Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are the end goal for companies today, because there is a recognition that the value derived warrants the effort. The WHY part is certainly well understood and female manager ratios are often being set as company targets. Key triggers to achieving a diverse workforce are through gaining inclusion within the work environment. The issues arise though, as to just how to make that goal a reality. Certainly, if there is an effective communication capability by the team, then understanding each other and accepting differences becomes that much easier. We all have experienced arguments and fights with people because there has been some misunderstanding or poor communication going on, making it hard to work together.
Wishing to be more inclusive is fine, but it takes work and one area is in the communication skills remit. We can find some people too fast when they are speaking so we are not catching the detail. There are others who may be too cryptic and we can’t plumb the meaning of what they are saying. We don’t like it when others finish our sentences, speak over us or cut us off, before we get to the point we want to make.
There are four communication styles we often uncover when listening to others:
1. Friendly. They like people, are upbeat, confident and happy.
2. Analytical. They love detail, facts, statistics, evidence and can be very detail oriented.
3. Excitable. Their mouth can get ahead of their brain and they can be quite hard to keep up with, as they move through topics at a rapid clip.
4. Dominating. They want to run things, make the decisions and have others follow what they want to do.
We might have some communication favourites or we may think that only one type of communication style is correct and the others need changing. That usually proves to be impossible and we may want to step back and take a different approach. We can decide to adapt to the style they like. We are looking to build rapport based on the style they prefer. They may have topics they want to talk about and we talk about these issues of importance to them. If they are fast-paced, we may need to speed up or if they are more laconic, we may need to slow down from our usual delivery speed. If we want to persuade someone of our point of view, matching their preferred style of communication removes a lot of barriers from the beginning.
Another great tool is storytelling. There are some aspects of storytelling which are more effective than others. The start of the story needs to have a “hook”, which will cut through all the clutter going on in the listener's mind and grab their attention, so that they will give us their full attention. We should make the story as personal as possible. This really draws in an audience because it is easy to relate to what they are hearing. It should exhibit emotion and these are usually things like anger, fear, excitement, anticipation, joy, etc. Lastly, it should have some aspect of conflict and challenge and attached to this some finality of the issue, either positive or negative.
We need to introduce the characters in the story and the most effective are people they know, either directly or through reputation. We need to transport them to a place in their mind’s eye, where these characters are located and we need to place them in a season and year if possible. For example, “Let me tell you what happened recently, which could change the direction of the business. It was that snowy Tokyo day this year, rather late in the season in March, when I made my way downtown to a meeting with Bill Brown, the visiting global CFO. We got together on the 28th floor of the Headquarters in the main Boardroom”. The people listening know the Boardroom, probably know Bill Brown and have experienced a snowy day in Tokyo, so they can recreate this scene in their own mind. The “hook” at the start about possibly changing the business is guaranteed to get everyone’s attention.
We need to introduce some tension into the story – a challenge or a problem which raises the stakes of the decision-making. For example, “Frankly, I am really concerned about what is going to happen to us. Bill is considering reducing the Tokyo operation staffing by 25% and it is our job to persuade him otherwise”. Now we have a problem which is a serious challenge to the business in Japan and people will want to know what happened in that meeting. We have introduced an emotional element regarding how we feel about this outcome. Then we can say, “this is where I need your support”. Next, let’s outline what they can do to help us and what the resolution we need will look like.
When these elements are combined, it doesn’t matter who is the storyteller. They could be female, young, foreigner or Japanese. We are going to be listened to and taken seriously, because of the way we have crafted the communication piece. We hone the delivery of this story to fit in with the preferred communication style of the listener, to make it as accessible as possible. When we do this, we eliminate many of the barriers to inclusion and that brings us one step closer toward achieving a diverse workplace.
