Expertise and Communication

If we all took a little time to appreciate the expert in the room and listen to their advice, projects and the day-to-day running of businesses would run more smoothly. However, we sometimes overlook the need for experts. For example, those of us of an age all happily use social media, but I don’t think we understand the nuances. We need a marketing expert to guide us with our business social platforms and SEO, although we do need to brief them on our “tone of voice” and values, to ensure we are true to ourselves.

During Covid, I think we all became more highly tuned to others’ feelings and emotions as we had to interpret them virtually. However, messages without any visual connection, can so easily be open to misinterpretation when not accompanied by facial expressions and context. Given recent news stories I have no desire to discuss WhatsApp messages or certain Tweets but they have made me stop and think – the power of an opinion or a message potentially taken out of context can be damaging – so, when running business IT implementations it is essential that comms from the Project Sponsor, Champions, Steering Committee, Project Management downwards are on-message and even more so when running a large ERP transformation project. There needs to be clear lines of communication and understanding to ensure the Chinese whispers never take control. This month’s newsletter is all about listening and communicating.