Why Interpersonal Communication is Important at the Workplace

Imagine a business where everyone is speaking their own language – literally!

The sales team is speaking Dutch, the finance department is speaking French, and the marketing team is speaking Mandarin. Not only is this confusing for customers, but it's also making it nearly impossible for the teams to work together effectively. Time is lost in translation, mistakes and poor decisions are made through misunderstanding, leading to conflicts.

 Good or bad, communication often determines failure and success. At the organization you work for, and ultimately for you personally.

Let’s all speak English and get on with it, shall we?

Ha, if only! Most people in an organization speak the same language, and still fail to communicate well. Each department has it’s own common language and understanding of issues that’s so common sense to them, it’s easy to forget that outsiders may not be on the same page… Even when most of your colleagues do speak the same basic language, there’s no guarantee that everyone will communicate effectively with each other. Or at all.

The purpose of interpersonal communication is to create a mutual understanding of a goal, a situation, or a problem, so everyone is on the same solid ground. Even then, this is just the starting point for a continued exchange of ideas and information.

Effective interpersonal communication is about having the skill and the will

Communication is hard, and effective communication is simply not something that happens by chance. For effective interpersonal communication you need both the skill (knowing how to) and the will (an internal drive) to work towards a shared understanding. Plus, you will need to put the skill and will into others for the communication to become truly effective.

I find it interesting that when you see a major breakdown in communication in an organization, it's only turned around when someone takes it upon themselves to bring people together and start communicating again.

You can be that spark - lead by example

Our approach is to teach practical skills that you can use straight away, and improve your communication in your everyday life. Especially In a communication crisis, you need to get them talking again as soon as possible.