It’s been a good week this week, the highlights being able to speak with
the whole team from Economic Development & Planning yesterday and also with
all of the managers from my wider team. We covered a broad array of subjects
including devolution, service performance, the recent Ofsted inspection,
workload, the highways contracts, digital service delivery as well as this
years’ budget status (pressures of £6.25m across the services) and prep for
next years’ budget challenge (reductions of £15m cash, £25m in total
projected).
I have noticed two or three incidents this week where people
and teams have been using email to communicate complicated ideas and views and
getting themselves “stuck” in their relationships with the recipients who have
reacted badly to what has been said or suggested. This is because email is such
a poor communications approach. So why is this? Well it’s because the impact of
effective communication consists of the following:
· - Physiology 55%
· -Tonality 38%
· -Words 7%
You’ll notice that the first two (most important) attributes
can’t ever be present in email communication. So in an email, if it’s very
well-crafted and you get lucky only 7% of your meaning will get through! No
wonder we get so many wires crossed. So please think carefully before
concluding that an email is the right method of communicating.
Speak again soon. For daily updates, discussion, personal
opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on
Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Carlton
Carlton
