Effective communication holds the key to getting any work done properly. This concept becomes crucial in businesses and rather indispensable when your design team is involved. This is because design teams can only produce the desired output if they are able to conceptualize and comprehend what is expected of them. This is only possible when there is flawless exchange of information. Poor communication, inevitably, leads to frustration as a result of unmet expectations, which further translates into delays, friction and differences.
This soreness eventually results in even lousier communication and the entire process becomes a sort of vicious cycle that begins taking a formidable shape.
The only quick fix is to communicate, communicate and communicate. But how?
Here are 4 simple and efficient ways that will guarantee friction-free communication with your design team:
1. Don’t Play Chinese Whispers
Make sure that you do not leave any room for assumptions while communicating with your design team. Be as clear as possible and do not take for granted even those things that might seem obvious. What you consider obvious may be news for the other person. It does no harm in spelling out self-evident things, but it will surely become a cause for concern if anything – even of less importance – is missed. Remember, that not everyone grasps things the same way, and it is always best to explain from scratch. Keeping all this in mind will ensure that you don’t play Chinese whispers during the delivery time.
2. Follow Up More Often, in a Subtle Way
Closely following up on projects may make people cringe when they see you or your mail. However, this does not mean that you should wait for regular meetings and calls to get status updates. Be creative in finding out whether things are progressing in the right manner. Following up should be more like casual and side talk rather than policing, to avoid creating resistance on the other side. This is because the sooner you find out about a mistake, the more your time, effort and energy will be saved.
3. Communicate as a Friend
It is a well-known fact that many people refrain from asking for clarifications when they are not comfortable with someone. In many cases, people associate asking questions with foolishness and do not want to run the risk of being considered one. However, if you communicate as a friend and make the other person comfortable, they will be happy to share their concerns without putting their self-esteem in question. Watch your tone and always sound as considerate as possible to queries and issues.
4. Create Opportunities To Know Them Better
Gelling up is a pre-requisite in any team work. A good relation eventually translates into good team work. Make sure that you deliberately create opportunities to know your team well and learn what they are up to. For your offshore teams, creating such circumstances will be as simple as creating a fun or a chit chat group on Skype or any other messaging tool. This tool should be free from all official communication and people should be encouraged to share what interests them and what is happening in their lives.
To sum it up, it is practically impossible to bring the resistance between two communicating teams down to zero; however, by making use of the above tips, you can cause the prevailing tensions to ease out significantly.