Senior Management and Communication

¶ … Hiring Effective Communicators One of the ways our organization can improve its performance is by hiring more effective communicators. All members of the organization are responsible for communicating, with the most obviously communicative job being that of the dispatcher. Dispatchers are practically defined by their ability to use the dispatch system to communicate between patients/clients and the medics. Their role in the company is critical, but in our organization, the dispatchers are ironically poor communicators.

Whereas medics are primarily concerned with effective delivery of patient care, the dispatchers are concerned with filling requests. Therefore, it is possible that the dispatchers are under pressure from the senior management. In that case, it is important to have dispatchers that are willing to speak out and to be honest with senior management about working more closely with medics. It is also important to hire medics that are good communicators. Medics need to communicate effectively with the patients/clients and also with colleagues.

Communicating with dispatchers needs to be open and honest. Unfortunately, there is too much mistrust and miscommunication between the dispatchers and the medics. As the text points out, hiring good communicators may entail positioning a communications director. The manager of the dispatching division needs to be focused exclusively on communications with the medics, so that the medical needs of each client are balanced with the overall need to fill all incoming requests as quickly as possible.

Finally, hiring effective communicators also means ensuring that the company has hired enough medics because we are currently understaffed. Practice: Discuss the Undiscussable Although we work in a field that includes sensitive patient information that could be considered taboo for discussion in other contexts, there are also "undiscussable" issues in the organization. One of those issues is the managerial style of the owner. The owner micromanages employees to the point where management is ineffective and inefficient.

Without trusting employees like Christina to do their job, the owner assumes a position of power that prevents people like Christina or anyone else from being able to talk about points of strength and weakness in the company's communication styles and organizational culture. "An attitude of seeing everyone as being in partnership around the success of the overall system" is important to foster harmonious and constructive internal communication (p. 83; Section 4.6). As the text points out, it is important to refrain from the blame game.

Yet it is also important for the owner to listen to employees; all good communication depends on good listening skills. Anderson (2013) advises various approaches to broaching difficult subjects with superiors, something that is important for all employees to be able to do for the long-term success of the company. Tone of voice and overall approach are important in communication between different levels of power in the organization. Practice: Leverage Informal Social Networks The use of informal social networks has become critical to our organization.

Informal social networks include the relationships that are developed with other medics, who can become powerful allies in the organization. Similarly, networking with key personnel like Christina might also help to create an informal social network.