Take Down the Door: How to Communicate Between Departments

Written By: Holmes Team

The Status Quo

In every organization, you will find some sort of a communication barrier. For example, when I was in school, it was our sub-committees in the Student Ambassador program. In my first internship, it was project managers and marketers. In my first job after college, it was the leadership team and the marketing team.

And in all those organizations, instead of trying to fix the barrier, someone always said:

“Well all we need to do is communicate more, and our problems will be solved!”

While that statement may be partially correct, it is the equivalent of saying,

“Yes, there is a problem, and someone should fix it, but it isn’t going to be me!”

So, people just accept the barrier and learn to live with it.

Expect More

I recently read an article in Forbes Small Business titled, “This Week, Your Job is to Ditch Distractions – For You and Your Team.” The author told a story about a leader in a regional animal hospital with a physical barrier. There were two parts to the animal hospital: one side for sick animals and the other for healthy animals.

A large metal door divided the two wings, which kept employees from going back and forth between the sides. The problem with this was that it only took 3.5 employees to perform the tasks on each side, but 8 people were on each shift.

So, the leader took down the door, but, he didn’t stop there. He invested the time to retrain his employees. He explained it was not only okay for them to go through the doorframe but an expectation.

What is Your Metal Door?

Every business in every industry has some version of a metal door. Your first priority must be to identify what is keeping your communication from happening. This means you must venture into other departments and teams. You may find that what you think is a barrier is different than what Accounting or HR thinks.

Once you have identified your metal doors, constructively brainstorm about how to start taking them down. But don’t spend too much time at this stage. One of the biggest challenges with brainstorming is getting it to result in a solution.

While everyone may be invited to brainstorm, be sure to appoint a select few representatives to actually choose a solution plan, and then give them the resources they need to execute that plan. Leave the brainstorm with action items.

Plan for Trial and Error

Your team’s first solution may not work. That is okay! Keep trying until you find something that improves communication and productivity. It is better to spend the time investment now if it saves you thousands and hours later.

“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” – Peter Drucker