Every story sets a tone, which shapes how people engage and respond to each other. Whether you’re watching a movie, attending a play, or reading a novel, a story is either a comedy or a tragedy. While these genres serve different purposes, they often share a common theme: communication, and even more specifically the breakdown of communication.
In a comedy, our laughter is often the result of miscommunication, mistaken identities, mixed cues, or simply misunderstandings that may snowball into absurdity. The ridiculousness and preposterousness of the story are playful fun, and everything works out in the end.
On the other hand, miscommunication comes at a much heavier price in a tragedy. Poor listening, vague messages, assumptions, and unchecked egos cause relationships to crumble and opportunities to vanish. This leads to real, painful, and often irreversible consequences.
What is the Plot of Your Team’s Story?
Business success isn’t a joke, and no one wants it to end in disaster. We don’t want our team’s story to be a comedy or a tragedy. Why? Because the goal is success! It isn’t a laughing matter, and failure is never an option. Therefore, the answer is to create a success story, where communication isn’t the source of chaos, but rather the foundation for collaboration, cooperation, clarity, and results.
How to Write a Better Story for Your Team
Achievement and alignment are the path to success and require intentionality related to communication.
- Build Rapport Strong relationships with clients, customers, and colleagues require effective communication. A culture of trust, transparency, and respect is built on honest dialogue, healthy debate, and shared success.
- Be an Active Listener Communication isn’t only about speaking; it’s also about listening. Active listening means being totally engaged in the conversation, demonstrated by asking questions, paraphrasing what is said to confirm understanding, and embracing different perspectives. When people feel heard, they are willing to share their ideas, collaborate, and support the team’s decisions and recommendations.
- Ask Higher-Level Questions Productive meetings and effective decision-making go beyond surface-level interactions and transactional conversations. High-performing teams strive for transformational conversations. They ask questions that challenge thinking, invite reflection, and spark innovation. What if we….? How might we…? What’s another way to look at this?
- Celebrate Team Success It’s about a shared journey. Collaborating and cooperation. It’s about a winning team, which views success as a group achievement. This attitude fosters a team culture where members are more invested in each other’s growth and more motivated to effectively communicate.
- Align Your Message Verbal, vocal, and non-verbal communication must work together to deliver a unified message. When these elements are out of sync, confusion and miscommunication are inevitable. But, when communication is clear, intentional, and aligned, the intended message is the message delivered, which prevents communication breakdowns.
What Does This Mean?
A collective triumph makes your story successful. How effectively team members communicate shapes the tone of their story.
Misunderstandings, vague messaging, and unchecked assumptions can lead to misunderstandings and miscommunication.
Only when there is intentional communication, active listening, and a shared commitment to clarity and connection, can a team’s story be one of achievement, growth, and lasting success.
Enhancing your team’s communication ensures that misunderstandings and misinterpretations won’t stand in the way of success!
I really enjoyed the post and its team, Peggy.
The story of your team is a real reflection of what teams are about and what they do.
Like any well-written story a good team story must take care of the suggestion you offered.
One suggestion made me smile, “Ask Higher-Level Questions Productive meetings and effective decision-making go beyond surface-level interactions and transactional conversations. High-performing teams ”
This is because @BIZCATALYST shall publish a post whose theme is about the value of asking silly questions. Sometimes those questions are the deepest.
Ali, thank you for your comments. Glad the article brought a smile to your face.
What do you define as a ‘silly question?’
Is it one that is rhetorical?
Is it one that suggests trying something that might not seem practical or viable?
To me there are no silly or stupid questions. All questions are good.
However, it is important to note that ‘it’s more than what you say, it’s how you say it.” Consider the non-verbal aspects of a question, tone, language, gestures.
Best, Peggy
Maybe you find the answer in my post published here today and under do not miss in the home page.
Thank you for asking but people tend to call a question silly as in the first story in the post questions that sound illogical.