Wednesday, September 03, 2014

The grapevine communication

More than 50% of the productivity of companies is lost due to grapevine communication. For those who are unaware about grapevine communication, you can Google for a lot of information and statistics out there. In simple words I can explain that grapevine communication is the portion of communication during our work time which doesn't result in any kind of results or progress. Simple examples of grapevine communication are; two colleagues gossiping about the clothes of their manager or someone sharing about review of a movie with his teammate during work timings. Such stuff doesn't lead to any progress of the work or the individuals involved, and definitely not that of the company.

People join companies and work only with an intention to progress ahead in life and to maintain a well-sustained livelihood. Being so, still they involve in grapevine communication and cut down on the productivity of the company. This is quite a paradox for many of us. Well! It’s all but natural for us, human beings. We are not machines. We have an extra emotional part to us. Machines keep doing the work as per the instructions given, whereas humans need an environment that is lively enough and congenial for their style of work. A laughing or sniggering environment is generally preferred to keep our moods high. Sometimes just to drain away the home strain with a third person like colleague makes people feel much relaxed to work. To cater to the emotional states of oneself or that of others people jump into grapevine communication discussing about all the stuff apart from work. That is where one of the individuals involved in the communication must be at least aware of recognising the trap that each one is jumping into knowingly or unknowingly, and cut short on the unnecessary discussion. Unfortunately, people hinder away from putting the full stop in such conversations with the fear that they might attract the scorn of their fellow-mates which is the case most of the times in work places. A person who thinks of work is termed as a killer of happiness for employees. As a result, many managers and directors are hated because of their seriousness towards work resulting from their in-depth understanding of the consequences of grapevine communication.

People, while working, must realise that they are in the workplace not to deviate from work. They have to focus on what is the next target or which is the next deadline. That shall keep all of us in regular momentum so that we don't stray away into non-essential chit-chats. Even if our colleagues are getting into such stuff we must take the initiative to reorient them towards their work. Only then an organization can become a giant. Though there might be resistance initially, people shall understand your true intentions towards progress of the work for the unintended interruption in their conversations and shall start following the suite very soon.

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