Or about the problems we generate when we stop transmitting an instruction because we consider it logical, obvious or evident.
Carlos, a large-scale purchasing coordinator harassed by the need to supply refrigerators in the capital, urgently requested his regional operator at the port to promptly complete the operating procedures for 240 refrigerators to be sent to the city "As soon as possible and taking into account the possibility of generating cost savings". Orlando, who received the instruction, was then faced with the urgency of sending 240 refrigerators quickly and economically and for this he considered two options.
In one, it could send two trips by plane with 120 standing refrigerators each, or send a single larger airplane with 240 refrigerators lying down, there the second possibility had a cost of about 50%.
Carlos's surprise could not be greater, in fact 240 refrigerators had arrived, but when they came packed lying down the cooling system had been ruined.
So I had the 240 fridges but they were all a total loss, with the connotations of not being able to supply the chain's supermarkets and the significant wait for the import of new ones.
Carlos angrily called his operator at the port to complain about the situation: “How did it occur to you to pack the coolers in bed, they have all been destroyed! ! ! ” to which Orlando only managed to respond: “Carlos, you requested them in the shortest possible time and with the lowest possible cost and that was what you got, and you never told me that I couldn't put them to bed! ! ! ”
Cases like this, of minor logistics, are presented daily in all parts of the world and serve to demonstrate the latent importance of having a good communication system.
But why do they happen? Why do communication failures continue to add costs to the supply chain?
How many times do we omit information or small details to carry out a task because we consider that the same situation makes it a logical one?
This sense of the "logical" does not generate anything other than an obstruction of information to correctly carry out the processes, reduce errors and often risks.
People rely on ideas or facts that we do not know, take them for granted and do not take into account that their contexts may be very different from those we attribute to them.
The disinterested sharing of information must appear naturally, after all what is obvious to another may be a perfect novelty, it must be borne in mind that not all human beings are subject to the same flows of information that gives us the training or the same experience.
There is only one conclusion, a high percentage of communication problems that arise in the organization occur due to providing insufficient information for the fulfillment of the tasks, considering it to be obvious, logical, elementary or simply "evident".
It is assumed
It is no secret to anyone that the problem with orthodox administrators is that by locking themselves in classical management theory they have lost sight of reality, focus on the procedure that was planned to accomplish a goal, and forget the goal itself.
The pressure exerted by markets and new technologies on organizations lead them to develop interactive structures whose fundamental resource is communication.
Although traditional administrators conceive communication in the organization as something that is presented in an “obvious” way once the procedures are established, the truth is that they put the organization at enormous risk, ignoring or underestimating the invaluable importance of communicative interaction in the organization.
Problems of misunderstanding arise when we expect others to guess our thinking and thereby come to know what we want them to do. Fundamental information is ignored because we believe that we are wasting time and in fact we waste more time solving the problem that caused our lack of information provision.
Factors that cultivate the dangers of the obvious:
Fear: This factor is one of the most common, for fear of asking, making a fool of ourselves and being belittled by the other person who provides the information, we do not verify the instruction because we believe that if we ask, they will qualify us as stupid, or incompetent.
The Pride: Consider that if we ask, our coworkers may get a bad image, or we will lose credibility.
The Etcetera Principle: One of the fundamental enemies in the communications of a production process is to close the conditions and requirements of merchandise with an "etcetera".
The Logical: It appears from the context, we believe that the activity to be carried out is deductible from a context and we omit information that ensures the success of the procedure.
The Evident: It arises from the construction of language, we believe that the other is capable of reading our thoughts and that he shares with a 100% synergy the meaning of our requirement.
What is Supposed: To suppose, is to give too much scope to the misunderstanding and it is even an excellent opportunity for the emergence of work accidents, we cannot wait for the person who communicates with us to develop that "psychic frequency" necessary to correctly interpret the things that we have omitted in our language.
How to combat the dangers of the obvious ”?
1. Motivate communication
Create the context of the message, provide explicit information that the listener does not have.
It cannot be forgotten that the factor that energizes the organization is information that reduces uncertainty and facilitates decision making.
2. Ask questions
Make sure, feed back, overcome the fear of asking "stupid questions" and give the other a chance to ask.
3. Exemplify
Giving examples will provide context for what you require.
4. Train in communication skills
Strengthening communication will also strengthen their coordination processes.
5. Evaluate communication skills
Selecting skilled staff to express yourself will not only support your interaction processes, it will also be the key support for innovation exercises.
Eliminating the syndrome of the obvious will allow the organization to reduce conflicts, maintain a good work environment and reduce errors generated by misunderstanding instructions. Saving time and resources of the organization.
