Research (see work done by the IACCM) suggests that outsourcing arrangements leak value to the tune of as much as 40% or more. In monetary terms this can equate to eye watering amounts that run into millions of dollars. While there are many potential causes of value leaking from outsourcing arrangements there is one that should be the first on the list to be addressed – communication. 

Communication is the enabler in outsourcing arrangements. I suspect that if you are taking the trouble to read this article, you’ll be experiencing the frustrations of ineffective communication and some, or all, of the following issues occur in your business:

1. Everyone speaks the same language, say English, but it is not their first language and often the message is ‘lost in translation’.

2. We communicate mainly in writing – emails or messages / posts using online tools like SharePoint, Messenger or Slack) – and often the messages are misunderstood.

3. When we communicate verbally it is often remotely by phone and it is difficult to hear clearly or to get clear visual clues that help us understand the other person.

4. We rarely meet face to face and when we do, we are often discussing problems, which creates a negative atmosphere.

5. We have people from many different corporate and social cultures who communicate and behave in different ways.

6. We simply have people who are technically very skilled but are not very good at explaining themselves.

7. We have a lot of people who do not listen well.

8. In stressful times people can easily come into conflict, sometimes over quite small things. Stress is often built into the workload with very tight deadlines, service level requirements and so conflict is commonplace.

9. There is always the risk that the relationship between different groups can become strained, and sometimes can break out into real conflict. 

The list above paints a culture that is not fun to work in. This impacts on productivity levels – not just a little either, it can decimate productivity levels. It can and does lead to more absenteeism. It does lead to more people leaving to find better environments in which to work. It stifles innovation. Innovation is fuelled by communication and without it innovation stalls.

If the case for effective communication is so persuasive why is it that ineffective communication is more the rule than the exception?

There are 3 main causes:

1. A little like driving a car, most of us think we are a lot better at communicating than we actually are and so don’t believe we need to invest time and energy improving our skill set. 

2. For most people it is a difficult skill to learn and to consistently do well – particularly in testing circumstances, e.g. communicating remotely, with people we don’t know well, with people from different cultures. For this reason many people avoid learning how to communicate and are often resistant to it.

3. The quality of communication is not monitored and measured effectively and as we all know what doesn’t get measured doesn’t get managed, and what doesn’t get managed usually doesn’t happen.