaningful communication across the organization.
Then why are interactions failing? Our research shows that the age-old communication cycle has certain key elements that need more conscious practice. We call these elements “Interaction Essentials”. You will find that these interaction essentials are vowed into every conversation in a very specific amount. Not more, not less. Over playing or under playing these essentials will always lead to collapse in the communication process and hence interactions fail, and all the forms of wastes get generated. The communication cycle focuses on the flow of messages but Interaction Essentials focuses on the humans who send and receive these messages. It comprises “Personal Needs” and “Practical Needs”.
Practical needs focus on the task accomplishment or in simple words ‘getting the job done’. At the end of the day the time spent in every interaction needs to be productive and Practical needs allow one to do just that. It comprises Open, Clarify, Develop, Agree and Close. Our research has shown that most people end up doing 3 to 4 out of the 5 aspects of practical needs very well, but the reason for failure in communication happens because a gross assumption is made that the receiving party must have understood the conversation without checking if they are on the same page.
The Personal Needs on the other side in some way address Maslow’s Theory of Needs. Even Personal needs comprises five elements – (1) maintain or enhance self-esteem, (2) Listen and respond with empathy, (3) ask for help and encourage involvement, (4) sharing, thought, feelings and rationale and (5) support without removing responsibility. The challenge is that these needs are so easy to understand but not so simple to practice. They need changes from person to person and from situation to situation. This makes the job of interaction complex and challenging. Our study has shown that a 100% of leaders have failed in demonstrating proficiency in all the aspects of “Interaction Essentials”.
To make the situation even more complex, while the interaction skills are underdeveloped among leaders GLF 2021 found that leaders prefer to engage and interact more with the teams, but they hardly find time to interact with their teams meaningfully. In fact, our corporate structures are designed in a way to ensure that leaders do not send time with their teams on important aspects like coaching, driving innovation, engagement but just managing employees.
It is time that we as leaders stop managing this situation and get ahead for once to ensure we can manage this beast in a more meaningful way.