Articles

Company As A Conversaton

We have become so consumed by our responsibility to succeed and overcome the problems that confront us that we seldom step back to see the root cause of the challenges that face us. While it is important to take action, if the tools we use merely address the problem on the level of its expression, we will never resolve it. If we truly want to resolve the challenges and breakdowns we encounter, we will need to view problems on the level of cause and take the battle there.

To see the problems and challenges that confront us on the level of cause, we will need a new model of understanding. When we talk about companies and the art of doing business we most commonly use financial, behavioral, systems or process model to map cause and effect. What is missing in all of these is a way to accurately describe each participant's role in the company, which makes it difficult to observe cause and effect on the level of the individual.

However, seeing a company through a communications model offers a concrete view of each participant's role in the company. Due to the fact that the communications process can be mapped onto each person's behavior, we can locate its cause and effect throughout the expression of the company.

Communications Model Of A Company

• A company can readily be described as a conversation towards providing customer satisfaction in which everyone participates
• Customers include the person who buys the product and everyone from investor to end user in the supply chain
• Dissatisfied customers anywhere in the supply chain are evidence that the conversation of the company has broken down
• All conversations breakdown in one of the three phases of communication: relationship, possibility or committment
• All breakdowns of conversation occur at the points of listening: active, passive or undirected
• Eliminating the cause of corporate challenges will be found by attending to the phases of conversation and listening
• Companies experience breakdowns, obstacles or problems in direct proportion to their inability to practice correct communication
• Leadership means, creating and maintaining an environment where correct communications is understood and practiced