As an employer, manager, or coach when we consistently focus on what our employee’s, members, or athletes are not doing over time or what isn’t working with them the employee, member, or athlete becomes confused and doesn’t know what to do. This what we so frequently hear as a communication break down or what I like to call a communication gap. On one of the equation we hear phrases like “there is no communication”, “I didn’t know I was suppose to do that”. On the other side of the equation we here “they are not listening to me”, “why do they do what we tell them”. Then we often hear from either side we need to communicate better. Communicate what? Communication just for the sake of communication is useless and a waste of time. First we need to know what needs to be communicated.
What I am talking about is I believe the problem is a KNOWLEDGE GAP. I believe that 9 times out of 10 times what is being transfered from employer, manager, coach to the employee, team member, athlete is information and not knowledge. Meaning when a manager tells a team member what they are not doing or what isn’t working that is information often times negative information. Information does automatically turn into knowledge or action. Quit the opposite information nearly always results in inactivity because it overwhelms us since most managers drop a lot of information all at once.
Knowledge by comparison are words formed in an efficient manner that direct clear, concise action. I like to call these words cue’s. Breaking down large actions into cue’s is called coding and this young generation is good at it. They don’t want to be told what they are not doing or what to do for that matter in essay format. They would rather it in bullet form. Here is the trick, it takes mental ability to be able to identify what needs to be done. But does it require more mental ability then identify what doesn’t work? Maybe it does, this mental ability to process solutions is called cognitive ability be google and is their number 1 skill when identifying new talent.
Once the the cue’s are created to achieve the desired outcome communication is rudimentary. The desired actions are easily expressed and most importantly understood when received. Amazing how quickly performance is accelerated when the KNOWLEDGE GAP IS CLOSED.
