Breaking Down Team Communication Barriers

Author: James Conlon

In the 15 years I’ve been working with organisations to develop high-performing teams, without doubt, the number one blocker to success is interpersonal communication. Personality or communication style assessment tools such as DiSC or Insights, can be a simple and cost-effective way to create personal awareness of our own communication challenges and generate positive change.

“ People who experience the pain points firsthand are the real experts in solving them. ”

- Unknown

Teams generally understand their challenges and what needs to be done to overcome them. However, articulating those solutions and gaining consensus can be far more difficult. Problems are often escalated up the management chain where solutions are imposed by those who don’t fully understand the problem.

Helping a team break down their communication barriers, and empowering them to resolve their own issues, results in better decision-making, greater ownership and increased productivity.

Whenever I ask a team to rate their communication skills, they pretty much always respond with: “good!” to “great!”. The reality is most of us communicate highly effectively with people who think and act as we do, and ineffectively with those who think and act differently to us. Understanding this and the reasons why is the first step to improving our overall communication.

“ The person with the most flexible behaviour owns the system ”

- Richard Bandler & John Grinder

Personality or communication assessment tools generate self-awareness. They evidence our communication strengths and illustrate why our message may at times be lost. Accepting that how we personally communicate can contribute to the ‘Problem’ is the first step to correcting it.

I generally run the assessments as part of a team workshop where the results are shared. Using this enhanced awareness we can then explore what changes are required to get the best from the team. Often this takes the form of a team charter or follow-on communication skills workshops.