The Adaptive Art of Communication

The Art of Communication is extremely important within any organisation.

Whether it’s inter-departmental communication, hierarchical communication or communication within a team, how employees engage within the workplace can be the difference between how an organisation thrives or breaks down in the process.

In a recent client initiative, while consulting with a travel company, Lithe associate and consultant Mili Polo found that communication isn’t just a means to an end to get bottomline results, it is at the heart of everything an organisation does.

As a creative design thinking specialist, trainer, author and having worked with the main Spanish and LATAM TV channels and production companies (film, TV, advertising) as producer, scriptwriter, content creator and innovation thinker, Mili knows a lot about how to tell a good story.

And what do good characters, situations inside a story while storytelling have to do with an organisation?

“The concepts between TV and cinema production, and that of applying communication within companies are actually very similar. What’s lacking within companies is that in the constant attempt to achieve results and deliver on tasks, it takes the focus away from actually creating, which in turn can lead to a breakdown in ideas and resolutions, which is where I come in!”

So, how did she apply these principles to our travel client?

Travel can be a life changing moment for people. From your annual getaway to gap year adventures planned to honeymoon memories – travel offers escapism that most industries can’t. Which is why in order for travel companies to maximise their communication with their audiences, they need to be innovative in the way they pitch their magic moments, concepts and ideas.

This doesn’t just apply in adapting these ideas towards audiences, yet also internally, because communication is always about how two or more people interact. When there is a potential breakdown happening within teams and organisations, the key to understanding the source of that breakdown is by identifying the single source of truth. It’s trying to understand what’s getting in the way of the narrative that the people within the organisation had originally bought into.

This is where in her role as a design thinking specialist, Mili looks to understand where the problems of communication and innovation are stemming from.

This means:

• Understanding the problems the company is facing now,

• Understanding the problems the company is likely to face in the future, and

• Most importantly, how to prepare teams to address these problems with honesty and transparency.

This approach, although simple and effective, doesn’t always mean that communication from team members comes easy. It takes time to build trust and engagement and understand the specific reasons behind why a team had become disengaged.

This is similar to the concept of The Hero’s Journey (a common framework used when writing stories), and in so understanding how teams are central to companies’ stories.

This approach also isn’t one where she dictates the solution. As a creative and design thinking specialist, she encourages the members of the organisation to look inward for solutions, to find resolutions that are adaptable to any situation and ones that can deal with any surprises that are thrown their way.

And the best way to find these solutions. Through communication, of course.

Listen to team members

Really listen to them. People within organisations are at the front line of what they do. They are building and creating and selling and working closely with clients. They are at the core of businesses.

So it is important to understand their frustrations, their pain points, what’s keeping them up at night. Once they realise that they are being heard, the people inside a company become open to implementing change and experimenting with new ideas and concepts.

Sample the product

If people within a company have never tried their own product or service, they can never understand what it is they are selling – and that’s a problem!

“It doesn’t matter if the person selling the product or service isn’t the one who has created it. No one can sell a product, no one wants to buy. Which is why testing the service and feeding back and communicating this is crucial between departments and teams. This isn’t just about being able to sell products and services, it’s also about creating a way of working that is comfortable for everybody.”

Create an environment for communication and creativity

When working with companies, Lithe’s consultative approach is to ensure that the solutions we offer become a part of companies’ day to day life. This means working through exercises regularly which can then be managed by teams themselves to work on. The exercises that Mili introduced in her work with the travel client involved: communication, observation, ideas and creation.

These resolutions not only have a positive impact internally, but also externally when communicating with the end client.

Everybody needs creativity. If a company doesn’t have creativity, it doesn’t have happy people and it doesn’t have new ideas that can make it stand out in the marketplace.

Which is why a lot of the exercises that Mili implemented with our travel client involved being creative on a daily basis.

“It’s like a muscle. If you don’t exercise it, you lose its power, its momentum.”

The example of the Golden Circle

The brainchild of motivational speaker, Simon Sinek – The Golden Circle is also key in encouraging communication within the company.

Exploring the WHAT, the HOW and the WHY of the company’s values and principles can be central for teams to understand what it is they are actually working towards.

A common goal. A shared goal.

Once implementation of these concepts, we often see improvement in communication and results in as little as a couple of months (See one of our recent case studies for an example of these results in action). The improvement in how teams collaborate, how client experiences improve, the efficiencies that get created as a result: a really happy and focused team, a better product and service, which solves user problems, loyal consumers and colleagues.

“This is the power of not just knowing what to communicate, it’s about knowing how to communicate.”

Mili Polo has over 10 years of enabling the implementation of agile ways of working, design and innovation thinking practices in production, innovation and creative teams. And Mili has 20+ years of experience leading creative teams empowering people to generate irresistible content.

If you or your teams struggle with communication and creativity, feel free to reach out to us for a pro-bono conversation to discuss our challenges. Send us a message via email (See our contact form for more details).